Sports Card Terms: A Plain-English Glossary

What are the main types of sports cards?

The main types are base cards, inserts, rookie cards, prospect cards, autographs, relic or memorabilia cards, patches and logoman cards.

• Base card: the standard version of a card in a set.
• Insert: a special card with its own design, added to packs separately from the base set.
• Rookie card (RC): a player's first officially licensed card. See what your rookie card is worth.
• Prospect card: a card issued before a player reaches the majors, such as a 1st Bowman card in baseball.
• Auto: an autographed card. On-card autos are signed directly on the card; sticker autos are signed on a sticker that's applied to it.
• Relic or memorabilia card: a card with a piece of game-used or player-worn material.
• Patch: a relic with a piece of jersey patch, often multicoloured. RPA stands for rookie patch autograph.
• Logoman: a patch card with the league logo from a jersey, usually one of one.

What do sports card scarcity terms mean?

Scarcity terms describe how many copies exist: parallels, refractors, serial-numbered cards, one of ones, short prints, variations and superfractors.

• Parallel: a version of a base card with a different colour, finish or border.
• Refractor: a chrome parallel with a reflective, rainbow finish.
• Numbered (serial-numbered): stamped with a print run, like 25/50.
• 1/1 (one of one): the only copy of that card.
• SP and SSP: short print and super short print, cards printed in smaller numbers than the rest of the set.
• Variation: a card that shares a number with another but has a different photo or detail.
• Superfractor: in Topps chrome products, the one-of-one gold refractor at the top of the parallel ladder.

Our guide to parallels, refractors and short prints goes deeper on all of these.

What do condition and grading terms mean?

Condition terms describe a card's state, from raw (ungraded) to a slab with a grade from 1 to 10, plus labels such as Gem Mint, Pristine, Black Label, subgrades and qualifiers.

• Raw: a card that hasn't been graded.
• Slab: the sealed plastic case a graded card comes back in.
• Grade: the condition score a grading company gives, usually from 1 to 10. See the PSA grading scale.
• Gem Mint and Pristine: Gem Mint is PSA's name for a 10; at BGS, Gem Mint is 9.5 and Pristine is 10.
• Black Label: a BGS 10 with perfect 10 subgrades in all four categories.
• Subgrades: separate scores for centering, corners, edges and surface, used by BGS.
• Qualifier: a note for one specific flaw, such as OC for off-center.
• Centering: how evenly the image sits between the borders, written like 60/40.

What is a pop report?

A pop report, short for population report, is a grading company's count of how many copies of a card it has graded, broken down by grade. PSA, BGS and SGC all publish them. Collectors use pop reports to judge scarcity. If only a handful of PSA 10s exist for a card, those copies tend to sell for much more than 9s. Pop reports count grading events, though, so a card that's been cracked out of its slab and resubmitted can be counted more than once.

What do sports card buying and selling terms mean?

Comps are recent sales used to set a price, hobby and retail are the two product channels, and break, PC, flip and junk wax come up constantly when you buy and sell.

• Comps: recent sales of the same card in the same condition, used to set a price.
• Hobby vs retail: products sold through card shops versus big-box stores. See hobby box vs retail.
• Blaster, hanger, mega: common retail box and pack formats.
• Break: a box opened online or in person, where buyers pay for a share of the cards, such as one team.
• PC: personal collection, the cards a collector keeps rather than sells.
• Flip: buying a card to resell it quickly at a profit.
• Junk wax: cards from roughly 1987 to 1994, when overproduction kept most values low.

Which baseball card terms are printed on the card?

Many baseball card terms come straight from the card itself, starting with the card number and the copyright line. The card number identifies the card within its set, and the copyright line gives the year and manufacturer. 1st Bowman marks a player's first Bowman card. Rated Rookie and Star Rookie are banners that Donruss and Upper Deck put on rookie cards. Our guide on how to identify sports cards shows where to find each detail.

What terms will you see in Sports Card Value Scanner?

In the app you'll see four terms: Reference Price, Rarity Score, Card Information and My Collection.

• Reference Price: the estimated price range shown on a scan result.
• Rarity Score: a score out of 10, on a scale from Common to Rare to Ultra Rare.
• Card Information: the sport, year issued, series and card number of the scanned card.
• My Collection: your saved cards, with total value, card count and number of players.

Scan a card with Sports Card Value Scanner to see these fields for your own cards.