Graded Vinyl Records: Grading Scale, Slabs and Cost

The vinyl grading scale almost everyone uses is the Goldmine Grading Guide, published by the American collector magazine Goldmine. Discogs states plainly that it uses the Goldmine Standard for grading items in its marketplace, which is why the same abbreviations turn up on eBay, Discogs and dealer sites.

• Mint (M). Absolutely perfect in every way. Goldmine says it should never be used unless more than one person agrees the record truly is in this condition. There is no set percentage of Near Mint value for Mint; it is negotiated.
• Near Mint (NM or M-). Looks as if it has just been opened for the first time. Shiny, no visible defects, no writing or stickers on the label, no spindle marks, no off-centre pressing, and silent surfaces when played. Covers have no creases, ring wear or seam splits. A record does not have to be unplayed to be NM.
• Very Good Plus (VG+). In Goldmine's words, except for a couple of minor things this would be Near Mint. Light scuffs or very light scratches that do not affect listening; slight warps that do not affect sound; barely noticeable ring wear. A VG+ cover may have minor seam wear or a split under an inch at the bottom.
• Very Good (VG). The same faults, more obvious. Groove wear visible on sight, light scratches deep enough to feel with a fingernail, surface noise in quiet passages and at the start and end of songs, but not overpowering the music. Labels may be marked with writing, tape or stickers.
• Good (G) and Good Plus (G+). Plays through without skipping, but with significant surface noise, groove wear and a worn label. Covers have obvious seam splits and heavy ring wear.
• Fair (F) and Poor (P). Cracked, badly warped, or skipping and repeating. Covers barely hold the record.

The scale applies to singles and albums alike.

The reason the scale matters is that the money attached to it is published, not guessed.

Every price guide quotes Near Mint. Goldmine states this directly: its books list values for records in Near Mint condition, and records in lesser condition are worth a fraction of those prices. The fractions are:

• Very Good Plus — generally about 50 per cent of Near Mint
• Very Good — no more than 25 per cent
• Good and Good Plus — 10 to 15 per cent
• Poor and Fair — 0 to 5 per cent, if they sell at all

Goldmine adds that Very Good is the lowest grade most collectors will pay more than bargain-bin prices for, and that in its own price guides with more than one price, Very Good is the lowest price listed.

So a title listed at $200 is roughly a $100 record in VG+, a $50 record in VG, and a $20 to $30 record in Good. Run that arithmetic before you list anything, and before you take an offer personally.

Most LPs are sold with two grades, one for the disc and one for the cover. Goldmine's own guides list a single grade because, as it puts it, albums without covers are worthless and covers without records are worthless.

For a mixed-grade copy — say a VG cover with a VG+ record — Goldmine suggests adding the two values together and dividing by two for a rough estimate.

Two cover rules are worth committing to memory. A cover with a cut-out marking — a drill hole, a clipped corner, a saw cut — can never be graded Near Mint, no matter how clean it is otherwise. And a VG+ cover is allowed a seam split of less than one inch at the bottom, which is the most vulnerable spot, but anything longer takes it down.

Discogs adds a category Goldmine does not need: Generic. A generic sleeve is a plain or company sleeve that is not specific to the release, and it needs no further grading because it adds little value and is easily replaced.

Goldmine is blunt about the main obstacle to the hobby: poor grading, and no consensus about what a VG+ or a Near Mint record actually is. Its advice to sellers is to grade conservatively and surprise the buyer with a better record than expected, rather than grade on wishful thinking and lose a customer.

The practical method:

• Grade under a strong light, held so the light rakes across the surface at a low angle. Daylight hides almost everything.
• Most records are graded visually, because dealers cannot play hundreds of thousands of discs. Scratches and warps are easy to see; groove wear from a badly aligned tone arm is subtle and is the one most often missed.
• Remember Goldmine's era rule: LPs from the 1950s to about 1971 tend to play better than they look, and from then to about 1989 they tend to play worse than they look.
• Always mention writing, tape, cut-out marks, minor seam splits and promo status, whatever grade you assign.

Our vinyl grading guide walks through the same grades with the simplified five-step scale used in the app.

