Conditions

A condition grades the physical state of a copy. This page explains where conditions come from and where you will meet them.

What a condition is

A condition is a named grade you give a copy: New, Like New, Used, Worn, Damaged. Every account starts with that ready made list, and it covers most collections well. The list is account wide and yours to change; see Manage item conditions.

Conditions belong to copies, never to items. Emma's two copies of the same comic are one Near Mint slab and one well read reading copy, and that difference is exactly what conditions capture.

Where conditions appear

You will meet the condition dropdown in three places:

• On the copy itself, as its current grade, set when recording a copy and updated whenever the state changes.
• On maintenance records, which capture the condition before and after the work, so a restoration shows what it improved. See Record maintenance and repairs.
• On loans, which capture the condition when a copy went out and when it came back, so transit damage is visible. See Lend and borrow copies.

Grading consistently

The grades are yours to interpret, but they only help if you apply them the same way every time. Decide once what "Used" means for your hobby and stick to it. If your community has a formal scale (coin collectors and their MS grades, for example), a Select custom field on the type can hold the formal grade while the condition holds your practical one.

Where to next

• Curate the list of conditions in Manage item conditions.
• Set a condition on a real copy in Track the copies you own.
• See conditions at work in Record maintenance and repairs.