Reference
Trading card glossary
Plain-English definitions for the terms you will run into buying, selling, and grading modern and vintage trading cards. Bookmark this page; we keep it updated.
A
- Auto
- Short for autograph. An on-card auto is signed directly; a sticker auto is signed on a clear label applied during production.
B
- Base card
- A standard, non-parallel card from a set's main checklist. Usually the least valuable version of a player or character.
- BGS
- Beckett Grading Services. One of the three major grading companies; known for sub-grades and the Black Label 10.
- Black Label
- A BGS 10 Pristine with perfect 10 sub-grades across centring, corners, edges, and surface. The rarest slab in the hobby.
- Booster box
- A factory-sealed display of booster packs. Common box sizes are 24 or 36 packs depending on the product.
- Break
- A live or recorded session where a seller opens sealed product on behalf of buyers who have bought slots (by team, hit, or random).
C
- Case
- A factory-sealed shipping case containing multiple booster boxes. Often six, eight, or twelve boxes.
- Case hit
- A card so rare it averages roughly one per sealed case. The headline pull of a modern sports product.
- Centring
- How evenly the borders are cut around the image. Poor centring is the most common reason cards fail to grade a perfect 10.
- CGC
- Certified Guaranty Company. The third major grader, fastest turnaround, growing share in modern Pokémon and TCG.
- Chase card
- The card or short list of cards collectors specifically open a product hoping to pull.
- Cracked
- Removed from a graded slab. Usually done to resubmit for a higher grade.
- Cracked slab
- A grading case with visible physical damage to the holder. Most reputable graders will reholder for a small fee.
E
- ETB
- Elite Trainer Box. A Pokémon product containing booster packs plus accessories like sleeves, dice, and a player's guide.
F
- FOMO
- Fear of missing out. The market force driving most hype-driven set releases.
G
- Gem Mint
- A grade of 10 (PSA, CGC) or 9.5 (BGS) indicating a card with no visible flaws under normal inspection.
- Grail
- A collector's most-wanted card. Subjective and personal, but usually a high-value chase or a card with sentimental weight.
H
- Hit
- A non-base insert from a pack. Usually a parallel, auto, patch, or numbered card.
- Holo
- A card with a foil or shiny finish, applied either to the artwork (holo) or the entire card (full art / reverse holo).
- Hot box
- A booster box that happens to contain unusually strong pulls. Often discovered and announced after the fact.
I
- Insert
- Any non-base card inserted into packs at a defined ratio. Includes parallels, autos, relics, and short prints.
L
- LCS
- Local card shop. Where a lot of hobby relationships and grading submissions start.
- Loupe
- A small magnifier (typically 10x) used to inspect surface, edges, and print quality before submitting to grade.
M
- Mint
- Generally a grade of 9 on a 10 scale. Near-perfect with one or two minor flaws under close inspection.
N
- Numbered
- A card with a printed serial number indicating its place in a limited run (e.g. 12/99).
P
- Parallel
- A version of a base card printed with a different colour, finish, or pattern. Usually rarer and more valuable than the base.
- Patch
- A piece of game-worn or event-used material embedded into a card. Multi-colour patches are most valuable.
- Pop
- Short for population report. The number of copies a grading company has slabbed at a given grade.
- Pop report
- The grading company's public count of how many copies of a card exist at each grade. The foundation of slab pricing.
- Pre-grade
- Inspecting and selecting cards before submission to maximise the chance of high grades.
- Pristine
- A 10 with sub-grade qualifications above Gem Mint. Used by BGS (Pristine 10) and CGC (Pristine 10).
- PSA
- Professional Sports Authenticator. The largest and most liquid of the three major grading companies.
- PSA 10
- PSA's Gem Mint grade. The benchmark slab for modern Pokémon and sports cards.
- Pull
- A card opened from a sealed pack.
- Pull rate
- The published or estimated odds of pulling a specific card or tier from sealed product.
R
- Raw
- Any card not encased in a grading company's slab.
- RC
- Rookie Card. The first official trading card of an athlete in their professional league uniform.
- Refractor
- A Topps Chrome parallel that reflects a rainbow pattern under light. Comes in many colours and serial numbers.
- Reholder
- A re-encapsulation of an already-graded card into a fresh slab without re-grading. Fixes a damaged case.
- Relic
- A card containing a piece of game-used material, usually jersey, bat, or stick.
- Resub
- Resubmission. Cracking a slab and sending the card back for re-grading in the hope of a bump.
- Reverse holo
- A parallel where the foil is applied to the entire card except the artwork. Standard in modern Pokémon sets.
S
- Sealed
- Any product still in its factory packaging. The sealed market trades on appreciation rather than the cards inside.
- Short print (SP)
- A card printed at a lower ratio than the rest of a set's base cards. Often unannounced.
- Slab
- A tamper-evident plastic case used by a grading company to encapsulate and label a graded card.
- Slab bumper
- A flexible plastic or rubber sleeve that fits around a graded slab to protect the case from scratches and edge impacts.
- Sleeve
- A thin plastic sleeve (penny sleeve) used to protect a raw card before placing it in a toploader or magnetic case.
- SP
- Short print. See above.
- SSP
- Super short print. Printed at an even lower ratio than an SP. Usually the rarest base-card variants.
- Sub-grade
- Individual scores for centring, corners, edges, and surface that appear on BGS and CGC labels.
T
- Toploader
- A rigid plastic holder for protecting a sleeved raw card during storage or shipping.
- Trainer Gallery
- A Pokémon subset with alternate-art cards featuring trainers from the games and anime.
V
- Variation
- Any officially different version of a card, including parallels, error cards, and regional prints.
- Vintage
- Cards from older eras. In Pokémon: pre-2003 (WOTC era). In sports: usually pre-1980.
W
- WOTC
- Wizards of the Coast. Published English Pokémon cards from 1999 to 2003, before Nintendo took distribution in-house.
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