The Grading Scale Discogs Publishes — and the Grade That Is Not On It
On Discogs Marketplace, condition is graded using a named, published scale that Discogs says is the Goldmine Standard.
What Discogs states
Discogs' own documentation is explicit about the standard it applies to items listed for sale:
`Discogs uses the Goldmine Standard for grading the condition of items listed in the Marketplace.`
The scale it publishes runs, from best to worst:
- M — Mint
- NM or M- — Near Mint
- VG+ — Very Good Plus
- VG — Very Good
- G / G+ — Good and Good Plus
- P / F — Poor and Fair
Two features of that list are easy to miss, and both change how a listing reads.
The first is that Near Mint carries two abbreviations, `NM` and `M-`, for one grade. A listing marked `M-` is not claiming something between Mint and Near Mint; it is using the other name for Near Mint.
The second is that the bottom of the scale is presented in pairs. Discogs discusses Good and Good Plus under one shared definition, and Poor and Fair under another; its Marketplace fields nevertheless accept G+, G, F and P as distinct condition values.
Discogs also publishes approximate value anchors expressed relative to Near Mint: VG+ around half of the Near Mint price, VG around a quarter, Good and Good Plus around 10 to 15 per cent, and Poor and Fair around 0 to 5 per cent. Those are guidance on price, not a second scale.
Media and sleeve are graded separately
Discogs stores media condition and sleeve condition separately. They are therefore two condition fields, not one grade for the whole object.
Where EX is not
`EX`, for Excellent, is not among the condition values Discogs publishes or accepts for its Marketplace. Between Near Mint and Very Good the published scale has Very Good Plus, and nothing else.
The sources used here do not define `EX` or equate it with `VG+`. That establishes only what Discogs publishes and accepts; it does not define how other grading systems use the term.
A note on sources
- The statement that the Marketplace uses the Goldmine Standard, the scale itself and the value anchors relative to Near Mint are from Discogs' own Marketplace grading documentation.
- That the Marketplace accepts `G+`, `G`, `F` and `P` as separate condition values is from Discogs' documentation for listing items for sale, which is a different page from the grading guide and does not group them.
- The scale is quoted as Discogs presents it, including its pairing of Good with Good Plus and Poor with Fair in the definitions. Goldmine's own published guide has not been consulted directly here, so no claim is made about how that publication sets the scale out; what is reported is what Discogs states and prints.
- No source consulted here documents `EX` as a grade in that scale, or defines it as equivalent to any grade in it. That is a statement about the documentation used, not a claim that no grading system anywhere uses the term — several evidently do.
- Grades and abbreviations are given exactly as the source writes them.
