What a photo can and cannot tell you

A reading here is made from photos alone. That sets a clear limit on what it can say.

What a photo can show

• Feather shape. How the tips are cut.
• The shaft. Whether it runs straight or bends, and how thick it is.
• Consistency. Whether all sixteen feathers match in height, spacing and colour.
• Whiteness and marks. Yellow or grey flecks, and uneven colour.
• Visible defects. Creases, broken shafts, split or missing parts of a feather.
• Workmanship. How even the glue is and how level the thread lines sit. This is listed separately and does not change the feather grade.

From these, the reading gives a grade tendency from 1 to 5, where 1 is the best.

What a photo cannot show

• The inside of the cork. It cannot be judged without cutting it open.
• Weight. Small differences matter, and a photo has no scale.
• Speed. Speed is found by hitting the shuttle.
• Flight stability. It shows only in the air.
• Durability. It depends on storage, humidity and how the shuttle is played.

What the reading will not say

It does not judge whether a shuttle is genuine, name the factory that made it, estimate a price or recommend a brand. It makes no promise about how a shuttle will play.

How sure it is

Every line carries a confidence of high, medium or low. The reading uses words like "closer to" and "tends toward" because that is what a photo supports. An AI reading can be wrong. Treat it as a second opinion next to your own eyes and the seller's information.