Pokémon card condition guide.
NM · LP · MP · HP · Damaged — with value impacts measured from real sales, not estimatesCondition moves a raw card's price more than almost anything except grading. This guide shows what each level means — and, unlike the usual invented ranges, the value impacts below are the exact multipliers CardTrack prices with, measured from real sales by pairing each card's worn-condition sales with its own Near Mint sales.
Quick reference
| Condition | In one line | Under $5 | $5 to $50 | $50 and up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Near Mint (NM) | The benchmark. Every price on this site is quoted for a near-mint copy unless a condition or grade says otherwise. | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Lightly Played (LP) | Looks great in a binder or sleeve; the wear shows only when you look for it. | 88.5% | 77.8% | 75.8% |
| Moderately Played (MP) | The wear is obvious at arm's length, but the card is intact and fully playable sleeved. | 75.8% | 58.9% | 52.9% |
| Heavily Played (HP) | Heavy, immediate wear — a played copy in the truest sense. | 62.7% | 42.8% | 40% |
| Damaged (DMG) | Structural damage. Valuable cards are still worth selling damaged — but priced accordingly. | 55.2% | 36.4% | 31% |
Cheap cards hold more of their value in worse condition because marketplace price floors compress the spread — a $0.30 card can't fall to $0.07. Multipliers as of 2026-08-31; cards with enough of their own per-condition sales use their measured ratio instead of these defaults.
Near Mint (NM) · 100% of NM on $5 to $50 cards
The benchmark. Every price on this site is quoted for a near-mint copy unless a condition or grade says otherwise.
- Sharp corners on all four points
- Clean surface — no scratches visible under direct light
- No edge whitening on front or back
- No creases, dents or shuffle wear; an isolated faint factory roller line is acceptable
Value: 100% — this is the headline price on every card page.
Lightly Played (LP) · 77.8% of NM on $5 to $50 cards
Looks great in a binder or sleeve; the wear shows only when you look for it.
- Light corner touches or a single soft corner
- Minor edge whitening, usually on the back border
- A few faint surface scratches visible at an angle
- No creases, no water damage — still very presentable
Value: 77.8% of the NM price on $5 to $50 cards (75.8% on $50 and up, 88.5% under $5) — our measured default, applied automatically when you add an LP card to your collection.
Moderately Played (MP) · 58.9% of NM on $5 to $50 cards
The wear is obvious at arm's length, but the card is intact and fully playable sleeved.
- Noticeable corner rounding or fraying on multiple corners
- Clear edge whitening, easy to see without looking for it
- Visible surface scratching or scuffing head-on
- Possible light dings or a minor indent — but no crease through the card
Value: 58.9% of the NM price on $5 to $50 cards (52.9% on $50 and up, 75.8% under $5) — raised in July 2026 after our sold-price study showed real MP sales clearing above the old estimate.
Heavily Played (HP) · 42.8% of NM on $5 to $50 cards
Heavy, immediate wear — a played copy in the truest sense.
- Heavily rounded or frayed corners
- Whitening around most of the border, front and back
- Major scratching, scuffs or staining
- May include a light crease that doesn't break the card surface
Value: 42.8% of the NM price on $5 to $50 cards (40% on $50 and up, 62.7% under $5) — wide range in practice — photos matter more than the label at this level.
Damaged (DMG) · 36.4% of NM on $5 to $50 cards
Structural damage. Valuable cards are still worth selling damaged — but priced accordingly.
- Creases that break the print surface, folds or tears
- Water damage, warping or writing
- Missing surface layers or peeling
- Stickers, residue or ink on the card
Value: 36.4% of the NM price on $5 to $50 cards (31% on $50 and up, 55.2% under $5) — a floor, not a formula — one clean photo of the damage beats any estimate.
