Condition Codes - The Theory of Relativity

Somewhere in every store and auction listing is a word that supposedly gives the buyer an idea of the condition of the merchandise being sold. This one little word often makes or breaks the sale in the eyes of the buyer. There are three major problems with regard to this single word description that I feel warrant a little clarification. Once you realize what you are looking at you may want to look a little further into the auction before you make a decision on whether the item is worth bidding on.


The most important issue here is that all of these words are pure speculation and quite honestly Sales sites would do well to drop this code from the submission forms entirely. Having been a stamp collector and also dealt for years with trading cards, I have seen some real knock down battles over the difference between good, very good and excellent. The same goes for a lot of other speculative and subjective adjectives. Also entering into this arena of confusion is the fact that many older pieces in every category can be said to be in excellent condition(considering age and what's available on the market), if they were newer you might call them poor.

You are probably asking yourselves about now - What is this guy talking about? My point here is to encourage you to ignore the almost inevitably confusing condition code and look carefully at the picture, read the sellers description and above all when in doubt about something please ask. If you don't get an answer, pass it by. LET THE BUYER BEWARE!!!

Thanks for listening.

(Updated for relevance 06/09)