Card Grading Standards

At SeaToSky TCG, we take our card grading seriously. All cards are reviewed for condition when being pulled from inventory for customer orders or being accepted as new additions to our inventory. We only sell the two most popular grades of cards: "Near Mint" and "Lightly Played". Our standards for these two grades are a stricter version of the often-quoted TCGplayer standards, documented here. The refinements we've made, which are subject to change, are as follows:

Near Mint - A "Near Mint" card should be almost flawless, with no scuffing, edge wear, marks, bends/creases, dents or other signs of play on the front or back of the card.  A small imperfection in a single area of the card is permitted with bias given to marks outside the typically visible area of the card (i.e. the back of a single-sided card). Scratches of any type immediately disqualify a card from this grade. A card that is "pack-fresh" (i.e. straight from a booster pack) is not automatically "Near Mint": some cards come from the factory with dents, crimp marks or with other visible imperfections like foil roller lines. A "Near Mint" card should represent what a typical version of the card looked like when initially pulled from a booster pack, accounting for the age of the card (older cards will develop a natural surface "patina" over time).

Lightly Played -  A "Lightly Played" card may contain imperfections such as scuffing, edge wear, marks or minor scratches on the front and back of the card. These imperfections may also include factory defects such as roller lines, small surface "pitting" or foil cards with "foggy" surfaces. These defects should be isolated to at most 50% of the card surface and should not interfere with the functional aspects of the card (i.e. obscuring text or symbols). Major scratches, bends/creases or any physical defect that could make the card distinguishable by feel through a sleeve from a undamaged version of the card will disqualify a card from this grade.