Vintage Archery Equipment

Don't be fooled by such terms as near-mint , very-near-mint or would be very-near-mint except for...It should be first noted that mint condition as it pertains to vintage archery equipment means "As New". That means in the same condition that the equipment was in when it was purchased new by the original owner or purchaser.
To further expand on this, a mint rated piece of equipment should have no flaws of any type. No scratches, no dings or dents. It should have none of the signs of everyday use and wear that so many of the things that we as archers use will have. A vintage bow will not be near-mint if it has stress cracks, or dulling of the finish. I recently ran across a description of a RH Pearson Colt and the seller described it as such "The original finish is near-mint. The white glass would rate as very-near-mint if not for one stress line on each riser fade; front and back. This does not affect the function of the bow. The nomenclature is mint. The near-mint Tigerwood riser is gorgeous; ". This is, word for word how this seller described this bow. A very near mint bow is NOT MINT. Don't be fooled by descriptions such as this. At best I would call this description misleading, at worst I would say he is misrepresenting the bow intentionally. In my estimation there are but a couple of rating categories for collectable archery items. These would be MINT