Over the last 20-30 years grading of baseball cards has become increasing important in the hobby. Third party grading started as a way to determine authenticity but over time the emphasis shifted to a number system 1 through 10 to determine the quality or condition of an item. Silks themselves are very difficult to grade using the standard for baseball cards. PSA the leading and most established card grading company does not grade silks. The grading company that has graded the majority of the silks is SGC . Most silk collectors do not put the same emphasis on grading that card collectors do for several reasons. Silks are woven fabric and have completely different condition issues than cards. SGC’s uses creasing as primary grading criteria while fraying a more important condition issue for most collectors is secondary and often ignored.
S74- 1 White silks are tough to grade as they were factory folded into cigarette packages and the paper backing is unforgiving. Below are examples of the range normally seen. A 3 with some creasing, a 4 with more limited creasing and a 5 that has no creasing at all . The 5 may have never made it into a cigarette pack or somehow the crease was removed.