The terms “Mint Condition” and “Near Mint Condition” have had many meanings over the years especially in the Magic: The Gathering community. Back in the early days of the game there was a very clear distinction between cards that had been played and cards that hadn’t. With no sleeves or playmats cards got shuffled and showed wear almost instantly. A mint or near mint card was pretty much a card that hadn’t been played. In the early 2000’s to early 2010’s as accessories started to become more popular the game really shied away from using the term Mint Condition and really started to focus on the “Near Mint” category. At the time the emphasis on the game was to play with the cards and the collector’s market was extremely small. Until the mid-2010’s the value of Magic cards was much more steady with a much smaller growth potential.
This brings us to the era we are in today, which is a split market of collectors and players with most people being a bit of both. So, let’s dig into what each category refers to and what their needs and wants are. The player will traditionally look for the least expensive version of cards to play to be able to keep up with a format or metagame. A lot of these players will look for cards in worse condition knowing that they will be played with rigorously and lose their value anyways. The Collector is a growing category in the game in which finding the nicest version of a card becomes the goal and the hobby becomes a hunt. These players are more likely to look for Mint cards instead of Near Mint cards to potentially get graded. This is more typical with very high-end cards which are almost to rare or unique to play with and should be preserved as a collectable, much like a vintage toy that you would never take out of the packaging. Finally, the newest category of the player/collector has arrived. Now that magic has shifted much of its weight towards commander, we are seeing new versions of cards meant for this type of person. With the new technology going into accessories, you can now make your deck look much better and more expensive while staying protected and keeping the condition of your cards intact. These players are typically much more interested in the Near Mint category and are ok with a small nick or 2 as they plan on playing with the cards but want them to look good in all their glory.
Now the real split begins when we talk about the definitions of conditioning vs grading. According to TCGplayer “Different sellers, companies, and industries use varying terms for the act of “determining the quality of a product”. For consistency, TCGplayer uses the term
“conditioning” to describe the act of evaluating a product and categorizing it with a non-numeric quality label.
We reserve the term “grading” for the act of determining numerical measures of quality, most often performed by professional grading services.
When we condition, we perform an evaluation of whether or not a card is within a range. While we include measurements and metrics around imperfections and severities, team members performing conditioning are not measuring imperfections.”
Essentially, conditioning accounts for human error and much boarder range of card quality where grading hones in much tighter. For reference, a PSA 10 card is “Gem Mint” a 9 is “Mint” and down a 7 is considered “Near Mint.” This scale has caused an awkward difference between the professional grading market where a card under an 8 is usually not desirable and the public market that would still call that card near mint.
When it comes to purchasing cards at a convention or show, especially one with a grading company present, it is important to know that vendors cannot guarantee grades. Our specialty is in conditioning a lot of cards at a fast pace where a grading company will be able to spend 20-30 minutes per card getting everything exact. We are more than willing to offer our opinions, but it is hard to be able to give an exact grade. I think that grading magic cards will become more and more popular over the upcoming years and the population of high graded cards will be on the rise and easier to buy and sell at shows, but we are still in a transitionary period where these terms have become a bit jumbled together in this new era of the game and I’m sure will be settled in the future.
The biggest question I hear right now on this topic is “What cards should I get graded?” As of right now I would suggest grading anything so unique that it really shouldn’t be played with such as high-end surge/halo foils, serialized cards and very old magic cards that are still in extremely good condition and might get above an 8.5.
Looking forward to seeing everybody at the next Portland show on Feb 28th and March 1st. Come check out Twilight Emporium at booths A15-A15a. We will have lots of Magic: the Gathering cards, boosters and even some accessories!