Card collecting glossary
130 card collecting terms explained: the words you meet on rip sites, grading labels, checklists and price pages, each defined in plain words on its own page.
Updated
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- 1st Bowman
- A 1st Bowman card is a baseball player's first card in a Bowman-branded product, marked with a 1st Bowman logo and found among Bowman's prospect cards.
- 1st Edition
- 1st Edition is a stamp on the first print run of a set. Wizards of the Coast used it on English Pokémon sets from Base Set to Neo Destiny, and those cards are priced apart from later printings.
A
- Account credit
- Account credit is a balance you can spend only on the site that gave it to you. It is different from money paid to your bank.
- Alternate art
- An alternate art card is a version of a card printed with different artwork from its standard version. Pokémon, Magic, Lorcana and One Piece all print them, and sellers list them separately.
- Authentic Altered
- Authentic Altered is a grading designation for a card that is genuine but has been changed since it was made, for example trimmed or recolored. CGC Cards prints it in the grade box in place of a number.
- Authentication
- Authentication is a check that a card, an autograph or a graded holder is genuine, separate from grading, which judges condition, though CGC backs both authenticity and grade on the cards it certifies.
- Autograph card
- An autograph card is a card signed by a player or another subject. The signature is written on the card itself or on a sticker that is then fixed to it.
B
- Base set
- A base set is the main numbered run of standard cards in a sports card product, as against its inserts and parallels. In Pokémon, Base Set is also the name of the first set, released in English in 1999.
- BGS
- BGS is Beckett Grading Services, the card grading arm of Beckett Media. Its slabs often show four subgrades beside the overall grade.
- Black Label
- A Black Label is Beckett's top label, given to a card that scores a perfect 10 in all four subgrades: centering, corners, edges and surface.
- Blaster box
- A blaster box is a small sealed box of sports card packs sold at large retail stores such as Target and Walmart. It is one of several retail formats, and some blasters hold cards made only for them.
- Booster box
- A booster box is a sealed case of booster packs from one set, sold as a single item. An English Pokémon box usually holds 36 packs, and the maker's label states the count.
- Booster bundle
- A booster bundle is a Pokémon product that holds six booster packs of one expansion and no accessories. It is a way to buy several packs of a set without a full booster display.
- Booster pack
- A booster pack is the standard sealed pack of a set: a foil wrapper holding a fixed number of cards from that set. The maker decides the make-up of a pack, such as how many cards of each rarity it holds.
- Borderless
- A borderless card is a Magic: The Gathering card version whose art runs out to the card's edges with no border, and Wizards lists borderless cards among the special treatments in Collector Boosters.
- Box break
- A box break is a live opening of sealed boxes or cases in which buyers each pay for a spot, often a team, and receive that spot's cards. The seller streams the opening.
- Buyer protection
- Buyer protection is a marketplace's policy of refunding a buyer whose order does not arrive or is not as described, with rules and filing deadlines that each marketplace sets for itself.
- Buylist
- A buylist is a shop's list of the cards it wants to buy and the price it will pay for each, by condition. Sellers pick cards from it, send or bring them in, and the shop checks each card before it pays.
C
- Card condition
- Card condition is how worn an ungraded card is, rated on the raw scale that runs from Near Mint at the top down to Damaged at the bottom.
- Card grading
- Card grading is a paid service in which a company inspects a card, gives it a number on a 10-point scale and seals it in a labeled plastic holder.
- Card number
- A card number is the figure printed at the bottom of a card, written over the set's printed total, as in 101/100. It places the card in its set and shows when a card sits outside the main list.
- Card pool
- A card pool is the list of cards that can still come out of a pack or a set of packs. On a rip site it is published as a checklist and changes as packs are opened.
- Card rates
- Card rates are the share of a pack's pool, or of a print run, that falls in each rarity or value tier, as the maker or site publishes them. They describe what is inside a product.
- Card show
- A card show is a gathering at a venue such as a hotel ballroom or a community center, where dealers and collectors buy, sell and trade cards. Some shows also take cards for grading on the spot.
- Centering
- Centering is how evenly a card's borders frame its picture. It is written as a ratio such as 55/45, and a top grade allows only a small shift.
- Certification number
- A certification number is the unique number printed on a graded card's label, which you can look up on the grading company's site to confirm the card and its grade.
