Many misunderstand what a comic in Near mint means. It is the rarest of comics, of 1000 that come into the store from the silver age only 2 or 3 are truly near mint, at least in the manner that the grade means.

If you are about to purchase a Near Mint comic on E-bay that is not CGC or PGX graded, and you are willing to pay top dollar, you need to pay attention to whether the comic has errors. The comic should at most have one minor error, usually one which does not break the color or fully blunt a corner, The comic has one allowable minor error, which could be minor tanning, one (possibly two if only slightly rounded) of four corners not being perfect, off white pages, or one minor printing error, like being ever so slightly off center, or having coloration problems. More than one minor error and the comic is not near mint.

Holding the comic to the light, it should have full cover gloss (i.e. comic is thoroughly shiny from the light, no dull areas) and heavy indentions (often caused by writing on a piece of paper with the comic underneath) should not be visible. If the cover is not shiny it is possible it has been restored, see my guide Is my comic restored? for more information.

There should be at most one minor fold, none that breaks the color on the cover, more than this and you do not have a near mint comic. One stress line near a staple might be acceptable were it 1/16 of an inch or less. Trust me, as a seller whose primary market is selling to larger retailers like Mile High Comics, Showcase New England, Robert Beerbohm, Jef Hinds, Gary Dolgoff and others, this is the standard for what is considered a near mint comic.