TokyoMTG Card Grading Information

Making it easy to understand for customers

In the collectibles industry, an item's condition determines its overall value. There is a standardized system used to represent a collector card's condition such as, [Excellent], [Good], [Fine], etc.. Used initially for pro baseball trading cards, this grading system was adopted by the collectible card game industry as a whole. Although this system is great for those who truly care about a card's condition, there have been problems where it's far too complicated and difficult for a new user to understand. After all, this grading system is used for vintage collectibles and Magic cards weren't only made for collecting.

So with that in mind, we want to make TokyoMTG's card grading system more simplified. For most players,the most important part is if the card is playable or not. After years of interacting with players, it seems that there are lots of people who don't care about the card's condition as long as they can sleeve it up and play. So with that said, TokyoMTG has simplified the grading system as a whole; the card is graded at first glance and determined to be in good condition or not.

The TokyoMTG online store lists the grade underneath the card name.

Regular

Regular condition means that there are no major problems with the card and no problem using it in a sleeve. There may be slight scratches on the back, frame or even surface of the card, but nothing noticeable at a glance. There are no issues compared to other cards and no problem playing with the card in a sleeve.

Played

Played cards are clearly in worse condition than Regular cards. However, the important point is that even "Played" cards can be used in a tournament setting when used in a sleeve. TokyoMTG does not sell damage cards that cannot be used in competitive Magic on our website.

A Played card's poor condition (not sure you want to use the word "Damage" if you can avoid it) can be seen even at a glance. The level of that poor condition depends on the card itself, but includes various things like scratches, dents, folds, water wrinkles, stains and ink. None of these are to the level that the card is no longer recognizable.

Due to the nature of Played cards, their sell and buy prices are going to differ from Regular cards. In general, they are about 20% cheaper than a Regular card. If you don't care about the condition of a card then Played cards are a real bargain!

Regarding High-end Cards

There are loads of popular cards in Magic. Among those, the most remarkable cards are treated as "High-end" cards here at TokyoMTG. Since these are expensive and come in all sorts of conditions, there is no uniform or set price; all of them are treated as a one of a kind card. You can check out our High-end card conditions through the high resolution scans on our website.

※Images here are examples only. Condition varies from card to card.