Guides

Grading vinyl records for eBay: the Goldmine scale, eBay's nine grades, and what to do about EX and Poor

By Winston, Comic Collector Enthusiast. 27 September 2026.

A record listing carries two grades, one for the disc and one for the sleeve, and record sellers usually write them on the Goldmine scale. eBay's own grading fields use a list that is close to Goldmine but not the same. Most grades carry straight across. At two points they do not, and a seller who types a Goldmine grade into eBay's field without checking can end up with a value eBay does not take.

This is what each grade means, how the two lists line up, and what to do with the grades that do not match.

The Goldmine scale in plain words

Goldmine is the record trade's own scale, and Discogs grades on it too. It has eight grades, best first: M, NM, VG+, VG, G+, G, F and P. The descriptions below are the common convention in plain words, not an official text, and sellers draw the lines a little differently. When a record sits between two grades, most sellers give it the lower one: a buyer who gets a better record than the listing promised rarely complains.

• Mint (M). Perfect. By the usual convention a Mint record has never been played. Discogs' grading guide describes Mint the same way: never played, possibly still sealed. A sealed copy is better described as factory sealed, as below.
• Near Mint (NM, also written M-). Nearly perfect. No marks you can see, no surface noise, and a sleeve with no creases, splits or writing. In the usual convention this is the top grade for a record that has been played.
• Very Good Plus (VG+). Played and looked after. A few light scuffs or faint marks that do not affect play, and little or no surface noise. The sleeve shows slight wear at the corners or the seams.
• Very Good (VG). Clearly played. Surface noise you can hear in the quiet passages, light scratches, some groove wear. The sleeve may have ring wear, a seam split, writing or a sticker.
• Good Plus (G+) and Good (G). Plays through without skipping, with noise throughout. The sleeve has heavy wear, splits, tape or writing. G+ is the better end of Good.
• Fair (F) and Poor (P). Cracked, badly warped, skips or repeats. The sleeve is torn, stained or missing pieces. These are sold for the cover, or as a copy to play until a better one turns up, and priced that way.

Play the record before you grade it if you can. Surface noise is something you hear, and a photograph does not show it; the Discogs guide quotes Discogs' own advice to the same effect.

eBay's list has nine grades, not eight

eBay's Records category, 176985, grades a record in two fields, Record Grading and Sleeve Grading (it also has an Inlay Condition field on the same list). eBay's Taxonomy API marks both as selection only, which means eBay takes a value from its own list and nothing else, and marks both as recommended rather than required. The list is the same for each, in this order:

1. Mint (M)
2. Near Mint (NM or M-)
3. Excellent (EX)
4. Very Good Plus (VG+)
5. Very Good (VG)
6. Good Plus (G+)
7. Good (G)
8. Fair (F)
9. Worn (W)

Seven of the nine are Goldmine grades in eBay's spelling. Two are not: Excellent (EX), between Near Mint and Very Good Plus, and Worn (W), at the bottom below Fair. And one Goldmine grade is missing: eBay's list has no Poor.

Here is how the two line up, and the eBay item condition Point and Sell sets for each record grade. eBay's conditions for Music are Brand New, Like New, Very Good, Good and Acceptable, and a record uses those:

Only a sealed record is Brand New here. A Mint record out of its wrap is Like New, the same as Near Mint.

What to do about Excellent (EX)

EX is not a Goldmine grade. If you grade on Goldmine you never need it: give the record the Goldmine grade you would have given anyway, NM or VG+, both of which are on eBay's list. Putting EX in the field and a Goldmine grade in the description mixes two scales in one listing, and a buyer who knows Goldmine will read the Goldmine one.

What to do about Poor (P)

Poor has no place on eBay's list, so a field that takes only eBay's values will not take it. The nearest value is Worn (W), eBay's bottom rung, below Fair, which is where Poor sits on Goldmine. Put Worn in the field and write Poor (P) in the condition description, in your own words, with the reason: a crack, a skip on side two, a sleeve with the back missing. A record that is honestly Poor is described better in a sentence than in a field.

The sleeve is graded on its own

Sleeve Grading takes the same nine values as Record Grading. Grade the sleeve as a separate object: ring wear, seam splits, writing, stickers, creases, a cut corner. The two grades are often written together, record first, as in VG+/VG, and buyers read them both.

eBay's list has no value for a generic or plain company sleeve and none for a record with no sleeve at all. Say so in the description. The Records category also has an Inlay Condition field with the same nine values.

A sealed record has a sleeve grade and no record grade

A factory sealed record has no disc grade: nobody has seen the disc. Leave Record Grading empty, grade the sleeve and the wrap as you see them, and say factory sealed. On eBay a sealed record is Brand New. Do not call the disc Mint because the wrap is on; a sealed record can still be warped, and the buyer who opens it will find out.

CDs and cassettes use the same list

eBay's Music CDs category, 176984, has CD Grading, Case Condition and Inlay Condition. Its Cassettes category, 176983, has Cassette Condition, Case Condition and Inlay Condition. Every one of them takes the same nine values as the record fields, selection only and recommended rather than required. The same advice carries over: grade the disc or the tape, the case and the inlay separately, leave EX alone if you grade on Goldmine, and use Worn for Poor with the word Poor in your description.

How Point and Sell fits in

On a record batch the grades are yours to state. You set a default record grade and a default sleeve grade in Settings and pick a grade on any row that differs, both from the eight Goldmine grades; EX and Worn are not offered. Any grade that is not on the Goldmine scale is refused at approval rather than quietly mapped, and so is a record row with no record grade or no sleeve grade. Nothing on the site grades a record from its photographs.

When the eBay file is built, each grade goes into Record Grading and Sleeve Grading in eBay's spelling. A Poor grade is written as Worn (W) in those two fields, and the condition description keeps the Goldmine grades as you gave them, Poor included: Record Poor (P), sleeve Fair (F) (Goldmine). The item condition follows the record grade, as the table above shows.

A row marked sealed has no record grade: the record grade box on the review screen says sealed, Record Grading is left empty, the item condition is Brand New and the condition description says Factory sealed. It still needs a sleeve grade.

If the batch also goes to Discogs, the inventory file writes the same grades in Discogs' own text (a sealed record is left out of it, since Discogs needs a media condition), and Discogs' list includes Poor (P). A Poor record is Poor on Discogs and Worn on eBay. The Discogs guide has the file, and the records guide covers the rest of a record listing.

What it does not do, as of today. It never writes Excellent (EX). It does not write Inlay Condition for a record. It does not write CD Grading, Cassette Condition, Case Condition or Inlay Condition for a CD or a cassette: the condition of a CD or cassette listing is the item condition you state. It does not grade anything. And no record listed from here has been through a live eBay upload yet, so check the first listing of your first crate before you send the rest.

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Sources

eBay's values for Record Grading, Sleeve Grading, Inlay Condition, CD Grading, Case Condition and Cassette Condition, and whether each is required, were read from eBay's Taxonomy API for categories 176985, 176984 and 176983 on 27 September 2026; the list above and the table are rendered from that reading. eBay's five Music conditions are as the disc guide gives them. The grade descriptions are the common Goldmine convention in plain words, not an official text, and Discogs' description of Mint is from its grading guide as the Discogs guide quotes it. The advice on EX, Poor and sealed records is one working seller's practice, not a rule. What Point and Sell does is its code on the day this was published.