The Bench

Cosmetic grade says how a thing looks. The bench is where we find out whether it works — and it is the only thing that lets us say so. Every checklist below is the one intake actually loads, not a description written for this page.

A functional claim needs a bench record. If a unit was run through its checklist, its item page lists what we recorded, the recording date, and every result — including the ones that failed, in red. A failed check is signal, so it stays visible.

Not everything gets a bench pass, and we say which. A sealed box is never opened, so nothing inside it is verified. A figure or a lunch box has no function to test, so we inspect and grade it and leave testing out of it entirely. As-is items in the Junk Corner carry no functional promise at all — that is why they are priced the way they are.

The checks are a starting point, not a script. Steps get added or dropped per unit — a console with no memory card in the box cannot have its save function checked, and pretending otherwise would be the useful-sounding kind of lie. Each bench page compares matching labels with a suggested profile. Different wording remains visible; an unmatched label does not prove a test was omitted. Recording dates may differ from test dates; read the per-check notes.