Comment on grade,
et ce que ça
veut vraiment dire.

Sur le vinyle : 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.

Sur la pochette : Factory-sealed, untouched. No ring wear, no creases, no price stickers other than the original.

Entre vos mains :

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

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

Sur la pochette : 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.

Entre vos mains :

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

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

Sur la pochette : Light ring wear, possibly a small split at the bottom seam, faint corner wear, no writing.

Entre vos mains :

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

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

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

Entre vos mains :

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

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

Sur la pochette : Serious wear — split seams, taped repairs, writing. Still intact, but well-handled.

Entre vos mains :

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

Sur le vinyle : 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.

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

Entre vos mains :

The record, through a hedge.

Sur le vinyle : 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.

Sur la pochette : Heavily worn, possibly partially split. Held together by good intentions.

Entre vos mains :

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

Sur le vinyle : 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.

Sur la pochette : Often the reason the record is listed at all — battered but historic.

Entre vos mains :

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