- CGC Cards
- CGC Cards grades trading cards, sports cards and non-sports cards on a 10-point scale and seals each one in a labeled holder.
- Checklist
- A checklist is the maker's list of every card in a product, by set name and card number, often with the player, the team and the rate at which each card is placed in each format.
- Collector Booster
- A Collector Booster is Magic: The Gathering's premium pack, built around foils, alternate art and special card treatments. It holds several rare or mythic rare cards and costs much more than a Play Booster pack.
- Comps
- Comps are recent sales of the same card in the same condition or grade. Buyers and sellers use them to judge what a price should be.
- Consignment
- Consignment is handing cards to an auction house or marketplace that evaluates, describes, photographs and sells them for you, on the fees and terms it sets.
- Counterfeit card
- A counterfeit card is a fake made to pass as a real one. A fake slab is a case made to pass as a grading company's. Both are checked against the real thing.
- Crossover
- A crossover is a request to move a card that one company already graded into another company's holder, usually only if the new grade is at least as high.
D
- Declared value
- The declared value is the worth you state for a card on a grading form. It decides which service level the card goes in and what the fee is.
- Double rare
- A double rare is a Pokémon card rarity marked with two solid black stars. It was introduced with the Scarlet & Violet expansion and is the rarity of the regular Pokémon ex cards.
E
- Elite Trainer Box
- An Elite Trainer Box is a Pokémon product built around one expansion: a reusable storage box holding booster packs, card sleeves, dividers and other accessories. Recent English boxes hold 9 packs and a promo card.
- Enchanted
- Enchanted is one of Disney Lorcana's top rarities: an alternate-art, borderless foil version of a card, marked with a six-sided symbol. Only some cards have an Enchanted version.
- Error card
- An error card is a card printed with a mistake, such as a misspelled name, wrong details or the wrong photo. When the maker corrects it during the print run, both the error and the corrected version exist.
- Etched foil
- Etched foil is a Magic: The Gathering foil finish that looks more metallic than traditional foil and highlights only parts of the card, and Wizards introduced it on Commander Legends showcase cards in 2020.
- Extended art
- An extended art version of a card has art that pushes out horizontally past the traditional frame to show more of the picture; Magic: The Gathering uses the treatment on special versions of its cards, and Konami uses it for some Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.
F
- Fulfillment fee
- A fulfillment fee is what a rip site charges to ship a card out of its vault. It is a share of the card's value or a flat amount, and it can change with the length of storage.
- Full art
- A full art card has a picture that covers the whole face of the card, with the text laid over it. Pokémon has printed them since the Black & White series, usually as reprints of cards from the same set.
G
- Gem Mint
- Gem Mint is the grade name for a near-perfect card, most often given as a 10. At CGC Cards, Gem Mint 10 sits just below Pristine 10, its top grade.
- Grading scale
- A grading scale is the set of numbers a grading company uses to rate a card's condition, most often 1 to 10, with each number defined by limits on centering, corners, edges and surface.
H
- Half grade
- A half grade is a grade that falls between two whole numbers on a 1 to 10 grading scale, such as 8.5. It marks a card that is better than the lower whole grade but short of the next one.
- Hobby box
- A hobby box is a sealed box sold through hobby shops. It usually offers better ratios of special cards than a retail box of the same product, and it can hold cards that the retail box does not.
- Holofoil
- A holofoil card has a shiny foil finish over its picture that scatters light as you tilt it. Pokémon prints many of a set's rarer cards this way, in patterns that change from series to series.
- Hyper rare
- A hyper rare is a Pokémon card rarity marked with three gold stars, introduced with the Scarlet & Violet expansion. Hyper rares are gold versions of cards from the set and come at the end of its numbering.
- Hyperspace
- Hyperspace is a version of a Star Wars: Unlimited card whose art shows more of the full illustration than the standard card's frame, and as of December 2025 every card had a Hyperspace and a Hyperspace-foil version.
I
- Illustration rare
- An illustration rare is a full-art card showing a Pokémon in its natural setting, introduced with the Scarlet & Violet set. It is marked with one gold star and numbered above the set's printed total.
- Inner sleeve
- An inner sleeve is a thin sleeve sized to fit a standard card snugly that goes inside a standard card sleeve, a layering BCW calls double-sleeving.
