Card Conditions and their Meanings
The grading of Trading Cards sometimes leads to conflict among buyers and sellers, mainly because grading is not an exact science. One person might consider a card to be still Near Mint while the next one thinks it is in Excellent condition. To some extent these conflicts are inevitable, but to help minimize the chance for misunderstandings we have put together a guide to help you grade your cards correctly.
Historically the grading system that TCG suppliers use today comes from the grading of baseball cards. The Inquest Gamer magazine adopted the Baseball cards grading system for most TCG cards as early as 1995. Early on the accepted grades were Mint, Near Mint, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor. Over time the grading system has evolved to reflect the needs of TCG players. However, our grades are a little different and have condensed some of the older grades like good, fair etc into the more appropriate "grades Slightly Played and Played."
Since the saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words", we provide also some sample pictures that can help you identify the right condition for your card. The grading goes as such:
Mint (M)
A mint card is in perfect condition; no excuses. This means, that the front is in perfect condition, there are no scratches on the surface, and the surface is perfectly clean. For the back, it means, that the card is indistinguishable from the cards of a newly opened booster. If a card has a signature or a Grand Prix stamp it can never be graded Mint, even if the card stock is otherwise in Mint condition.
In most cases, it doesn't make sense to grade a card as Mint. For in-print cards, the value of a Mint card is just about the same as that of a Near Mint card, but the grading standards are way higher. On the other hand, really old cards (1993-94) may command a high premium if they are in actual Mint condition. Thus 'Mint' is mainly a grading for cards where there is a high collectors' interest. For cards that are sold mostly for playing purposes a Near Mint grading will usually do.
Near Mint (NM)
A Near Mint card looks like it has never been played without sleeves. Small allowances can be made, but the card generally shows no wear.
The border of an NM card can have small white spots, but they must be very few and very small. When the card is inspected under bright daylight, the surface must generally appear clean. It can have a few minor spots, but scratches can never be allowed for NM cards.
Generally, a Near Mint card is in a condition that would make it considered unmarked if played in an unsleeved deck. (Not recommended!)
As the Mint grade is often not used for cards of newer expansions, Near Mint usually means Near Mint or better (equivalent to the American NM/M grade).
Excellent (EX)
Excellent cards look like they were used for a few games without sleeves. For Excellent cards, it is almost always clearly visible upon first inspection that the card is not in perfect condition. However, although the damage is clearly visible it is only of minor severity.
Excellent cards usually have a couple of white spots at the corners or around the border. The surface may have minor scratches, that are visible upon closer inspection. However, the card cannot be graded Excellent if the creases are so deep that they are visible upon first sight.
An Excellent card is usually in a condition where it is not quite clear if the card would be considered marked or unmarked if it would be played in a tournament without sleeves.
The American equivalent usually is Slightly Played or Lightly Played (not to be confused with the European Light Played).
Good (GD)
A Good card looks like it might have been used for a long tournament without sleeves.
Cards in Good condition usually show strong wear all around the card. The edges and corners have many white spots, the surface usually has scratches and the card usually has accumulated some dirt on its surface. However, the card still only has damage that stems from regular play. The card has no water damage or bends whatsoever.
A Good card (and all cards in worse condition) are clearly in a condition that would make them ineligible for play without sleeves as they would be considered marked.
The American equivalent to this is usually 'Moderately Played' or 'Very Good'. Note that 'Good' is a bit of a misnomer. A Good card doesn't really look good. In fact, it looks pretty beat up, making the American Very Good even more of a misnomer.
Light Played (LP)
A Light Played card looks as if it has been used without sleeves for an extended period of time.
A Light Played card is clearly legal for play in a sleeved deck. It has also not been tampered with (inked border, random scribblings on the card etc.). If both of these criteria apply the card may look very bad, but it can be graded Light Played.
The American equivalent usually is 'Played' or 'Good'.
Played (PL)
A Played card looks as bad as you can get a card through regular use without sleeves.
A Played card looks extremely bad, and it is doubtful if the card is tournament legal even in a sleeved deck. However, the card has not been tampered with otherwise (inked border, random scribblings on the card etc.).
The American equivalent usually is Heavily Played or Good.
Poor
A Poor card has damage that cannot normally have stemmed from regular use of the card.
A card in Poor condition is literally destroyed. It is either obviously illegal for tournament play or has been tampered with in ways that destroy its worth almost completely (inked border, random scribblings on the card etc.).
Americans usually use Poor in the same way.
Additional Information
Altered cards
A card is considered altered when the artwork of the card has been altered as a means of personalizing the card in a way that has some artistic merit. The most typical way of altering a card is to extend the art over the rest of the card, but there are basically no limits to the imagination if the artist. An altered card should only be offered with a scan.
