**Goldmine Record Grading Chart — Free One-Page Printable**

> A printable one-page Goldmine grading flowchart for vinyl: disc and sleeve side by side, with the question to ask at each step. Free, no email, print straight from the page.

Source: https://vinylai.app/print/record-grading-chart/

[Print shop](https://vinylai.app/print/)

# Goldmine grading flowchart

One sheet, disc and sleeve together. Print it and put it where records get graded — most disputes between buyers and sellers are two people applying the same words to different things.

Print this sheet

Free to print, to hand out and to put on your own site. Grades follow the Goldmine standard, which is what Discogs and most of the trade use — so a grade spoken across a counter means the same thing to both parties. More on applying it: [the grading guide](https://vinylai.app/guides/vinyl-grading-guide/).

## Record grading at a glance — Goldmine standard

Grade the disc and the sleeve separately. Quote the disc first.

| Grade | The record | The sleeve |
| --- | --- | --- |
| MMint | Absolutely perfect in every way. Almost always means sealed and never played — most sellers avoid the grade entirely, and a used record is not Mint. | Perfect: no ring wear, no seam splits, no creases, no writing. |
| NMNear Mint | Looks as if it just left the shop. Shiny surface, no scuffs visible when tilted to a light, no marks on the label, plays without added noise. | No creasing, no ring wear, no splits. A cut-out mark or a small price sticker is usually the most it carries. |
| VG+Very Good Plus | Slight signs of handling that do not affect the listening: faint scuffs that do not tick, light paper marks from a sleeve. Surface noise is not obvious. | Slight ring wear or a soft corner; a small seam split at the bottom is sometimes tolerated at this grade, and should be stated. |
| VGVery Good | Visible marks. Surface noise is audible, especially in quiet passages and lead-ins, but the music comes through clearly and does not skip. | Obvious ring wear, creasing, a seam split, or writing. Still intact. |
| G+Good Plus | Plays through without skipping, but noise is constant and intrudes. Scratches you can feel with a fingernail. | Heavily worn: splits, taped seams, writing, water marks. |
| GGood | Plays through, noisily. Bought as a placeholder until a better copy turns up, or because the pressing is scarce enough that any copy has value. | Barely holding together. |
| FFair | Plays but may skip. Value only where the record itself is rare. | Damaged, possibly incomplete. |
| PPoor | Cracked, badly warped, or unplayable. | Destroyed. |

### Six questions, in this order

1. **Is it still sealed, and is the seal beyond doubt?**Mint — and check the seal before you pay for it.Take it out and look at the disc.
2. **Tilted to a light, does the surface show any scuffs at all?**Not Near Mint. Continue.Near Mint if the label and sleeve agree.
3. **Do the marks you can see make a noise you can hear?**Not VG+. Continue.VG+ territory.
4. **Does the noise sit under the music, or over it?**Over it: Good Plus at best.Under it, audible in quiet parts: Very Good.
5. **Does it skip, repeat, or stick anywhere?**Fair at best, whatever it looks like.Keep the grade you reached.
6. **Is the sleeve a worse grade than the disc?**Quote both, disc first: "VG+ / VG".One grade covers both.

### Three rules that settle most arguments

- **Grade what you see and hear, not what you paid.** A scarce record in Good is still Good.
- **Visual grading is a grade with an asterisk.** If it has not been played, say so — "VG+ (visual)" is honest; "VG+" is a claim about sound.
- **Say the fault out loud.** A named seam split or a stated tick almost never becomes a dispute. An unmentioned one almost always does.

vinylai.app/print/record-grading-chart/ Free to print and share · Goldmine grading standard

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HTML version: https://vinylai.app/print/record-grading-chart/
Structured data for this site: https://vinylai.app/api/v1/openapi.json · https://vinylai.app/llms.txt
Free to quote and reuse with a link back to the source URL above (CC BY 4.0).