In short: Near Mint means one tiny flaw at most. Lightly Played means wear you can see when you tilt the card. Everything below that shows at a glance. Check corners, edges, surface, and back in that order, under a lamp, and you will land on the right grade nine times out of ten.
The five grades, in plain terms
Marketplaces and shops price raw cards on the same five steps, whichever game they belong to. The names come from the Magic singles market and were adopted by Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, One Piece, and Lorcana sellers because buyers already knew them.
The table below is the version most sellers apply. Grading companies use their own ten-point scales, covered further down.
| Grade | What it looks like | Typical price versus Near Mint (varies by card) |
|---|---|---|
| Near Mint (NM) | At most one tiny flaw: a faint edge nick or a hint of whitening on the back. Surface clean under a lamp. | Full price |
| Lightly Played (LP) | Minor wear visible when you tilt the card: light edge whitening, a small surface scratch, slightly soft corners. | Roughly 70 to 85 percent |
| Moderately Played (MP) | Wear visible at a glance: whitening on several edges, scratches, a light scuff, no creases. | Roughly 50 to 65 percent |
| Heavily Played (HP) | Heavy whitening, deep scratches, a crease, or bent corners. Still complete. | Roughly 30 to 45 percent |
| Damaged (DMG) | A tear, water damage, writing, a fold, or a missing piece. | Under 30 percent, often bulk |
What Near Mint really means
Near Mint is not perfect. A card straight from a booster pack can have a print line, a tiny edge nick from the factory cut, or a fleck of whitening on the back, and it is still Near Mint. What it cannot have is anything you notice without looking for it.
The practical test: hold the card under a lamp, tilt it slowly through the light, and look at the surface. If you see nothing but the printed design, check the four corners and the back edges. One hairline flaw is still Near Mint. Two visible flaws is Lightly Played.
Lightly Played, and why it is the expensive step
Lightly Played is the grade most played cards land on. The whitening on the back edges is visible, a corner or two is slightly soft, or there is a surface scratch you can find without effort. The card looks fine in a sleeve and fine on the table.
It is the expensive step because buyers of expensive cards want Near Mint, and a Lightly Played copy of a chase card sells for a clear discount. On a fifty-dollar card the gap is a few dollars. On a five-hundred-dollar card it is a hundred or more. That is why sellers argue about this line and why the one-minute check below is worth learning.
Foils and holos are graded harder
A holo Pokémon card, a foil Magic card, a cold-foil Lorcana card, and a parallel One Piece card all show wear that a non-foil hides. Surface scratches catch the light, edge wear reads as bright lines against a dark border, and foils from some sets curl slightly out of the pack.
Grade them under the same lamp at the same angles, but expect more Lightly Played results. A foil that is genuinely Near Mint is scarcer than its non-foil twin, and that scarcity is part of why foil prices sit where they do.
How the scale lines up with PSA, BGS, and CGC
Grading companies score on a ten-point scale with a slab and a label, and a slabbed card is priced by its number rather than by the raw scale. PSA uses half grades up to 8.5 and no 9.5; BGS and CGC use half points all the way up. The two scales do not map one to one, because graders inspect centering and surface under magnification and weigh them differently from a seller's eye. The table gives the usual neighborhood.
| Raw grade | PSA | BGS | CGC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near Mint, well centered | 8 to 10 | 8.5 to 10 | 8.5 to 10 |
| Near Mint, off-center | 7 to 9 | 7.5 to 9 | 7.5 to 9 |
| Lightly Played | 5 to 7 | 5.5 to 7.5 | 5.5 to 7.5 |
| Moderately Played | 3 to 5 | 3.5 to 5.5 | 3.5 to 5.5 |
| Heavily Played or worse | 1 to 3 | 1 to 3.5 | 1 to 3.5 |
The one-minute check
You need a lamp, a plain surface, and the card out of its sleeve. Work through the four points in order and stop at the first one that decides the grade.
- Corners: look at all four. Sharp and square is Near Mint. Slightly rounded or lightly whitened is Lightly Played. Soft or frayed is Moderately Played.
- Edges: run your eye along each edge, front and back. Back edges whiten first on dark-bordered cards. A hairline is Near Mint; a visible line is Lightly Played.
- Surface: tilt the card through the light. Print lines from the factory are fine. Scratches, scuffs, and fingerprints that will not wipe off are wear.
- Bends and creases: sight along the card from the side. Any crease is Heavily Played at best. A slight foil curl with no crease is not damage.
Let the scanner do the first pass
CardLens estimates the condition of a raw card from a photo of the front, on this same scale, and shows the value range for that condition next to recent eBay sales. For a binder of cards that is the fast way to find the ones worth a closer look. For a card in a PSA, BGS, or CGC slab, the scanner reads the label and records the grade with the match.
Photograph the card flat, in even light, with every edge in frame. Then flip it and check the back edges yourself, and you have covered what a buyer will check when the card arrives. Where the estimate says Near Mint and the graded sales run well above raw, you have found the card worth sending in.
Sources: PSA grading standards, Beckett grading scale, TCGplayer card condition guide
Questions collectors ask
What is the difference between Near Mint and Lightly Played?
Near Mint has at most one tiny flaw you have to hunt for. Lightly Played has minor wear you can see when you tilt the card under a light: light edge whitening, a small scratch, or slightly soft corners.
How do I tell the difference on foils?
Tilt the foil through a lamp and look for surface scratches and edge lines against the border. Foils show wear more readily than non-foils, so expect more Lightly Played results and grade them with the same four-point check.
What is considered Moderately Played?
Wear you notice at a glance without tilting the card: whitening on several edges, visible scratches, or a light scuff, but no creases and nothing missing.
Is a Near Mint card the same as a PSA 10?
No. Near Mint is a seller's grade on a five-step scale. A PSA 10 requires near-perfect centering and a flawless surface under magnification. Many Near Mint cards grade PSA 8 or 9.
Does a print line make a card Lightly Played?
Usually not. A factory print line is a printing artifact rather than wear, and most sellers still call the card Near Mint. Graders may deduct for it, which is one reason raw and graded scales differ.
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