# Cardmarket card conditions explained

Cardmarket grades a card on seven steps and describes each step in a paragraph you have to click open. This page sets those descriptions out as text, quotes Cardmarket's own rules for specific defects, compares the scale with TCGplayer's, and gives you a four-question checker for a card in your hand.

Cardmarket does describe all seven grades in text, but you have to go looking. Each description is a panel you click open, and its words arrive inside the page's script payload rather than in the page you read: pull the rendered text and you get 9,183 characters with none of the seven descriptions among them. The table above the panels is an image, and it carries the vocabulary and the American column rather than the criteria. This page sets out what the panels say, quotes the defect rules that sit below them in plain text, and marks every place where the two disagree.

## The seven grades

Best to worst. The colour on each code is the one Cardmarket paints on its own offer rows, sampled from a live page.

| Grade | Cardmarket says | What it looks like |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **MT** Mint | Perfect | Cardmarket asks for a perfect front, no scratches, a perfectly clean surface, and a back you cannot tell from a card out of a fresh booster. A signature or a Grand Prix stamp rules Mint out whatever the card stock looks like. Its Gem Mint note adds that a Mint card may still carry very minor printing imperfections, such as imperfect centring. |
| **NM** Near Mint | Booster-Fresh | A card that looks like it has never been played unsleeved. Cardmarket allows a few very small white spots on the border and a few minor spots on the surface, and asks that the surface look clean in daylight. What it does not allow is scratches, at all. It also rules out Near Mint for any card with visible clouding. |
| **EX** Excellent | Minor wear | A card used for a few games without sleeves. Cardmarket expects the wear to be clearly visible on first inspection and still minor: a couple of white spots at the corners or around the border, perhaps minor scratches you find on a closer look. A crease deep enough to see at first sight rules Excellent out, and because its Good description rules out bends altogether the page puts any crease lower still. |
| **GD** Good | Visible wear | Strong wear all over, from regular play: many white spots on the edges and corners, scratches on the surface, some ingrained dirt. Cardmarket's Good description rules out water damage and bends altogether, which puts a creased or bent card below Good — its Excellent description is looser, allowing a crease you cannot see at first sight, and the page takes the stricter of the two. Its scratch rule puts any scratched card here at best, front or back, however clean the rest of it is. |
| **LP** Light Played | Severe wear | A card played unsleeved for a long time. Cardmarket sets two conditions: it is clearly legal in a sleeved deck, and nobody has tampered with it. Meet both and the card may look very bad and still be Light Played. A crease, a bend that stays, and water damage all land here as long as both conditions still hold. |
| **PL** Played | Damaged | As bad as regular unsleeved play can leave a card. Cardmarket's test is that you doubt whether it is tournament legal even in a sleeve, and that nobody has tampered with it. A fold that will not flatten, warping past tournament legality, or water damage between the two extremes. |
| **PO** Poor | Destroyed | Damage regular play does not cause. Cardmarket calls a Poor card destroyed: either obviously illegal for tournament play, or tampered with in ways that destroy its worth almost completely. Writing added by a previous owner, tape, a missing piece, a repaired tear, or water damage that puts the card out of tournament play. Cardmarket also rules borders that have been inked, blackened or whitened as Poor, and a Pro Tour or Grand Prix stamped card as Poor however good it looks. A signature it recognises — the artist, Richard Garfield, or a name closely connected to the card — is flagged as signed instead and is not damage; any other signature is Poor. |

Cardmarket paints Played and Poor the same red. The letters carry the difference, so read them.

- **MT — Our call, not TCGplayer's.** Cardmarket says that in most cases grading a card Mint makes no sense, and that Near Mint is the safer choice for a card sold to be played with. It does not forbid Mint, so the checker below stopping at Near Mint is our policy and not its rule. TCGplayer does not sell Mint at all.
- **EX — Our call, not TCGplayer's.** Cardmarket separates Excellent from Good by severity and extent, not by how hard the wear is to see, and both descriptions are its own. Where a card could sit in either, we grade down, and that tiebreaker is ours rather than TCGplayer's.