- Insert
- An insert is a card in a product that is neither a base card nor a parallel, with a theme, a name and a look of its own. Inserts form a separate set inside the product.
M
- Magnetic holder
- A magnetic holder is a hard, two-piece clear case for one card that closes with a magnet, used to store and display a card.
- Market price
- A market price is a price built from recent sales rather than asking prices. TCGplayer's market price is one; Rip.fan's card pages show Scrydex's Near Mint market price.
- Mega box
- A mega box is a format of a sports card product that checklists list beside the hobby box and the blaster, and it can hold cards made only for it.
- Mega Evolution
- Mega Evolution is the Pokémon TCG series that began with the Mega Evolution expansion on September 26, 2025. Its headline cards are Mega Evolution Pokémon ex, which show a Pokémon in its Mega form.
- Mega hyper rare
- A mega hyper rare is a Pokémon card rarity introduced with the Mega Evolution expansion in 2025. It covers Mega Evolution Pokémon ex printed with gold-etched holographic art and has a gold star symbol of its own.
- Memorabilia card
- A memorabilia card has a piece of an item the player wore or used set into the card, such as a jersey swatch or a patch. Collectors also call them relic cards.
- Mystery box
- A mystery box is a box sold with a published range of contents instead of a fixed list. The exact cards are named only when the box is opened.
- Mythic rare
- Mythic rare is the highest of Magic: The Gathering's four booster rarities, above rare, usually shown by an orange-red set symbol, and Wizards of the Coast added it in 2008 with Shards of Alara.
N
- Near Mint
- Near Mint is the best condition a seller can give a raw card: almost unmarked, with at most tiny wear. It is a seller's description, not a grade from a grading company.
O
- On-card autograph
- An on-card autograph is a signature written by the player directly on the card's surface, as against a signed sticker applied later. Collectors also call it hard-signed, and many prefer it.
- One of one
- A one of one is a card made in a single copy, usually serial numbered 1/1. It is the smallest print run a card can have, and its price depends mostly on the player and the product.
P
- Parallel
- A parallel is a version of a base card with a different color, finish or pattern. Parallels are printed in smaller numbers than the base card, and many are numbered.
- Patch card
- A patch card is a memorabilia card whose swatch is cut from a patch on a jersey, such as a number, a name plate or a logo, rather than from plain jersey fabric.
- Penny sleeve
- A penny sleeve is a thin, soft, clear plastic sleeve for one card, used as a first layer of protection before the card goes into a toploader, a semi-rigid holder or a binder.
- Perfect 10
- Perfect 10 was the grade CGC Trading Cards gave a Pristine 10 card, and CSG a Gem Mint 10 card, with all four subgrades at 10; CGC Cards stopped giving it in 2023 but still supports it.
- Play Booster
- Play Booster is the name of Magic: The Gathering's main pack since 2024. It replaced both the Draft and Set boosters and holds 14 cards, with a guaranteed rare or mythic rare.
- Pokémon ex
- A Pokémon ex is a Pokémon card marked by a stylized ex after its name, first printed in the Scarlet & Violet expansion. Its regular print is a double rare, and many also get rarer full art prints.
- Population report
- A population report is a grading company's public count of the cards it has graded: for each card, how many copies received each grade.
- Print run
- A print run is the number of copies of a card or product that a maker printed. Serial-numbered cards state it on the card, as in 23/99, while many other cards do not state it at all.
- Printing plate
- A printing plate is a one-of-a-kind piece, shaped like a card, made from a plate used to print that card; plates usually come in four ink colors, so one card can have four.
- Pristine 10
- Pristine 10 is the top grade at CGC Cards, above Gem Mint 10, for a card that is virtually flawless to the naked eye with 50/50 centering, and TAG Grading uses the name for its highest grade too.
- Promo card
- A promo card is a card released outside a set's packs, handed out at events or included in special products. Pokémon marks them with a Black Star Promo symbol in place of a rarity symbol.
- Prospect card
- A prospect card shows a player who has not yet reached a major league roster, and in Bowman's baseball sets it sits in a numbered prospect set of its own, apart from the rookie cards.
- PSA
- PSA, short for Professional Sports Authenticator, is a US company that grades sports and trading cards on a 1 to 10 scale and seals them in slabs with a unique cert number.
