Here are my two spiders, Hera and Juno.

Hera is what I would consider an "excellent" grade spider by my standards. I wouldn't mind adding more like her, but I've seen very few. She is bright gold with a very "drippy" reduced-pattern, no spots, and high-white sides. She reminds me very much of a Stingerbee (Enchi spider), though to my knowledge she is just a single-gene spider. (The pictures actually wash out a lot of her gold coloring.)





Juno is what I would consider a "good" grade spider. She is a light gold-tan (not as bright gold as Hera) with a more "standard" reduced pattern and no spotting. She has low-medium white sides.



Both girls love to eat and have minimal neurologic signs -- also very important in my book.

By my standards, a "poor" grade spider would have a lot of black patterning with heavy spots, low white sides and a dark brown base-color. I'm not going to post pictures of what I would consider "poor" grade because everyone's opinion is different and I don't want to offend anyone by posting a link to someone's animal as "poor" ..! Ultimately, it's about what catches YOUR eye -- I think there is a fairly wide range of opinion on spiders.

Pastels seem a bit more straightforward, IMO -- though some (like me) like them reduced or banded pattern, with lots of blushing, and others like a bold, busy pattern, I think everyone can agree that brighter is better. We'd all rather see a yellow/gold pastel than a brown/tan one, regardless of pattern.