Policies
Card Condition Guide
How we grade raw singles, from Near Mint down to Damaged.
Every raw single we list gets checked by hand under good light before it goes up for sale, and graded into one of five conditions — Near Mint, Lightly Played, Moderately Played, Heavily Played, and Damaged. This is our own standard for what each grade means, so you know exactly what you're buying before it ships.
Near Mint
Little to no visible wear.
Near Mint doesn't mean flawless. A copy can still carry a small number of minor flaws — typically one to three — like a faint edge tick or a light surface mark that's easy to miss unless you're actively looking for it. Held and viewed normally, it reads as clean, sharp, and essentially untouched; it's only under close inspection that the odd small imperfection might turn up.
Lightly Played
Handled, not hurt.
A step past Near Mint — a bit more of the same kind of wear, and a bit easier to see. Expect light edge whitening, a small scuff or two, or corners just starting to soften. Nothing here looks damaged, and it still sits well in a binder or a deck.
Moderately Played
Clearly seen some use.
Wear you can spot without close inspection: edge and corner wear, some surface scratching, maybe a soft crease that hasn't broken the card. It's a card with a history, but everything on it stays fully legible and intact.
Heavily Played
Well-worn, still whole.
Significant creasing, whitening, scuffing, or rounded corners — wear that's hard to miss at a glance. Still one solid piece of cardstock with nothing torn, split, or illegible, just a card that's clearly lived a full life in someone's deck.
Damaged
Beyond played — genuinely damaged.
Tears, creases severe enough to split the layers, water or other liquid exposure, writing, or anything else that goes past ordinary wear and into structural damage. We call these out plainly in the listing and price them accordingly.
Grading is a judgment call
We call condition honestly rather than optimistically, but grading is ultimately a human judgment made under a light and a loupe, not a machine measurement.
All sales are final. That said, if a card arrives in noticeably worse condition than what was listed, reach out through the contact page and we'll make it right — see our returns policy for how we handle it. Raw singles don't carry any unique markings, so once a card is out of its sleeve we have no way to confirm it's the exact copy we shipped. If you want the option to dispute a condition mismatch, we recommend filming yourself unsealing the package and removing the card, unedited and in one take — that's the clearest way to back up a claim.