Foil cards wear differently
Foil and holo cards are judged on the same corners and edges, but their surface is less forgiving: scratches and scuffs show far more readily on foil, so a foil in the same state as a non-foil often grades lower. Some curl is normal on foils, and how much a buyer will accept varies; a foil bubble, where the foil layer has lifted away from the card, is worth photographing and disclosing whenever you sell.
Judging condition yourself
- Tilt the card under a single bright light rather than flat room light — scratches and edge whitening show up at an angle that diffuse light hides.
- Check corners and edges before the face — that is usually where wear starts.
- A loupe or a zoomed-in phone camera catches surface scratches that are invisible at arm's length.
Where the wear shows first
Corners go first. A card that has been shuffled unsleeved or slid in and out of a binder page picks up a soft or whitened corner long before the face shows anything — the photo grader picks it up from a scan — which is why a single light corner touch is the usual line between Near Mint and Lightly Played. Edges follow — whitening along the back border where the card rubbed against its neighbours — and the more of the border it covers, the further down the scale the card sits, whatever its surface looks like.
Surface wear is the one people miss. Hairline scratches on holographic cards, print lines and light scuffing are invisible under diffuse light and obvious under a single bulb at an angle, and they are what separates a Lightly Played card that looks clean from one that is actually Near Mint. Creases are the hard boundary: a light one that does not break the surface can still sit at Heavily Played, but anything that cracks the print, folds or tears is Damaged, and no number of clean corners pulls it back.
How the percentages were measured
The multipliers on this page are medians of real sales, paired within each card: a Lightly Played sale of a card divided by a Near Mint sale of the same card, so the ratio measures condition rather than which card happened to sell. The pricing methodology publishes the full table. In the $5 to $50 band, where most Pokémon cards live, the Lightly Played ratio of 77.8% was measured across 2,421 distinct cards, Moderately Played (58.9%) across 1,607, Heavily Played (42.8%) across 837 and Damaged (36.4%) across 666. The other two bands are measured the same way and kept separate because the spread differs: cheap cards are compressed by marketplace floors, and expensive cards are punished harder for the same wear.
Buying and selling by condition
For a buyer, the label is the seller's opinion and the photos are the evidence: ask for a picture of the back under direct light before paying the Near Mint price, because the back border is where whitening shows first. For a seller, a card graded honestly one level down sells faster than one graded up and returned. Lightly Played is the usual sweet spot on both sides — at 77.8% of the Near Mint price on a $5 to $50 card it is a real discount for wear that rarely shows in a binder.
Price your exact copy
Every card page has a condition selector wired to these numbers — open your card, pick the condition, and the price adjusts. Wear you can measure is worth more than wear you can guess at:
- Look up any Pokémon card — price by condition on the card page
- Photo grader — snap your card for a condition and grade estimate
- Centering calculator — measure centering from a photo (it caps the grade a card can reach)
- Fake card checker — condition doesn't matter if it isn't real
Condition FAQ
How much less is a Lightly Played Pokémon card worth?
Our measured default is 77.8% of the near-mint price for cards in the common $5–$50 range (75.8% for pricier cards, $50+, and 88.5% for cards under $5, which are compressed by marketplace price floors). On cards with enough real LP sales we override that default with the card's own measured ratio.
Where do these percentages come from?
From completed sales, paired within each card: a worn-condition sale of a card is divided by a Near Mint sale of the same card, so the ratio measures condition rather than which card happened to sell. Each figure is the median of those ratios for one condition in one price band, across 72 to 2,421 cards per cell (measured 2026-08-31). They are the same multipliers our collection tracker and card pages use — not a rule of thumb.
Does condition matter if I'm grading the card?
Completely — grading economics depend on the copy's condition, because the odds of a high grade collapse as wear appears. Our Grade-it-or-not verdict on every card page prices this out per condition (NM / LP / MP).
Is Near Mint the same as Mint or PSA 10?
No. Near Mint is a raw-card market condition. A PSA 10 requires centering and surface quality beyond typical NM, which is why graded 10s sell far above raw NM prices — check any card page's graded ladder for the gap.