In the previous Collectibles 101, which focused on 5 general tips and advice for investing into Collectibles, one of my key factors was taking care of your collectibles.

Obviously, caring for your own objects is easy once you understand how best to protect them. However, when buying assets, how can you tell a general idea of quality? Obviously, the best situation when buying collectibles is to meet in person and see the product in person, and the next best is to see a video of the collectible in a full 360. What happens when you can't do that though?

In this Online age, you do not have the advantage, as the seller provides pictures, and oftentimes in eBay listings, these can be difficult to navigate or see properly due to angles and lighting. Many times though, if you're like me on eBay, you're finding a collectible with hours left, and no real time to ask a person for a video or additional images. Oftentimes it comes down to the images the seller has already given, which, oftentimes are simply a poorly lit photograph.

In trading cards for example, there are different grades and scales of quality and condition, which are generally agreed upon levels of condition for each card. There are two types, one appears to be an EU/Japanese grading method which involves phrases like Good, Very Good, Excellent, etc. and then there is the US/EU version which consists of Near Mint, Lightly Played, Moderately Played, Heavily Played, and Damaged. (And of course Mint)

These conditions are usually pretty well described:

• Near Mint is basically pack fresh, with maybe a very minor, mostly unnoticeable blemish. 
• Lightly Played can have scuffing, but generally has fine edges, no creases, and very few scratches if any.
• Moderately Played can have some minor creases, like border creases, small dents, and bad corners.
• Heavily Played can be fairly creased, and even stained, but most of the card needs to still be in good condition
• Damaged is a catch all for everything below this point, and includes any cards with tears or major creases as well.

You can check out a guideline provided by TCGPlayer here, specifically for card related collectibles.

You can generally use a similar type of system for other products, for instance, baseballs have similar grading parameters as cards, believe it or not, such as scuffing, marks, cuts, but then it has its own factors, like the stitch, and of course, autograph authenticity.

Ultimately, these act as subjective guidelines for a card or collectible though. If you look on eBay, you can find people claiming Near Mint on a card with dirt, whitening, and scuffed surfaces. You can also find somebody who is particularly critical selling a Moderately Played card which has some scuffing in the corner of an otherwise perfect card. Likewise, you can check out any collectible and you'll find sellers with overvalued, biased, and not very good condition product that they charge a premium for. 

By knowing the condition guidelines for an item/collectible, you can easily search for values, for instance, with many card games, you can utilize TCGPlayer to find the market prices of many of these different conditions. 

Always buy below the condition level that they claim, and the condition level that you think it is. The reason for this is because photographs are deceptive, and we, as buyers, have a tendency to overlook minor issues. If you believe a Collectible is slightly damaged, do NOT pay the highest price you'd be willing to pay for it for ONLY that damage. There is quite possibly (and oftentimes likely) other damage if there is any sort of blemishes or imperfections. 

This protects you from purchasing a collectible at above its value. This is always always always going to help you make money on your investments, and it's going to keep you from jumping at every single product you see. If the item you're looking at is valued at 300 in the condition you can see, and there's only 1 or 2 pictures with not every detail shown, you should not pay 300 for that item. What if there's a scratch where that lens flare is? What if the item has a small dent in it that the camera just didn't pick up? Your loss. 

The key words there are your loss. You're either out time, having to return an item with hassle that could lead to negative feedback. Or you're out a bit of return on your investment. 

Investing is a sort of like a game where you get to try to determine your starting point, and then see how much it returns. Ultimately, there's more to it than that, but that's the general gist. When you buy a stock or an item at one price point, you're betting it will go higher. The difference is, stocks are much more likely to be 'market price' whereas collectibles can vary greatly. This is especially true for short term flippers, who buy an item under market and then flip it for slightly more. These types of investors could immediately be looking at a loss. Other short term investors could have their investment horizon too far out because of a misjudged condition on a product. In some cases, certain collectibles become difficult, or even impossible to sell at certain damage levels.

This is an important distinction for cards, that evolves into a more general distinction:

There's a difference in how buyers and sellers choose these conditions based on their target audience. For instance, in cards, if you are buying for the sake of grading, many of the NM and LP cards are going to get grades ranging from 7s to 9s. If you're looking for a 10, you're likely going to need to do significantly more research and put in significantly effort into finding any and all blemishes. 

Some sellers cater to grade collectors, and oftentimes, the legitimate, larger ones WILL be accurate to their claims of PSA 9 or 10, but there are equal, if not more sellers who will claim a card is definitely a PSA 9 to get their price up and sell at a premium when they likely know it won't get much better than an 8. If you are buying with grading in mind, you need to distinguish these and do your due diligence.

Many, if not all sellers, are not graders, and not (professional) collectors. They have sentimental value to their card, and it has just one small bend, of course it's near mint! These sellers are absolutely fine sellers to buy from as a collector interested in acquiring binder cards, for instance. A graded collector should basically turn the other way and run from not just that listing, but almost every listing that seller has as well. This is because these sellers tend to have a bias towards the condition and value of their cards that is likely not accurate.

This same mindset extends into buying for collecting and buying for flipping: If you are buying to flip, you need to be absolutely sure of your appraisal of that object/collectible, AND you need to get it below market value. To put it frankly, by investing in this way, many are operating on a chance to gain a specific amount, or lose a specific amount, with no in-between. If you are buying to collect, and hold for long term, this is significantly less important, and there is more wiggle room for a 'profitable' investment. For instance, many products WILL appreciate, even if you misjudge condition, you will still gain value in your investment, just at a slower rate.

This is important for I think many investors to hear though: a slower win is still a win. You didn't make the best investment in these cases, but you made a good one, regardless. Investing for many newcomers tends to be very fast paced, but it's important to remember that little wins and slow wins are still wins, many of us min-max and try to get the biggest, fastest return and if we don't, we feel we failed. You aren't failing, you're just succeeding slower. Moreover, slower investing is not necessarily a weaker investment strategy. In fact, the people who "Lose it all" tend to fall in that fast paced category, rather than the hodler category.

If you're buying for grading, OR flipping you will need to do a lot more research and work in order to ensure you make decent gains. In this situation, holders and non-graders have a huge advantage, (especially in the card industry, other collectibles, such as baseballs and signature based collectibles are much more valuable authenticated.)

Thanks for taking the time to read, hopefully you have a bit more of an idea on collectible conditions, why they're important, and how to pinpoint the purchase of a collectible. Because of the broad spectrum of what is a collectible, I use the card conditions as an example of these types of conditions. By knowing your collectible's conditions, you have an advantage in figuring out general market values, previous market trends, and an idea of the rate of return on an item.