American Gradings
Americans use a different grading terminology than PSA and Cardmarket these days. Different stores have different techniques, but it generally comes down to something like Mint/Near Mint (M/NM) being the best followed by Slightly Played (SP), Played (PL), Heavily Played (HP), and finally Poor. Refer to the explanations of our grades for a rough translation.
Bend
A card is bent if the structure of the paper has been damaged due to excessive bending.
Blackened Borders
Tampering with the border of a card will always result in a card that is in Poor condition. Blackening the borders of a card is mainly an act of destroying its value in an attempt to improve its looks. However, precisely for that reason, it is also done to sell a card for more than its inherent, remaining value. This is considered fraud. If a card's borders have been altered ALWAYS make sure to offer it as Poor. This is particularly important for Unlimited cards that have a blackened border. Offering these as Beta cards is a fraud attempt and might lead to legal consequences including criminal prosecution. Don't do it!
Clouding
A card that is clouded looks dull although no major damage can be observed in the clouded spots. Clouding is basically an effect of microscopical damage to the card surface, that might add up over time to produce this dull effect. Visible clouding precludes a card from being Near Mint. A sample image is shown at the bottom of this page.
Foil
The same principles outlined above apply to foil cards. However, when grading foil cards, you might want to take into account, that foil cards are not only playing cards but always collector items as well. After all the customer pays extra to get this version of the card. That means that somebody buying a foil card is probably even less inclined to look over an a-bit-too-liberal grading of a card. When grading foil cards take special care to look for creasings and clouding on the front of the card. On non-foil cards these damages make the card appear uglier, but the effect is compounded for foils.
Gem Mint
This grade is sometimes used in the description of Magic cards. It is supposed to be better than Mint. How can a card be in better condition than Mint? The idea is that when a card is described as Mint then it is assumed that it is perfectly preserved, however, it may have a few very minor printing imperfections such as being imperfectly centred or the horizontal lines that sometimes appear on Unlimited Edition cards. A Gem Mint card has none of these. It is perfect in every way.
Inked
A card is considered inked when the borders of the cards have been "improved" with the help of a pen (p.e. fine liner) to make them look better. Cards that have undergone this kind of treatment are always considered to be in Poor condition.
Old cards
The process of grading old cards is in no way different from that of grading new cards. No allowance is made for the card being old. A 20-year-old card has to adhere to the same criteria as a 2 days old card.
Partial Grades
Sometimes cards are offered with a comment like NM- or EX+. This is supposed to mean that the card is at the lower end of the Near Mint spectrum (NM-) or respectively at the higher end of the Excellent spectrum (EX+). We don't support this kind of grading, but taking into account that a grade always represents a spectrum of possible conditions it makes some sense. Please just make sure, that when you grade a card NM- you can justify calling it Near Mint. This is not an excuse for selling cards in Excellent condition as Near Mint. Grades like GD+ work in an analogous way, however, it usually only makes sense between Near Mint and Excellent, as nobody really cares if a card is LP+ or LP-. Generally, we recommend to NOT USE partial grades.
Planarity
Sometimes a card is not flat when put on the table. It may either appear a little concave or convex. Both are fine for cards that are not graded Mint. However, if the card has been deformed so strongly and lastingly that it might not be tournament legal any more, then it has to be graded Played.
PSA
Abbreviation for Professional Sports Authenticator. This is a large third-party authentication and card condition grading service. Occasionally you will find something like PSA 8.5 in the description of a card. That means, that the card has been authenticated and graded by PSA. Their grading scale ranges from 1 / Poor to 10 / Gem Mint.
Scratched
If a card has scratches on the surface, this makes the card GOOD at best. Scratches are mostly important for Foil cards as the Foil surface is much more sensitive to scratches. A sample image is shown at the bottom of this page.
Signed
A card can be marked as signed if it has the signature of either the artist. In some cases where a very close connection between a celebrity and the given card is apparent, the card can also be marked as signed. For example, a Jon Finkel signed Shadowmage Infiltrator will do. However, when you go ahead and sign your White Knights they may not be considered a signed card. Instead, they must be graded Poor.
Stamped cards
A card obtained in the Limited portion of a Pro Tour or the second day of a Grand Prix usually will bear a stamp. While a stamp may come with some memories for the player who got the card originally it is mostly an unwanted alteration of the card to everybody else. For the classic GP/PT stamps this is not so bad as they are small and unobstructive, however for the modern European GP stamps that is a different matter as they disfigure the artwork. Even if a GP-stamped card looks like it's in great condition, it must be graded as Poor.
Water damage
Cards with water damage should be graded Light Played to Poor depending on the severity of the damage. The best guideline would be that a damaged card that is clearly still tournament legal should be graded Light Played, and one clearly not tournament legal would be Poor. Something in between is Played. Make sure to point out the damage in your description of the card.
