Near mint, mint, lightly played, moderately played, heavily played, and damaged
Are card conditions subjective? and how do we properly identify them? are there any photos for comparison? Like if I buy online and will say MP, what is to expect?
Thanks for your help!
These are helpful resources.
https://help.tcgplayer.com/hc/en-us/articles/221430307-Card-Conditioning-Overview
In my opinion they’re subjective - some people are stricter than others. I have friends that would say something is NM but I’d say it is LP, and vice versa.
The most important thing to remember is that it is NM if you are selling, but LP if you are buying.
I think it depends on where you shop. I would recommend checking the condition guidelines provided by whichever site you’re browsing. This should give you a reasonable idea of what to expect.
Private selling sites like eBay can vary since many sellers don’t have to adhere to a strict policy on what qualifies as NM or MP, unlike businesses that offer set grading standards.
However, in recent years, eBay has introduced a card condition guide. I’d wager many private sellers are either unaware of this or simply don’t follow it when selling raw cards. Even then, eBay’s condition guidelines might differ from those of other marketplaces.
It also depends on your personal standards and what you plan to do with the cards.
In my opinion, if you want a stricter and more consistent condition guide, I’d recommend buying graded cards. This way, you can get a better idea of what to expect from a particular grading company in terms of card condition. Even if you’re not interested in keeping graded cards and prefer raw ones for your binder, you can always crack them out of the case.
When buying graded cards, you can also look at high-resolution scans of others with the same grade to set your expectations.
Personally, my binder is full of cards ranging from mint to creased. For binder cards, I really don’t mind the condition. If I bought a NM card on eBay from a random seller and it turned out to be MP, I wouldn’t bother returning it and i would still use it for my binder. But if I needed it to be truly NM or Mint, I’d go with a more reputable seller or, again, just buy graded and crack open.
They are subjective
It’s why I don’t understand how sites like tcgplayer can operate and sell vintage without pictures. Maybe other people just aren’t as picky as I am??
But even then, some people consider psa 7 to be NM and others consider it to be PSA 8-9 and those 3 grades can look wildly different
Words to live buy;
If you are a nervous buyer, strict about the condition of the card or looking for a card in perfect condition please refrain from purchasing it.
I actually prefer when sellers don’t list the card’s condition. I’d rather assess it myself based on the photos and price to decide if it’s worth purchasing.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
