Card Grading

How We Determine a Card's Condition

At A&M Hobby Shop, we take great pride in ensuring our card condition assessments are both accurate and fair. We make every effort to hold our cards to a higher standard than typical industry practices. Our goal is to give our customers confidence in the quality of the cards they purchase. Below, we explain how we determine the condition of each card we sell and the criteria we use to evaluate their quality.

Mint / Graded

Mint is for the cards in perfect condition, with no flaws and must be perfectly centered. Even cards that has been opened straight out of a booster pack aren't necessarily in Mint condition as there can be difference in print qualities, even in the cards produced today. For these reasons, it does in most cases not make sense to use the Mint condition since it put sets an extremely high requirement for the condition of cards, this is almost only relevant for the biggest collectors.
In case you are interested in Mint cards, we have a large selection of both graded Magic and graded Pokémon cards on our website, which is cards that have been evaluated and graded by a professional grading company that gives the card a score based on its condition.
We do not use the Mint condition for the raw cards we sell.     

Near Mint (NM)

Near Mint cards are generally cards without scratches, though tiny errors along the edges or corners are allowed. A Near Mint card is not allowed to have a scratched or damaged surface, nor can it have any types of bending or damage from use. For Pokémon cards, the foiling cannot have scratches as it reduces the value of the cards. 

Lightly Played (LP)

Lightly Played cards are allowed to have the same sizes of damages as Near Mint cards, though they are allowed to have a bit more of them. They are allowed to have 2-3 smaller scratches or one larger scratch along the edges or corners. The surface is allowed to have tiny scratches that are only visible by closely examining the card. They are not allowed to have any types of bends or damage from use.  

Moderately Played (MP)

Moderately Played is a very wide category, which covers two of the European categories (GD and LP). Cards in this category are allowed to have the same type of damages as a Lightly Played card, but is also allowed to have more of them, as well as a bit larger damages. Clearly visible damages to the surface or plentiful scratches, places these types of cards in the MP-category even though their edges may be in Near Mint condition. A moderately played card is not allowed to have any bends but is allowed to have smaller damages from use e.g., if it has been played without the use of sleeves.  

Heavily Played (HP)

Heavily Played cards are clearly worn along the edges, corner, and on the surface. Even though Heavily Played cards are damaged they are still playable when carried in sleeves.

Damaged (DMG)

The Damaged category can be a bit confusing, as these cards can, at first glance, look like cards from every other category. Common for these cards though, is that they are all worn in some way. Some cards may be bent or buckled, or there may be drawings or writing on the surface (this is also called an inked card) etc.
The severity of the damage can vary greatly, which means that some DMG-cards can look a lot nicer than cards in the HP-category. Some Damaged cards has extensive defect such as water-damage or severe creases. The price for the card is determined based on how severe the damage is.