| Near Mint | Perfect, no flaws, you'll never look for an upgrade. |
| Mint Minus (M-) | Very insignificant marks and flaws, certainly wouldn't affect play. |
| Very Good + (VG+) | More noticeable scuffs and marks, still wouldn't be audibly detectable, still a really nice record. |
| Very Good (VG) | My (VG) will still be a decent record with some shine left to it, will likely have light surface scratches which may or may not be audibly detectable, noise would definitely not be overwhelming or perhaps even noticeable. |
| Very Good Minus (VG-) | Will have noticeable wear but has some shine left. Should play with light noise, if any. |
| Used | This includes grades down to FAIR/GOOD. My "USED" record is typically ugly but playable, and defects are not noted. Most are modestly priced and will serve as good player copies. I listen to a part of all "USED" records and if it seems that there is a noticeable noise I'll grade as "NOISY". |
| Noisy | A "USED" record with noticeable noise but still playable. |
| Rough | A filler copy only. Will play with irritating noise. "ROUGH" records will be few and far between and will typically be hard-to-find items. |