Here's a breakdown of typical condition labels and the specific flaws that may be present at each level:
Mint (M): A Mint sports card is virtually perfect. It has sharp corners, no surface wear, perfect centering (or near-perfect), clean edges, and no print lines, creases, or discoloration. It looks like it just came out of a pack and was immediately sleeved.
Near Mint (NM): Near Mint cards may show extremely minor imperfections, such as slight wear on one corner, a tiny surface speck, or barely visible edge wear. Centering may be slightly off, but the card retains excellent overall presentation.
Excellent (EX): An Excellent card has light but visible flaws, slight corner rounding, minor edge chipping, a light surface scratch, or mild fading. The card still displays well but shows signs of handling. Centering may be moderately off.
Very Good (VG): Cards in Very Good condition exhibit more noticeable wear, including moderate corner rounding, visible surface scuffs, mild creases that don't break the surface, or multiple areas of edge wear. Slight discoloration or soft print defects may also be present.
Poor (PR): Cards listed as poor are heavily damaged, with severe flaws such as heavy creasing, paper loss, heavy staining, horrible miscut, pinholes, writing, etc. These flaws may not fully present in the scan.