We grade to TCGplayer's Card Conditioning Standards. It is public and free, so rather than restate it here and risk getting it subtly wrong, we link it — you can read the same definitions we use.
On a marketplace with hundreds of sellers, "Near Mint" is one option among several. Here it is a single seller's word, so it deserves explaining.
Cards are recorded as Near Mint by default, and that default is overridden by hand when a card is not. So Near Mint on this shelf means "scanned, and nothing was wrong with it" — not "graded by a third party". Cards that are visibly played are marked down; you will find Lightly Played and worse on the shelf, set one at a time.
Nothing here is professionally graded or slabbed unless the listing says so.
This one is easy to get wrong, so plainly: for older sets you are looking at our own scan of the actual card. For sets from Sword & Shield onward you are looking at the publisher's catalogue image of that card, not a photograph of the copy you will receive.
The split exists because older catalogue art can misrepresent a specific copy — for the earliest sets the only hosted image is the 1st Edition print, which an unlimited card does not have. We are working toward real photographs everywhere.
Tell us within 30 days — see returns. A photo settles it fastest.
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