Questions in this section.
Grading vinyl records.
Grading a vinyl record is inherently subjective but knowing what to look for will help you accurately determine what condition a record is in.
In fact it s essential to your collection piece s quality.
It will ultimately decide what you pay for an album or what someone will be willing to pay you.
Many ebay auctions and stand alone web sites swear by it.
To determine a vinyl record album s value the most important factor is its condition.
Never been played and usually sealed.
Vinyl grading isn t an exact science but it s certainly a useful metric.
Over the years the goldmine grading guide has tried to standardize this.
Make sure the combination of answers is plausible in real life to get an accurate grade e g.
Since grading vinyl records can be subjective there have been some effort to standardize a grading guide.
What is the goldmine grading system.
Goldmine vinyl grading system explained in detail goldmine is the standard in record grading.
Goldmine grading system defined.
To visually grade a record inspect the sleeve and any inserts lyric sheets posters etc for ring wear discoloration sticker residue and seam splits.
The condition of the vinyl record and the album jacket both affect the price.
These grades were established from various other resources pertaining to collecting for example coin book comics and card collecting goldmine magazine first published a grading scale in 1974.
Contentsthe vinyl grading systempoor p or fair f good g very good vg very good plus vg excellent e near mint nm mint m when shopping for used records understanding the way vinyl is graded is important.
You might get weird grades while messing with the answers.
Near mint nm the record has been on a shelf between other records.
Mint m absolutely perfect in every way.
The record itself is in brand new condition with no surface marks or deterioration in sound quality.
Goldmine developed the guide below and it is now the most widely used guide for the buying and selling of vinyl albums.
When buying or selling vinyl records it s easy to be subjective about the condition a record is in.
It has undergone changes through out the years.
The goldmine grading system was 1st created in the early years of record collecting.
A badly warped record is most of the time if not all.
There are no marks on the vinyl and the whole package is complete.
Fortunately the excellent record collector magazine provide a grading guide which is now widely accepted.
The vinyl looks glossy and clearly has only been played a few times.
But we recognize that there are many variables to grading a record.
The goldmine grading system explained the goldmine grading system was 1st created in the early years of record collecting.