Stocklot Grades and Conditions: Reading a Lot Description
The direct answer: the grading vocabulary in this trade is not standardised, so the words are worth less than the percentages behind them. A grade letter tells you almost nothing on its own. A seller who tells you that 85 percent of the lot is sellable at full price, and who will show you how they graded it, has told you something you can price.
Part of the buyer journey: Understanding Stocklots: The Model From the Inside — stage 1 of 8, with the other guides for this stage.
The common terms and their real meaning
A grade usually means the proportion of the lot that is first quality, with the remainder being seconds or rejects. Mixed means multiple categories in one lot, sorted or unsorted. Seconds means garments that fail a specific standard, usually cosmetic. Rejects are not sellable as clothing.
Second quality is not the same as seconds in some sellers’ usage, and the difference can be a whole grade level. Always ask for the definition in use, and for the percentage split.
The questions that resolve the ambiguity
Ask what proportion is first grade. Ask what the seconds fail on, and whether it is cosmetic or structural. Ask whether the rejects are set aside separately or included in the carton count. Ask whether the grading was done by the seller or by a third party.
A seller who answers all four clearly is selling you a business, not a problem. A seller who cannot is telling you that the grading is a marketing term.
Grading you can do yourself
Once you know the claim, you can test it cheaply. Order a small quantity from the same lot, grade it yourself using a written standard, and compare your result to the seller’s percentage. The information cost of that test is small and it recalibrates every future purchase from that supplier.
Do it once with a supplier you plan to buy from repeatedly. You are not just grading the lot; you are establishing what their grading language means in practice.
What stocklots are available right now?
Reading is step one. Send your requirement and we will check the factory network for current options.
Buyer questions, answered
What does A grade mean in a stocklot?
Usually that the lot is predominantly first quality with a small percentage of seconds, but the thresholds are set by the seller. Treat any grade letter as shorthand for a number, and ask for the number. The letter without the number is decoration.
Are seconds worth buying?
Only if you have a channel that prices them. Seconds in a market that sells damaged goods cheaply can clear fine; in a market that expects new goods they compete with new stock and drag your brand. Know your outlet before you buy the seconds half of a lot.
What does mixed lot mean?
Multiple categories, sizes or colours in one shipment. Mixed lots are the usual entry point for a new buyer because they offer breadth, but they are also the most expensive to sort. Ask whether the lot is pre-sorted by category and size, because that single fact changes the cost dramatically.