Frank Pellett wrote a while back, but it still rings true

There is a great difference in the practice of different breeders in the way queens are graded. Some advertise only three grades, untested, tested and select tested queens. Others make five or more grades, adding select-untested queens and breeders. In general, an untested queen is one which has been mated and has been permitted to lay for a few days, but not long enough for the emergence of the workers.

A tested queen is generally one which has been permitted to lay until her workers begin to emerge, and thus by their markings demonstrate the pure mating of their mother. She should properly demonstrate other qualities also.  Much dissatisfaction arises from the sale of breeding queens at high prices. 

The buyer who pays [a high price] for a breeding queen, will too often expect too much of her, and, consequently, be disappointed. Then it often happens that a queen old enough to demonstrate her value as a breeder, will be superseded shortly after her introduction into a strange colony.

Queens that have been laying heavily suffer seriously from the confinement in a small cage and the journey through the mails. Often they will never do as well for the buyer as they have done previously, and he is inclined to feel that he has not been treated fairly. 

As a rule, the same money invested in young untested queens, will bring far better results to the buyer, as well as being better for the seller. If a half dozen young queens are purchased from a breeder with good stock, at least one of them is quite likely to prove excellent.  

Pellett, Practical Queen Rearing

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