We all have, and see, majorly different assessments of conditions for Pokemon cards(any collectible cards in general). It’s something that is sometimes extremely frustrating to us. But onto the main point of this thread.
Let’s say I have a card that by all accounts is Mint condition, card looks beautiful with no edgewear or nicks around the corners, except for a sizable scratch down the back of the card. The card is damaged, but the overall look of the card is not majorly effected.
Is it ok to label a card like that as Near Mint, or even Mint condition with an asterisk explaining the ‘localised’ defect and making it abundantly clear that there is something wrong with it?
Is there a cut off point where it’s ok to call it Near Mint with an asterisk, but not Mint?
I bring this up because I have a few cards that are like this and want to sell them. On one hand I don’t want to be misleading, and on the other hand I don’t want to label the cards as Played because I don’t think they really count as Played.
I have a few cards that are similar to yours in the manner that they look flawless except for one small defect that is fairly noticeable. For cards like these, I never call them mint, as to me mint means that the card has no flaws. However, these cards to me fit into the near mint category, which encompasses a wide variety of small damages that don’t entirely cause a card to lose much visual appeal. When selling, I categorize them as NM, and point out the flaws like you have suggested. They definitely are not played, which to most people would refer to as major damage such as significant edge wear, warping, or creasing. Hope this helps!
I just look at the card, and give it a name on the scale.
Played - excellent - bla bla I don’t sell these.
So I have:
Near Mint (not realy noticable whitening, no other faults)
Near Mint / Mint (minute whitening, non mensionable for the regular collector) most of my sells are like this
Mint (not a single scratch, smudge or even whitening) even though some sales are mint, i rather advertise them as near mint/mint and put in the description that i feel it is mint, but to be safe i advertised it as nm/mnt
Gem Mint (best of the best, I would have had to pull it myself and it must be absolutely flawless) i have never sold one, because i don’t dare to be so bold.
If you are already going out of your way to explain what the damage is, you’re already doing better than your average eBay seller! Labeling it as anything other than mint and explaining the damage is more than sufficient.