From AA's to B's and How Zebra Grades Affect Pricing, Find Out More Below

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GRADES?

All of our Zebra hides are graded on a sliding scale, with AA being the best, and cutting grade zebra being the worst (we keep a minimum stock of cutting grades for upholstery and accessory manufacturing). So in terms of what most of our customers are looking at, AA is the highest, then A, then B grade hides. This means that AA grade zebra hides are the closest to “perfect” you can buy and B grade zebra hides are much more likely to have obvious signs of damage (what we like to call character).

There are even more subtleties, however, and it's all a subjective task, so frequently you might find that one person thinks an A grade zebra hide is slightly nicer than a AA, etc. When actually grading a zebra skin, the expert responsible may prioritize all of the elements that go into grading slightly differently than another, so there is no exact answer or blueprint.

For the average person, the differences aren't all that obvious, so we'll be honest and say that we sell more B grade hides than anything else. But regardless of your personal taste for perfection, you'll have to trust us that we think ALL of our zebra hide rugs are pretty fantastic, as we hand select each one that goes into our stock.

WHAT GOES INTO ZEBRA HIDE GRADING?

Grading is mostly about imperfections. The more imperfections in a zebra hide, the lower the grade. Other elements of a hide like its pattern or size can go into grading, but only when it is a sort of outlier (a particularly large or small hide, an incredibly clear and beautiful pattern, etc). As an example, a particularly small zebra skin may end up as a B grade hide, even though it is otherwise umarked. Similarly, an absolutely massive Zebra may be bumped up in its Grade Class due to its extra large size.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT THE PRICE OF A ZEBRA HIDE?

The prices you see on our website have been judged by our team of experts to be a fair market price for any particular grade zebra hide; we individually photograph every zebra skin for our customers so that they can make the choice that's right for them.