mint condition
The state of an object that is in perfect condition, as if it has never been touched or otherwise used. The phrase originally referred to coins that were never put into circulation and thus remained in the same pristine condition as when they were produced at the mint. There's no way I'm selling my mint condition Babe Ruth rookie card—I don't care how much money it would get, it's one of my most prized possessions!
mint condition, in
Appearing to be brand-new and unused; in excellent shape. A favorite hyperbole of used-car salesmen and secondhand dealers, this term was borrowed from philatelists who so describe a new, unused stamp. It began to be transferred to other objects by the 1920s. Iris Murdoch used it in her novel The Flight from the Enchanter (1956): “The books were chaotic, but in mint condition.”