Q
- Qualifier
- A qualifier is a short code after a grade, such as PSA 8 (OC), that names the one flaw that kept the card from a higher grade.
- Quarter Century Secret Rare
- Quarter Century Secret Rare is a Yu-Gi-Oh! foil rarity made for the game's 25th anniversary in 2023. Konami has said it is being retired, so the cards form a closed group.
R
- Rated Rookie
- Rated Rookie is the name Panini's Donruss products give the rookie cards in their base set, and Donruss Optic carries Rated Rookie cards of its own.
- Raw card
- A raw card is a card that has not been graded or sealed in a grading company's holder. It is sold by its condition, from Near Mint down to Damaged.
- Redemption
- A redemption is a request to a rip site to ship a card from its vault to you. It usually costs a fee and an invoice for shipping.
- Redemption card
- A redemption card is a stand-in placed in a pack when a card, usually an autograph, was not ready in time. The collector redeems it with the maker and later receives the card it stands for, or a replacement.
- Refractor
- A Refractor is a card with a reflective coating that shows a rainbow when tilted. Topps introduced the finish in 1993, and Refractors are parallels of base cards, often in numbered colors.
- Reholder
- A reholder is a service in which a grading company moves a card it already graded into a new holder of its own, keeping the same grade. CGC Cards offers it for cards still sealed in their original CGC or CSG holders.
- Repack
- A repack is a product a seller builds from cards that were already taken out of factory packs, then sells as something new. It is not a factory-sealed pack.
- Resealed pack
- A resealed pack is a pack or box that has been opened and sealed again, then sold as if it were untouched. It is not factory sealed product.
- Retail box
- A retail box is a sealed box sold in larger stores such as Walmart and Target, as against the hobby shops that sell hobby boxes. It usually offers fewer special cards than a hobby box of the same product.
- Reverse holofoil
- A reverse holofoil is a printing with the foil on the body of the card and not on the picture. It is a separate printing of a card, priced on its own, and modern Pokémon packs hold one or two.
- Rip
- A rip is the opening of a pack. On a rip site you buy a pack, watch a real graded card revealed on screen, and then decide whether to keep it vaulted, ship it home or sell it back.
- Rip site
- A rip site is a website or app that sells packs of real cards held in a vault. You see the card revealed on screen, then keep it vaulted, ship it home or trade it in.
- Rookie card
- A rookie card is a player's first card after reaching the top level of their sport. Many modern cards carry a rookie card logo, and collectors often value rookie cards above the same player's later cards.
- Rookie patch autograph
- A rookie patch autograph, or RPA, is a card from a rookie set that carries both a patch and the player's signature.
S
- Sealed case
- A sealed case is a set number of sealed boxes packed together in one container, the unit that a case break opens.
- Sealed product
- Sealed product is packs, boxes and cases as the maker sealed them, in their original packaging with no broken seal.
- Secret Lair
- Secret Lair is a Magic: The Gathering series of small, limited drops of cards with new artwork, sold for a set window on Wizards of the Coast's own Secret Lair site.
- Secret rare
- A secret rare is a card numbered above its set's printed total, such as 101/100. It is usually a reprint of a card from the set with special artwork or a different foil finish.
- Seller fee
- A seller fee is what a marketplace keeps from a sale, usually a percentage commission plus a payment processing fee, taken out before the seller is paid.
- Semi-rigid holder
- A semi-rigid holder is a clear plastic holder for one card that protects it more than a soft sleeve does, and CGC and TAG both ask for one when you mail them cards.
- Serial-numbered card
- A serial-numbered card is stamped with its own number inside a stated print run, such as 23/99. A card numbered 1/1 is the only copy of that card.
- Service level
- A service level is a grading option a company sells, priced by the card's declared value and by how fast the card will be graded.
- Set
- A set is one release of cards under its own name, symbol and card count. Pokémon calls its sets expansions, and each one belongs to a series of releases.
- Set code
- A set code is the short code of letters, and sometimes digits, that identifies a card's set. Yu-Gi-Oh! cards print it at the start of the card number, and Magic gives each set a short code such as FRA.
- Set symbol
- A set symbol is the small mark printed on a card that shows which set it comes from. Pokémon and Magic cards carry one, and it is often the first thing to check when you identify a printing.
