Vol. VII · No. 24 · June 2026
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EN NL FR
72 Records

House guide · § a

How we grade,
and what it
actually means.

We use the standard Goldmine scale — Mint through Poor, eight grades. We apply it conservatively. Every record is graded by hand, after cleaning, by one of two people. We grade the vinyl and the sleeve separately, in that order, because they tend to wear differently.

The eight grades

From sealed to barely.

Mint

Mint

M · still sealed, in theory

On vinyl: Genuinely Mint: sealed from the pressing plant, no warp, no wear. We use this grade rarely — only when we sell a copy we've never opened. We don't break seals to grade.

On sleeve: Factory-sealed, untouched. No ring wear, no creases, no price stickers other than the original.

In your hands:

The recording as it was mastered. No surface noise, no clicks.

Near Mint

Near Mint

NM · plays like new

On vinyl: Opened, played carefully, treated well. May have a faint shadow of a hairline under angled light; no audible noise.

On sleeve: Looks barely touched. Crisp corners, no ring wear, no writing. The grade we use most often for clean second-hand from a single-owner collection.

In your hands:

No audible surface noise on a clean cartridge at moderate volume. A single faint pop is possible per side; never on a quiet passage.

Very Good Plus

Very Good Plus

VG+ · the workhorse grade

On vinyl: Light hairlines visible under angled light; plays cleanly. The vinyl is the workhorse grade — most of our jazz, soul and reggae lives here.

On sleeve: Light ring wear, possibly a small split at the bottom seam, faint corner wear, no writing.

In your hands:

Very low-level surface noise audible only between tracks or during silent passages, never over the music.

Very Good

Very Good

VG · honestly played

On vinyl: Visible playing wear — light scuffs and surface marks. Plays through without skips; you can hear it's been listened to.

On sleeve: Worn at the corners, ring wear is clear, may have a name on the back or a small price sticker.

In your hands:

Consistent low-level surface noise, especially on quiet passages. A few light pops per side. No skips, no sticks.

Good Plus

Good Plus

G+ · a player's copy

On vinyl: Played hard, but loved. Scuffs visible across most of the surface. Plays through; the music is there.

On sleeve: Serious wear — split seams, taped repairs, writing. Still intact, but well-handled.

In your hands:

Consistent crackle throughout. Music sits above it. For rare records, this is what we'd buy.

Good

Good

G · the music is the point

On vinyl: Heavy surface marks. Plays through but you're listening past the noise. We grade things to Good honestly — half of our G+ copies could be called G if we wanted to be punitive.

On sleeve: Writing, splits, possibly water tide-marks. The sleeve has lived a life.

In your hands:

The record, through a hedge.

Fair

Fair

F · honest condition, priced as such

On vinyl: Played a lot, by someone who loved it. Constant crackle. Priced as a listener, not a collector. If we wouldn't put it on the deck for our own pleasure, we wouldn't list it.

On sleeve: Heavily worn, possibly partially split. Held together by good intentions.

In your hands:

Heavy crackle that occasionally crowds the music. May have a short skip we'd flag in the description.

Poor

Poor

P · rarities only

On vinyl: We only list at Poor when the record itself is rare enough that someone might want it as a placeholder for a better copy, or for the sleeve, or for the labels.

On sleeve: Often the reason the record is listed at all — battered but historic.

In your hands:

Depends. We'll tell you, with photographs and a description of what's wrong.

Footnotes on grading

Edge cases,
called out plainly.

Seam splits. A clean seam split — straight along the bottom or top, under two inches — drops the sleeve half a grade. Multi-edge splits or splits past three inches drop it a full grade.

Ring wear. Light ring wear lives at VG+ on the sleeve; a clearly defined ring drops it to VG. Heavy ring wear with visible cardboard exposure drops it to G+ or below.

Writing on labels. A previous owner's name or initials on a label is a half-grade penalty on the vinyl side, regardless of play condition. Heavy writing or stamp marks drop it a full grade.

Original inner sleeves. Original printed inner sleeves are noted in the description; we don't grade them separately. A missing or replaced inner doesn't change the listed sleeve grade.

Promo copies. White-label and promo copies are graded on the same scale, with the promo nature noted. A small drill-hole or corner-cut is mentioned in the description, never hidden in the grade.

The threshold

When we
won't grade something.

Some records don't make it to the shelf. Mold or biological damage on the sleeve or inner — never. Severe warps that affect tracking — never. Deep groove damage that skips or sticks across multiple tracks — never.

If a record is rare enough that someone might still want it in poor shape, we'll list it at Poor with photographs and a written description of every defect. Anything below that goes into the pay-what-you-want crate at the door, or back to the donor.

Questions about a specific record's condition? Write to us at hello@72records.be .