Mint, Like new, very good , to good condition on-line auctions

[jonebone]

If you're condition sensitive you have to ask. You'll almost always be disappointed with a vague "Like New" description and a stock photo. You'll be forced to pay return shipping to get a refund, so asking questions upfront is obviously the way to go.

It's annoying, but not as annoying as losing money and doing a return.

[wiggyx]

If you're condition sensitive you have to ask. You'll almost always be disappointed with a vague "Like New" description and a stock photo. You'll be forced to pay return shipping to get a refund, so asking questions upfront is obviously the way to go.

It's annoying, but not as annoying as losing money and doing a return.

What this guy said.

Also, you just have to be aware that "mint" for one person may very well be "VG-" for another. As much as I don't really care for the VGA, they at least offer a consistent source with regards to the grading. Of course this means you must purchase brand new games that have been hermetically sealed in a plastic coffin for what are often outrageously inflated prices.

With Joe Blow eBay seller, who knows. I've tried to adjust my expectations over the years. If I'm gonna bid on something that's fairly pricey and I'm not exactly sure about the condition based on the info provided, then I either pass or try and get more detailed info from the seller. Usually one response from a seller will give you a pretty good indication of whether or not he/she is a collector with a collector's sense of what is excellent condition and what isn't, or a mother cleaning out the attic while her son is away in college.

I've been on both sides of this issue, and it's not much fun for either party. I consider myself a fairly serious collector, and I've still run into one or two people that are incredibly picky about the condition of the games that I sold to them. Good rule of thumb, DO NOT list items as mint, ever. Mint gets tossed around way too often and is almost never accurate. The inverse should also throw up a red flag. If someone insists that a game is mint and only has one picture in their auction and the ol' "what you see is what you get. No refunds.", then it's probably safe to say that that game is pretty far from mint.


I do feel your pain. It's tough to know exactly what you're getting when shopping online :/

[Casati]

Since the online buyer isn't there to view the goods in person, a good online seller will note any wear, at least by not grading it as like new or mint if there's some wear. Also annoying is when the seller lists it as "like new" in the header then hedges in the description with a lower grade such as "good".

If it's a rare item that I get for a bargain, I tend not to care that much about a slight grade discrepancy, but I get annoyed if it's a common, and I pay a couple dollars premium based on their better grade and it turns out to be average wear or worse.

I agree it would be best if all Ebay sellers used the same grading guidelines, or at least the same gradings, like they do on Amazon.