Pokemon Card Condition Guide – 2023
If you’re going to sell Pokemon cards online, you need to know what condition your Pokemon cards are in. I’ve been a top rated seller on eBay for over a year now, and I’ve sold countless cards. I’ve never once gotten a condition wrong from just eying it. So here are my tips for assessing your Pokemon card’s condition yourself.
*Disclaimer: this list is derived from my own personal experience as a seller and not intended as financial advice.
Why Does Your Pokemon Card’s Condition Matter?
First off, because Pokemon cards are highly sought after collectibles, the condition they are in is very important. The condition of your card massively impacts its potential worth. In general, these conditions fall under a few broad categories:
Near Mint (NM)
Lightly Played (LP)
Moderately Played (MP)
Heavily Played (HP)
Damaged
When it comes to really valuable cards – those above $200, for example – one step down in condition can impact the price you can get out of your card by a lot. I’ve seen cards that are typically worth $500+ dollars at the near mint condition go for a mere $200 at the moderately played condition.
The Difference Between the Ungraded Card Market and Graded Card Market
You might have heard about card grading. Grading is the process of sending a trading card or other collectible to an official grader. That grader will then professionally assess the card and give it a number on a scale.
This guide does not apply to card grading, and is used instead as a way you can assess your card’s condition for the ungraded card market.
A Guide to Card Condition
Let’s get into each one of the aforementioned condition categories in-depth so that you can make an educated decision on how to sell your card. In general, these are the guidelines I’ve followed in regards to the cards I’ve sold online.
While this is based on my personal experience, at the end of the day it is just that – my own experience. This isn’t intended to be financial advice.
Near Mint Condition (NM)
In a way, Near Mint is the broadest category. Really, unless you get a card graded and it is graded at a 10 gem mint (very rare), your card will at best be Near Mint. And as you aren’t a professional grader, you can’t claim that an ungraded card is “Mint”.
So what does Near Mint mean? Near Mint in the ungraded card market basically means it’s close to perfect condition to the untrained eye. This means that a card that is nearly perfect and unblemished can be near mint, but so can a card with a few, very minor defects. Some light wear, for example, or a small blemish that doesn’t hurt the integrity of a card can all be considered Near Mint.
If your card has too many small defects that give off the impression of having been played, I would play it safe and downgrade its condition to Lightly Played (LP).
Lightly Played (LP)
The way I think of Lightly Played condition is like that: a card that’s almost in pristine condition but has just enough extra wear to make the card stand out as having been used. Unlike Near Mint where cards can only have not very noticeable defects, Lightly Played can have more noticeable defects. This includes more obvious boarder wear, scruffs, scratches or a combination of the three. Serious imperfections like creases or grime would not fall within this category.
As the name suggests, cards in this category may look like they’ve seen some play, but are overall in like new condition.
Moderately Played (MP)
Here is where the condition of card really starts to drop off. And at the MP level, you’ll also start to see considerable decreases in value of your cards. Moderately Played cards have very obvious imperfections. This could include small creases, scratches, scruffs, bends or a combination of the above in a moderate degree.
While the card has obviously been played and well-love, it is still in generally good shape, and can still be a collectible card. Often, for very rare or very valuable cards, MP cards are able to be acquired at much smaller costs.
Heavily Played (HP)
At the heavily played level, cards begin to become no longer collectible. Cards at this condition will be sold at a heavily discounted rate compared to the other card conditions on this list. Heavily Played might still be good for game play, or if you really just want to collect and don’t care about longterm value.
Damaged
Lastly, Damaged is the condition at the very bottom of the list. Damaged can basically be any level of damage that affects the integrity of the card making it unplayable, and virtually uncollectible. I’m not sure why anyone would actually want to purchase a damaged card, but these cards basically look like you’ve given it to a toddler to play with for a weekend – deep creases, missing pieces of the cards, massive scratches and scruffs and beyond!
