Condition and grading
What NM, LP and MP mean for the price you pay, when professional grading is worth it, and when it is money burned.
Condition is the second biggest lever on price after printing, and unlike printing it is partly subjective. Knowing the scale protects you in both directions — from overpaying for a card described generously, and from underselling one of your own.
The scale
| Grade | Short | What it looks like | Effect on price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near Mint | NM | Looks unplayed. Sharp corners, clean edges, no surface marks worth mentioning. | The baseline. Prices quoted anywhere, including on this site, generally mean NM. |
| Lightly Played | LP | Minor edge wear or a light surface scuff, visible on inspection but not across the room. | Typically a modest discount to NM. |
| Moderately Played | MP | Obvious wear — whitening on edges, scratches, maybe a small bend. | A substantial discount. Fine for playing, poor for collecting. |
| Heavily Played | HP | Heavy whitening, creasing, scuffed surface. Still identifiable and legal in a sleeve. | A steep discount. Usually only worth buying for cards you cannot otherwise afford. |
| Damaged | DMG | Tears, water damage, writing, major creasing. | Effectively no collector value. Playable only where condition is not policed. |
Where condition hides
- Edges and corners. Whitening shows first on dark borders. Tilt the card against the light.
- Surface. Foil and special printings scratch more visibly than plain cards, and photograph deceptively well.
- Centering. How evenly the art sits in the frame. Irrelevant for play, significant for grading.
- Curling. Foils often curl with humidity. Usually cosmetic, but it affects grading.
Professional grading
Grading means sending a card to a company that assesses it, assigns a numeric score and seals it in a rigid case. A high score on an expensive card can raise its value substantially; a mediocre score usually raises it not at all.
The arithmetic is simple, and it is usually unfavourable:
- It costs money per card, plus insured postage both ways.
- It takes time — often months, during which the card is neither sellable nor playable.
- The outcome is uncertain. A card you consider flawless can come back mid-grade for centering you never noticed.
- It only pays on cards that are already expensive. Grading fees do not scale down.
Buying graded
A sealed graded card removes condition risk and replaces it with trust in the grader. Pay attention to which company graded it — their standards and their market reputations differ, and the same numeric score does not command the same premium across companies.