Near Mint and the card condition scale: NM, LP, MP, HP and DMG

The card condition scale is how ungraded cards get described for sale. TCGplayer's version has five steps: Near Mint (NM), Lightly Played (LP), Moderately Played (MP), Heavily Played (HP) and Damaged (DMG). Near Mint allows only minimal wear, such as slight edge wear or a couple of minor scratches.

eBay's own trading card scale has four steps: Near Mint or Better, Lightly Played (Excellent), Moderately Played (Very Good) and Heavily Played (Poor). Either way, on a raw listing the seller picks the step, so it's an opinion, not a grade.

Before you buy one

• Ask which scale they mean. The two disagree at the edges: TCGplayer caps any card with a crease at Moderately Played, while eBay's scale allows a minor crease at Lightly Played. Ask the seller which standard they used.

• Treat "mint" words as claims. "Mint", "pack fresh" and "fresh pull" in a raw title aren't grades. A PSA 7 label also reads "NM", but that's a grade from PSA's scale, not a seller's opinion, so check which one you're looking at.

• Don't misread HP. In a title it's often a Pokemon's hit points, as in "Charizard 120 HP", not Heavily Played. Read it in context.

• Ask for close photos of the edges and corners on the front and the back, and judge the wear yourself.

On ChaseBoard, a raw watch can accept one condition or several, and it matches either the short code or the full name in a listing title, so "LP" and "Lightly Played" both come through. If you watch for Heavily Played, expect the odd hit points title too.