Vinyl record grading, explained
Every used record you'll ever buy or sell is priced off one thing: its grade. The industry standard is the Goldmine scale, and learning it takes ten minutes. Getting it wrong costs real money — the difference between a VG and a VG+ copy of the same record is often 2× the price.
The scale
- Mint (M)
- Perfect. Usually still sealed. Many dealers refuse to use this grade for anything that's been opened — treat "Mint" listings for played records with suspicion.
- Near Mint (NM or M−)
- Looks and plays like it left the shop yesterday: glossy vinyl, no marks under a bright light, sleeve sharp at the corners. Most price guides quote NM values. Realistically, a small fraction of vintage records qualify.
- Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Light signs of careful use — a faint hairline that doesn't sound, minor sleeve wear. Plays clean. The sweet spot for collectors; typically 50% of NM value.
- Very Good (VG)
- Visible scuffs and light scratches that produce surface noise in quiet passages, but the music always wins. Around 25% of NM value. This is where most well-loved records honestly sit.
- Good / Good Plus (G, G+)
- Plays through without skipping but with significant noise; sleeve may be split or written on. 10–15% of NM. Fine for listening copies of common titles, worthless for rarities you plan to resell — unless the record is genuinely rare, where even a G copy finds a buyer.
- Poor / Fair (P, F)
- Cracked, warped, skips. Wall art.
How to grade your own records
- Use a strong, direct light. Tilt the record under it; scuffs and hairlines show as you rotate.
- The fingernail test. If a scratch catches your fingernail, it will almost certainly click or pop — that's an instant VG or below.
- Play-grade anything valuable. Visual grading misses groove wear from heavy old tonearms: a record can look VG+ and sound like frying bacon. Conversely, some marks are silent.
- Grade the sleeve separately. Standard notation is vinyl/sleeve, e.g. "VG+/VG". Ring wear, seam splits, writing, and cut-out marks all knock the sleeve down.
- When in doubt, grade down. Buyers remember sellers who undergrade, and dealers respect sellers who don't argue every hairline upward.
What it means in dollars
A quick worked example. Say a first pressing has a $100 Near Mint history on Discogs:
| NM | $100 |
| VG+ | ~$50 |
| VG | ~$25 |
| G+ | ~$10–15 |
And remember from our selling guide: a store pays 30–50% of those numbers in cash.