## Eleven rules Cardmarket publishes as text

These are not ours and not TCGplayer's. They sit in plain text on Cardmarket's help page, below the grade panels, spread over eighteen alphabetical sections we have taken the grading-relevant ones from. Where one of them names a grade it is more specific than the grade descriptions, so the page follows it and says where the two disagree.

| Situation | Grade |
| --- | --- |
| Any scratches on the surface | Good at best (GD) |
| Visible clouding — the surface looks dull with no damage you can point at | Rules out Near Mint (EX) |
| Water damage, card clearly still tournament legal | Light Played (LP) |
| Water damage, somewhere between the two | Played (PL) |
| Water damage, clearly no longer tournament legal | Poor (PO) |
| Warped so strongly it may not be tournament legal | Played (PL) |
| Borders inked, blackened or whitened | Poor (PO) |
| A Pro Tour or Grand Prix stamp | Poor, however good the card looks (PO) |
| A signature Cardmarket does not recognise as signed | Poor (PO) |
| Manufacturing errors — miscuts, misaligned art, odd text | No effect on the grade |
| Age | No allowance; a 20-year-old card is held to the same criteria |

Cardmarket also declines partial grades: NM− and EX+ in a comment are not a thing it supports. An altered card has to be listed with a photograph of the alteration.

## Cardmarket's American column, and what TCGplayer calls it

Cardmarket's table carries a US-Expression column, and its text describes that column as a rough translation of terminology that varies between American stores. It does not claim to map to TCGplayer. Four of its seven terms — Mint, Slightly Played, Played and Poor — are not TCGplayer grades at all, which is where the confusion starts.

| Cardmarket | Cardmarket's US column | Closest TCGplayer grade |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **MT** Mint | Mint (Not a TCGplayer grade) | None — Mint is not sold on TCGplayer |
| **NM** Near Mint | Near Mint | Near Mint |
| **EX** Excellent | Slightly Played \| Excellent (Not a TCGplayer grade) | Lightly Played |
| **GD** Good | Moderately Played \| Very Good | Moderately Played |
| **LP** Light Played | Played \| Good (Not a TCGplayer grade) | Heavily Played |
| **PL** Played | Heavily Played (Our reading differs) | Damaged |
| **PO** Poor | Poor (Not a TCGplayer grade) | Damaged |

### Where the two vocabularies part

- **Slightly Played** — No such TCGplayer grade. Theirs is Lightly Played. Cardmarket's own Excellent description names both — "Slightly Played or Lightly Played" — and warns in the same breath not to confuse Lightly Played with the European Light Played, which is the whole of the next section.
- **Played** — No such grade either. TCGplayer lists Near Mint, Lightly Played, Moderately Played, Heavily Played and Damaged, and nothing else.
- **Poor** — TCGplayer's bottom grade is Damaged. Played and Poor both land on it, so two Cardmarket grades collapse into one American one.
- **Heavily Played** — A real grade, but we put PL at Damaged instead — Cardmarket's own Condition column glosses PL as damaged. That reading is ours, not a mistake on their part.
- **Excellent, Very Good, Good** — The second term in three rows comes from an older American condition scale. TCGplayer does not use it, which is what makes the column rough rather than wrong.

### LP means two different things

Same two letters on the two largest card marketplaces, near-opposite ends of their scales. Cardmarket flags it itself, inside its Excellent description: not to be confused with the European Light Played. Buy across them on the code alone and you pay Lightly Played money for a Light Played card.

- **LP on Cardmarket** — Light Played, 5th of 7. Severe wear.
- **LP on TCGplayer** — Lightly Played, 2nd of 5. One step under Near Mint.

On our mapping a TCGplayer LP card is roughly a Cardmarket EX. If you trade across both, read the full grade name and never the two letters.