Yes. Vinyl records can be graded in two ways: by the seller, using the Goldmine letter grades above, which is how almost every record is sold, or by a third-party company that seals the record in a labelled plastic case (a slab), the way PSA and CGC do for cards and comics. Two companies offer the second kind for records (both sites checked 2026-09-25):

• Vintage Media Grading (VMG). Grades 12-inch and 7-inch vinyl and LaserDiscs in a patented case that shows both the sleeve and the disc. Slabs start at $54.99 per record. It also offers ultrasonic cleaning, audio grading and soft grading.
• Audio Media Grading (AMG). Grades vinyl, CDs, cassettes and 8-tracks in a sealed, tamper-evident case. Vinyl starts at $75; CDs, cassettes and 8-tracks at $50. It works with JSA for authentication and guarantees the authenticity of what it encapsulates.

Neither company's price page lists turnaround times, so ask before you send anything valuable.

AMG publishes a ten-point scale. Placed next to the Goldmine letters used on Discogs and eBay, it lines up like this (AMG grading scale page, checked 2026-09-25):

• 10 Mint: perfect, never played, possibly still sealed. Goldmine: Mint.
• 9 Near Mint: no obvious signs of wear. Goldmine: Near Mint.
• 8 Excellent: very slight wear, light scuffs. Goldmine has no Excellent grade; it falls between NM and VG+.
• 7 Very Good Plus: light scuffs or very light scratches. Goldmine: VG+, generally about 50 per cent of the Near Mint price.
• 6 Very Good: obvious flaws, most of the factory gloss gone. Goldmine: VG, no more than 25 per cent.
• 5 Good: significant wear, heavy writing possible. Goldmine: G, 10 to 15 per cent.
• 4 Fair Plus, 3 Fair, 2 Poor Plus, 1 Poor: heavy damage down to barely present. Goldmine: Fair and Poor, 0 to 5 per cent.

Two points matter when you read a slab label. AMG grades sealed records on the cover and shrink wrap only, because the disc cannot be seen. Open records get separate sub-grades for Media and Packaging, which matches Goldmine's practice of grading disc and sleeve separately. An 8 is a grade that Goldmine sellers do not use, so do not convert it straight to Near Mint when you compare prices.

Popsike lists 111 completed auctions for "AMG graded" (checked 2026-09-25). The highest results show what slabbing is mostly used for: sealed copies and test pressings where the fee is small next to the value.

• Taylor Swift Record Store Day sealed LP, one of 3,750, AMG 8: $4,500, 22 April 2024
• Verbal Abuse, Just an American Band, test pressing, AMG 8: $2,500, 5 July 2026
• The Beatles, Yellow Submarine, sealed 1969 LP, AMG 8.0: $2,200 and $1,750, both 4 January 2026
• The Beatles, Abbey Road, sealed US pressing, AMG 8.0: $2,000, 10 November 2025
• The Beatles, White Album, sealed Los Angeles pressing, AMG 7.0: $2,000 and $1,750, both 4 January 2026
• Michael Jackson, Bad, sealed with hype sticker, AMG 9: $1,000, 9 May 2026

Two Yellow Submarine copies with the same AMG 8.0 grade selling $450 apart on the same day shows that a grade does not fix a price. Buyers still bid on the copy in front of them.

Only when the record is worth several times the fee and the buyer cannot inspect it in person. At $54.99 to $75 or more per record, slabbing a record that sells for $40 costs more than the record is worth.

There is also a practical cost. A slab is a sealed case, so playing the record means breaking it open, and the grade on the label then no longer covers the record. That suits sealed copies and display pieces better than records you want to play.

For everything else, Goldmine's advice to sellers is the useful part: grade conservatively, describe every flaw, and let the buyer be pleasantly surprised. Our how to tell if a record is valuable page helps you decide whether a record is worth grading at all.

Discogs record grading is the Goldmine scale above; Discogs does not use a scale of its own. What changes on Discogs is the format of the listing: a listing carries one grade for the media and another for the sleeve, and a plain or company sleeve can be marked Generic instead of graded.

Discogs is also where most buyers will compare your grade with other copies. Founded by Kevin Lewandowski in November 2000, it added a marketplace in 2005, and its database held over 19 million user-submitted release listings as of 2026 (Wikipedia, Discogs). Because the database and the grades are both user-supplied, a grade on Discogs is the seller's opinion, not a checked result.

That makes three habits worth keeping when you list:

• Grade conservatively, as Goldmine advises, and grade under a strong light held at a low angle.
• Write the reason for the grade in the comments: seam split and its length, writing on the label, cut-out marks, promo stamps.
• Match your copy to the exact release entry by catalogue number and runout codes, so buyers compare like with like. Our runout code guide explains how to read them.

If you want a third party to grade a record, two companies slab vinyl: Vintage Media Grading, from $54.99 per slab, and Audio Media Grading, vinyl from $75 (both sites checked 2026-09-25).