- SGC
- SGC, short for Sportscard Guaranty, is a card grading company launched in 1998. It is best known for vintage sports cards and for slabs with a black insert behind the card.
- Shadowless
- Shadowless cards are the second English print of Base Set, made after the 1st Edition run. They lack the drop shadow around the picture window and carry no 1st Edition stamp.
- Short print
- A short print is a card printed in smaller numbers than the other cards in its set. Many carry no number, so the card itself does not state how many exist.
- Showcase frame
- A showcase frame is a special card frame, built around the theme of one Magic: The Gathering set, that Wizards of the Coast prints on alternate versions of that set's cards.
- Silver Prizm
- A Silver Prizm is the silver parallel of a card in Panini's Prizm brand of refractor-style cards, and in 2025-26 Prizm Basketball it carries no serial number.
- Slab
- A slab is the sealed, tamper-evident plastic holder a grading company puts a card in, with a label that shows the grade and a certification number.
- Slab label
- A slab label is the printed label sealed inside a graded card's holder. It names the card and its grade and carries the certification number that ties the card to the grading company's record.
- Slab pack
- A slab pack is a pack whose contents are graded slabs. On a rip site each pack holds one slab from a pool of graded cards that the site publishes.
- Sold listing
- A sold listing is a marketplace listing that ended in a sale, showing the price a buyer paid. Sold listings show what a card sells for, which is often different from what sellers are asking.
- Special illustration rare
- A special illustration rare is a top Pokémon rarity, marked with two gold stars, where a Pokémon ex or Supporter gets full art with a scene around it. Collectors often treat them as a set's headline cards.
- Starlight Rare
- A Starlight Rare is a Yu-Gi-Oh! rarity with a grid-like holographic pattern over most of the card face, border included. In Konami's core booster sets it is offered as an extra version of some cards, beside their regular rarity.
- Sticker autograph
- A sticker autograph is a card whose signature is on a sticker that the player signed and the maker then fixed to the card. Makers use stickers so signed cards are ready in time for a product's release.
- Store credit
- Store credit is a balance a shop gives you in place of cash, usually for cards you sell or trade in. It can be spent only at that shop, and shops often offer more of it than they would pay in cash.
- Subgrades
- Subgrades are separate scores for a card's centering, corners, edges and surface, printed on the label of some slabs beside the overall grade.
- Superfractor
- A Superfractor is a one-of-one refractor parallel, the rarest refractor variant, that usually has a gold spiral background and appears in Topps Chrome and Bowman Chrome checklists.
T
- TAG Grading
- TAG Grading is a card grading company that scores each card out of 1,000 points, turns the score into a 1 to 10 grade, and seals the card in a slab with a digital report.
- Team bag
- A team bag is a clear, resealable plastic bag that holds a stack of cards or a few toploaders together, and BCW sells it as a team set bag for storing team sets.
- Team break
- A team break is a box break in which each spot is a team: the buyer of a spot receives that team's cards from the boxes or cases opened. In a pick your team break, buyers choose their team.
- Toploader
- A toploader is a rigid plastic holder for a single card, used over a soft sleeve to protect the card in storage and in the mail.
- Trade-in offer
- A trade-in offer is a site's instant offer to take a card back in exchange for credit. It is a share of the card's value, less a fee, and it stays open for a short time.
- Turnaround time
- Turnaround time is the estimated number of business days a grading company takes to finish an order once it has reached the company's facility.
U
- Ultra rare
- Ultra rare is a rarity name used by more than one card game. On modern Pokémon cards it marks full art Pokémon ex and Supporter cards with two silver stars; on Yu-Gi-Oh! cards it means holofoil art with a gold foil name.
V
- Value range
- A value range is the lowest and highest value a site lists for the cards in a pack's pool. Rip.fan's pack explorer shows the range each site publishes for each pack.
- Variation
- A variation is a version of a card that differs slightly from the other copies of the same card in a set, such as a different photo, background color or lettering. Checklists can list it separately from the standard card.
- Vault
- A vault is insured storage where a site keeps the cards it sells, so you can hold, sell or trade a card without having it shipped to you.
Y
- Young Guns
- Young Guns is Upper Deck's name for the rookie cards in the base set of its Upper Deck Series hockey products, which an Upper Deck article calls the company's most popular rookie cards.