## Which grade is the card in your hand?

Four questions. In each one pick the worst answer that fits — the answers are a ladder, so a bad card also matches the milder lines above it. Each answer caps how good the card can be, and the lowest cap across the four wins, because a buyer grades a card by its worst visible flaw.

Where Cardmarket publishes a rule for a defect, the answer follows that rule and says so. The millimetre thresholds are TCGplayer's, remapped from their five grades to Cardmarket's seven, because Cardmarket publishes no measurements. Where Cardmarket's grade descriptions and its defect rules disagree, the page takes the stricter of the two and flags it.

Two things to leave out of your answers, and one to count. A manufacturing error — a miscut, a crimp, misaligned art, an ink fault from the printer — does not affect the Cardmarket grade at all, so grade the card as if it were not there. A signature Cardmarket recognises, meaning the artist, Richard Garfield, or a name closely connected to the card, is flagged separately as signed and is not damage either. A Pro Tour or Grand Prix stamp is neither: Cardmarket grades a stamped card Poor however good it looks, so count it under the second question.

### Corners and edges

Hold the card face-on against a dark surface.

- Corners sharp, and at most a few white spots so small you have to look for them → At best NM — Cardmarket: the border of a Near Mint card can have small white spots, but they must be very few and very small. Both halves count — a dozen tiny spots is past the allowance even though each one of them is small.
- White at the corners or along the border past that allowance — more of them, or bigger — but still minor, and confined to part of an edge or two, or a corner slightly soft → At best EX — Cardmarket: an Excellent card's wear is almost always clearly visible on first inspection and still minor, usually a couple of white spots at the corners or around the border. Almost always, and usually: neither the visibility nor the count is the test. The test is that the card is past Near Mint's allowance and the wear is still minor.
- Many white spots along the edges and corners, whitening past minor, or corners visibly rounded → At best GD
- Whitening all the way round, corners worn blunt, or a nick or tear that still leaves the card clearly legal in a sleeve → At best LP — Cardmarket draws the Light Played line at a card that is clearly still legal in a sleeve, however bad it looks.
- An edge is torn or peeling badly enough that you doubt the card in a sleeved deck → At best PL — Cardmarket puts a card whose legality in a sleeve has become doubtful at Played.
- A piece is missing, a tear has been repaired, or an edge is torn badly enough that the card is obviously illegal → At best PO

### Both surfaces under a tilted light

Angle each face under a lamp and look across it, not at it. The back counts the same as the front.

- Both sides clean apart from a few minor spots, and no scratches → At best NM — Cardmarket allows a Near Mint surface a few minor spots, but no scratches at all, and asks that it look clean in daylight.
- Visible clouding, or dirt and dullness beyond a few minor spots, on either side — but no scratches → At best EX — Cardmarket: visible clouding precludes a card from being Near Mint, on its own. Dirt is different — it allows a Near Mint surface a few minor spots, so answer the line above when that is all there is.
- Any scratches on either side, however fine → At best GD — Cardmarket contradicts itself here. Its scratch rule says that if a card has scratches on the surface, this makes the card Good at best; its Excellent description allows minor scratches you find on a closer look. The page follows the scratch rule, because it is the more specific of the two and because Cardmarket's Good description lists scratches as typical of Good. Foils scratch more easily and show it more.
- Scuffing or ingrained dirt over most of a face, or a hole, a patch where the surface has come away, or heavy fading — on a card still clearly legal in a sleeve → At best LP — Cardmarket: a Light Played card is clearly legal in a sleeved deck and has not been tampered with. Meet both and it may look very bad and still be Light Played.
- The same damage, but bad enough that you doubt the card in a sleeved deck → At best PL — Played is where Cardmarket puts a card whose legality in a sleeve has become doubtful. If it stays clearly legal, answer the line above instead.
- Marks added after printing — writing, tape, a recoloured border, or a Pro Tour or Grand Prix stamp — or damage that leaves the card obviously illegal for tournament play → At best PO — Cardmarket: borders improved with a pen are always Poor, as are blackened or whitened ones, and a Grand Prix stamped card must be graded Poor even when it otherwise looks great. A Poor card is one that is obviously illegal for play or has been tampered with in ways that destroy its worth almost completely. A signature it recognises is not this — Cardmarket flags those cards as signed instead — and an ink fault from the printer is a manufacturing error, which does not affect the grade.

