Condition is the most argued-about thing in card selling, mostly because people grade their own cards optimistically.
The scale
- Near Mint (NM) — looks like it came from the pack. Minor imperfection allowed, but no visible whitening, no scratches, no bends.
- Lightly Played (LP) — minor edge wear or a small surface mark. Still presents well in a sleeve.
- Moderately Played (MP) — obvious wear: whitening around the border, minor scuffing, perhaps a small crease that does not break the card.
- Heavily Played (HP) — significant wear, creasing, scratching. Playable, not collectible.
- Damaged — water damage, tears, heavy creasing, writing.
How to assess honestly
- 1.Take the card out of the sleeve, under a bright light.
- 2.Tilt it so light rakes across the surface — scratches and print lines only appear at an angle.
- 3.Check all four corners under magnification if you can. Corner whitening is the most missed defect.
- 4.Look at the back as carefully as the front. Back edge whitening is what most often drops a card from NM to LP.
Condition vs a numeric grade
They are different scales. NM/LP/MP describes a raw card for selling. PSA/BGS/CGC/ACE numbers describe a slabbed card and are far stricter — plenty of cards a seller would honestly call Near Mint come back as a 7 or 8. Our AI grader returns both, so you can see the sell-it-raw condition and the likely graded number side by side.