Chair condition grading — Grade A, B, C with examples

The headline definitions

Grade A — the chair looks new and works new. All adjustments operate smoothly, no visible wear beyond very minor scuffs, mesh / fabric / leather is intact, castors fit and roll. Most office chairs under five years old are Grade A.

Grade B — the chair functions but shows visible wear. Light scuffs on the base, minor sag in the pellicle / mesh, faded fabric on a lumbar pad. All adjustments work but might feel slightly tired. Sellable after light refurb. Buyback rate: 60–70% of Grade A headline.

Grade C — the chair has at least one functional fault or significant cosmetic damage. Broken tilt, dead gas lift, torn pellicle, missing arm pad, cracked back panel. Strip-for-parts grade. Buyback rate: typically £40–£80 depending on model.

Aeron-specific grading

Grade A diagnostics: pellicle has no tears, no holes, only minor sag (acceptable). Tilt limiter clicks through all positions. Forward-tilt engages and disengages. Recline lock holds. Lumbar pad / PostureFit / PostureFit SL adjusts. Both arms move through height, depth and pivot. All four castors fit and roll. Base is intact, no chunks missing.

Grade B Aeron: any one of the following — pellicle has obvious sag (visible from 3 feet away), tilt feels stiff or skips a position, one arm pad is missing or cracked, base has scuffs visible from a sitting height, lumbar pad does not fully adjust. Multiple Grade-B faults still grade B; the threshold for Grade C is functional failure, not cosmetic accumulation.

Grade C Aeron: pellicle torn through (you can fit a finger through the hole), gas lift dropped (chair sinks within 30 seconds of sitting), tilt mechanism broken (will not engage in any position), missing arm or arm tower, missing PostureFit / PostureFit SL bow, cracked seat pan.

Embody-specific grading

Grade A diagnostics: all 51 backrest pixels intact (count them — yes really; missing pixels drop grade significantly), seat tilt smooth, recline working, both arms fully adjustable, original logo bridge across the back intact, no cracks in the seat shell.

Grade B Embody: 1–3 pixels missing or cracked, seat tilt stiff, one arm tired, logo bridge slightly worn but readable. Drop to ~£140.

Grade C Embody: 4+ pixels missing or cracked (the pixelated back is the chair's defining feature — significant damage hits resale hard), seat tilt broken, recline failed, frame cracked. Drop to £50–£70 parts grade.

Steelcase Leap V2 grading

Grade A: Live Back panels intact (the flexing back panels — count 11 segments), lumbar adjuster working, seat slide forward/back working, all four arm adjustments working (height, width, depth, pivot), upholstery intact with no rips, no broken plastic on the back.

Grade B: 1 broken or cracked Live Back panel, lumbar adjuster stiff, one arm adjustment failed, light upholstery wear at front edge of seat. Drop to £70.

Grade C: 2+ broken Live Back panels, lumbar adjuster broken, multiple arm adjustments failed, ripped upholstery, broken plastic on the back panel. Drop to £40 parts grade.

How to grade your own chair before quoting

Send photos. Seriously — that is the most accurate grading method. The pellicle / mesh / fabric / pixel state is hard to assess remotely without photos, and your guess might be more pessimistic than ours (we see hundreds of chairs a week and grade based on actual market resale outcomes).

Useful photos: full chair from front, full chair from back, close-up of any visible wear, close-up of the tilt mechanism (underneath), arm detail. 4–6 photos in total is enough for an accurate grade.

We commit to the firm grade once we have seen photos. If on collection day the chair is materially worse than the photos suggested, we re-grade and tell you upfront — never silently. Most quotes are confirmed exactly as quoted, with the occasional small downgrade or upgrade based on what is actually presented.

Should I refurb to lift a grade?

Honest answer for most chairs: no. The Grade A vs B difference is typically £40–£70 per chair, and the refurb consumables (replacement pellicle, arm pads, castors) plus your time often exceed that. We do this for a living and have refurb economics that no individual seller can match.

Exception: if you have a single high-value chair (Aeron Remastered, Embody, Vitra Soft Pad) with one obvious quick fix — a missing arm pad, replaceable for £12 — and you have an hour to do it, lifting that one chair from B to A might net you £40–£60. Probably worth the hour. Beyond that, we recommend selling as-is.

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