### Bend, crease or indentation

Hold it edge-on at eye level, then lay it flat and run a finger over it. Measure one dent at a time, by the area that single dent covers.

- Flat or mildly bowed, with no crease or bend, and at most one pinpoint dent that does not show through → At best NM — Cardmarket: a card that is a little concave or convex is fine at any grade below Mint. TCGplayer allows a single pinpoint indent at Near Mint.
- More than one pinpoint dent, a single dent larger than a pinpoint and up to 4 mm², or a line-shaped dent up to 20 mm — none of them showing through, and no crease or bend → At best EX
- A dent over 4 and up to 25 mm², a line-shaped dent over 20 and up to 50 mm, or any dent showing through the back — and no crease or bend → At best GD — The millimetre bands are TCGplayer's, because Cardmarket publishes no measurement for an indentation.
- Any crease, a bend that stays, a dent over 25 mm², or a line-shaped dent over 50 mm — on a card still clearly legal in a sleeve → At best LP — Cardmarket's Good description rules out bends altogether, which puts a creased or bent card below Good. TCGplayer is looser — it allows a crease at Moderately Played, our Good — and the page takes Cardmarket's stricter reading, as it does for scratches. Mild bowing is not a bend: Cardmarket allows a slightly concave or convex card at any grade below Mint.
- Warped, folded, creased or dented deeply enough that you doubt the card in a sleeved deck → At best PL — Cardmarket: a card deformed so strongly and lastingly that it might not be tournament legal has to be graded Played. A deep indentation can reach that point without the card being warped at all.

### Water damage

Look for staining, rippling or a dried tide line, on either side.

- No water damage — nothing stained, rippled or tide-lined by water → At best NM
- Water damage, but the card is clearly still tournament legal → At best LP — Cardmarket: cards with water damage should be graded Light Played to Poor depending on severity, and the damage has to be called out in the description.
- Water damage somewhere between the two → At best PL — Cardmarket: something in between is Played.
- Water damage, clearly not tournament legal any more → At best PO — Cardmarket: one clearly not tournament legal would be Poor.

The checker stops at Near Mint. Cardmarket says that in most cases grading a card Mint makes no sense and that Near Mint is the safer choice for a card sold to be played with. It does not forbid Mint, so this stop is our policy and the call stays yours.

If you are undecided between Excellent and Good, choose Good. Cardmarket's two descriptions leave a band where either would fit, and a condition complaint costs more than the gap between the two prices. That tiebreaker is ours, not TCGplayer's.

## Grading questions shops actually ask

### What do the seven Cardmarket condition codes mean?

MT is Mint, NM Near Mint, EX Excellent, GD Good, LP Light Played, PL Played and PO Poor, best to worst. Cardmarket glosses them as perfect, booster-fresh, minor wear, visible wear, severe wear, damaged and destroyed, and it describes each one in a paragraph behind a click on its Card Condition page. Those paragraphs ship inside that page's script payload, so a rendered-text extraction returns none of them. This page sets them out as text.

### What does Near Mint actually mean on Cardmarket?

Pack-fresh to the naked eye. Cardmarket's own word for it is booster-fresh, and its description allows a few very small white spots on the border and a few minor spots on the surface, with the surface looking clean in daylight. What it does not allow is scratches, at all. It adds one more rule: visible clouding, where the surface looks dull with no damage you can point at, rules Near Mint out.

