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What Do Hockey Card Ratings Mean Anyway?

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Grading a hockey card is somewhat like judging figure skating. The whole process is pretty much arbitrary and really doesn’t mean as much as it’s made out to mean.

montreal canadiens topps hockey card
What would you rate this hockey card?

You’ve got your mints, near mints, excellents, goods, fairs and poors. Of course, then you need to add modifiers like near and very. But… they’re all the opinion of the seller!

Ebay has their own selection of ratings. They run from ‘brand new’ to ‘acceptable’. All pretty arbitrary and at the seller’s discretion.

When I list a card on eBay, I purposely avoid the use of any of these pre-determined ratings on my listings. I typically note all the flaws in the card and then use several different words attached to the word great. I’m providing a scanned picture of the front of the card and if there is something wrong with the back, I will surely note it.

The point is, with my eBay hockey card listings, it’s basically ‘what you see is what you get’. Why screw around with arbitrary ratings?

That said, this is what the ratings mean:

Mint (MT): A perfect card. Well-centered with parallel borders which appear equal to the
naked eye. Four sharp, square corners. No creases, edge dents, surface
scratches, paper flaws, loss of luster, yellowing or fading, regardless of age.
No imperfectly printed cards – out of register, badly cut or ink flawed – – or
card stained by contact with gum, wax or other substances can be considered
truly Mint, even if new out of the pack. Generally, to be considered in Mint
condition, a card’s borders must exist in a ratio of 60/40 side to side and top
to bottom.

Near Mint (NM): A nearly perfect card. At first
glance, the card appears perfect; upon closer examination, however, a minor
flaw will be discovered. On well-centered cards, three of the four corners must
be perfectly sharp; only one corner shows a minor imperfection upon close
inspection. A slightly off-center card with one or more borders being
noticeably unequal – – but no worse than in a ratio of 70/30 S/S or T/B – –
would also fit this grade. Yellowing or fading turn an otherwise mint card into
NM.

Excellent (EX): Corners are still fairly sharp with
only moderate wear. Card borders may be off center as much as 80/20. No
creases. May have very minor gum, wax or product stains, front or back.
Surfaces may show slight loss of luster from rubbing across other cards. Dark
bordered cards may have one or two small nicks.

Very Good (VG): Shows obvious handling, but still looks nice. Corners may be rounded or perhaps
showing minor creases. No major creases on a VG card. Surfaces may exhibit loss
of luster, but the printing is intact. May show major gum, wax or other
packaging stains. No major creases, tape marks or extraneous markings or
writing. All four borders visible, though the ratio may be as poor as 95/5.
Exhibits honest wear.

Good (G): A well-worn card, but exhibits no intentional damage or abuse. May have major or
multiple creases, however, creases are not so deep as to show the underlying
paper. This card is completely readable, has not been written on, and has no
tape marks or holes. Corner rounding may extend well beyond the border.

Fair (F): Shows excessive wear, along with damage or abuse. Will show all the wear
characteristics of a Good card, along with such damage as thumb tack holes in
or near margins, evidence of having been taped or pasted, perhaps small tears
around the edges or creases so heavily as to break the cardboard. Backs may
show minor added pen or pencil writing, or be missing small bits of paper.
Still basically a complete card.

Poor (P): A card that has been tortured to
death. Corners or other areas may be torn off. Card may have been trimmed, show
holes from a paper punch or have been used for BB gun practice. Front may have
extraneous pen or pencil writing, or other defacement. Major portions of front
or back design may be missing. Not a pretty sight.

I would like to think that we came up with this all by ourselves, but we didn't. Thank you to this site for providing great info.

 

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