Grading & terms.
We grade raw — by eye, by hand, photographed both sides. No third-party slabs. Our scale runs from Mint down to Damaged. Most honest vintage cardboard lands in LP–MP; that's not a knock, it's the era. When a description and a photo disagree, trust the photo.
THE CONDITION SCALE
M
Mint
Pack-fresh. Sharp 90° corners, no surface marks under raking light, factory-tight centering. Genuinely rare on vintage stock — we list it only when it's unarguable.
NM
Near Mint
Indistinguishable from fresh at arm's length. Maybe one soft corner or a hair of edge wear under angle. The ceiling for most 20-year-old cards.
LP
Lightly Played
Minor honest wear — light edge whitening or one or two touched corners. No creases, clean surface. The most common 'good copy' grade.
MP
Moderately Played
Noticeable corner softening, possible light surface scuff or off-centering. Still display-grade and sleeve-ready.
HP
Heavily Played
Significant wear: whitening, surface scratches, border dings. Honest binder copies — priced accordingly.
DMG
Damaged
Creases, bends, tears, water, or ink. Photographed plainly — you see exactly what's there. Reader copies and gap-fillers.
FOIL TYPES
- Holo / Holographic
- A reflective foil layer behind the art window only. The Pokémon Base-era 'cosmos' holo is the archetype.
- Reverse holo
- Foil across the whole card except the art window — the inverse of a standard holo.
- Prism
- A diagonal rainbow foil unique to Bandai Carddass and Amada vending stock. Doesn't appear in main-line WotC prints.
- Foil legend
- FFTCG term for a foil-treated Legend-rarity card, often with art commissioned specifically for the TCG.
- Refractor / Chromium
- A mirror-finish stock used in Dragon Ball's Chromium and FilmCardz lines — catches light across the whole face.
EDITION & PRINT TERMS
- 1st Edition
- First print run, marked with an edition stamp (Pokémon: a circled '1' left of the art). Scarcer and priced above Unlimited.
- Shadowless
- Pokémon Base-era print between 1st Edition and Unlimited — no drop-shadow on the right of the art window, lighter HP font.
- Unlimited
- Open-ended reprint with no edition stamp. The bulk of surviving stock.
- No Rarity
- Japanese Base first-printing with a blank rarity slot bottom-right. The first ~10,000 packs only — the hobby's grail print.
- Limited
- Score Entertainment's Dragon Ball first-print marker ('L' below the energy cost). 3–4× the Unlimited price.
READY TO BROWSE?
Every condition is photographed front and back before it lists.