### Where is the line between Excellent and Good on Cardmarket?

Cardmarket draws it by severity and extent, not by how hard the wear is to see. Excellent is a card used for a few games unsleeved: the wear is clearly visible on first inspection but still minor, a couple of white spots at the corners or around the border. Good is strong wear all over, many white spots, scratches, some ingrained dirt. Its two descriptions leave a band where either would fit, and the tiebreaker there is ours: grade down. Cardmarket also contradicts itself on scratches — its scratch rule makes any scratched card Good at best, while its Excellent description allows minor scratches found on a closer look. The page follows the scratch rule.

### Does LP mean the same thing on Cardmarket and TCGplayer?

No, and the two readings sit at near-opposite ends of their scales. On Cardmarket, LP is Light Played, fifth of seven grades, glossed severe wear. On TCGplayer, LP is Lightly Played, second of five, one step under Near Mint. On our mapping a TCGplayer LP card is roughly a Cardmarket EX. Read the full grade name and never the two letters.

### Is a creased card always Played on Cardmarket?

Not always. Under this page's stricter reading it is never better than Light Played. A crease is bend damage, and Cardmarket's Good description rules out bends altogether, so a creased card sits below Good. It becomes Played once you would doubt the card in a sleeved deck, which is the line Cardmarket draws between those two grades, and Poor once it is obviously illegal. TCGplayer is looser — its rule puts a crease at Moderately Played at best, which is Good here — and this page follows Cardmarket, as it does for scratches. Cardmarket is not quite of one mind: its Excellent description allows a crease you cannot see at first sight. Other defects only pull the result lower if their own ceiling is lower, so a crease plus fine scratches is still Light Played, while a crease plus a repaired tear is Poor.

### Does a miscut or off-centre print lower the grade?

Not on Cardmarket. Its rule is explicit: manufacturing errors such as misaligned art do not count as wear and tear and do not affect the grade, though it asks you to describe the error and add a photograph. TCGplayer is stricter and calls anything past 70/30 centring damaged. If you list on both, the same card can honestly carry two different grades.

### Should I grade a card down when I am not sure?

Yes, on both sides of the trade. A buyer who opens a card graded one step too high opens a complaint, and that costs the return postage, the refund and the rating. When you buy in, the lower grade is the price you can defend if the card arrives worse than the listing. One step of caution is cheaper than either mistake.

### How is this different from PSA grading?

PSA grades a card from 1 to 10 and seals it in a slab, and for cards people collect a PSA 10 usually sells well above a raw Near Mint. Cardmarket's seven grades describe a raw card in a sleeve: the seller assigns the grade, and no independent party checks it before sale. The two scales do not convert, and a card you would call Mint can come back from PSA as an 8.

## Where these criteria come from

Cardmarket publishes a description of each of its seven grades, in panels you click open on its Card Condition page, and eighteen alphabetical sections of rules for specific defects below them. The panels' words ship inside that page's script payload, so a rendered-text extraction of it returns none of the seven. This page sets them out as text and quotes the defect rules beside them. The millimetre thresholds here are TCGplayer's, a detailed public standard with published severity bands, remapped from their five grades to Cardmarket's seven, because Cardmarket publishes no measurements. Where Cardmarket's own text disagrees with itself — its Excellent description allows minor scratches, its scratch rule caps a scratched card at Good — the page takes the stricter reading and says which. Two calls are ours and say so too: the Excellent–Good tiebreaker, and stopping the checker at Near Mint. Checked against the live sources on 9 October 2026.

- [Cardmarket — Card Condition](https://help.cardmarket.com/en/CardCondition)
- [TCGplayer — Understanding Card Condition Imperfections](https://help.tcgplayer.com/hc/en-us/articles/26141121045143-Understanding-Card-Condition-Imperfections-A-Comprehensive-Guide)

TCGshopkeeper is not affiliated with Cardmarket, TCGplayer or PSA.

Buying in on Cardmarket? TCGshopkeeper copies the grade a seller has already set on the offer row onto your buyout list, with the price and the quantity. / · /cardmarket-card-conditions/