What are levels or grades of granite?

[Karen]

I was given a price quote for the granite I selected and there were three different prices dependent on which level or grade of granite I choose.  level one, two, or three.  So my question is are there really three grades of granite and if so what exactly are the differences in each.

[Mark D.]

There are really NOT 3 classes of granite. There are different granites & I have personally seen some that went as high as $300 a square foot, but that was due to the high concentration of gold ore in the stone.

[Greg R]

I came across this site where the granite is catagorized in 5 different levels.  The samples are separated by the different colors but I can't say whether the levels are based on this difference alone.

http://www.kascostone.com/stonecolors.html