What is a parallel card?

A version of a base card or insert with a different color, border or finish. Same photo, rarer card.

What does RC mean on a card?

A player’s first card from a licensed set in their first season. Usually marked with an “RC” logo, and the card collectors chase most.

A card stamped with its print run, like 23/99: card 23 of 99 made. Lower runs are rarer.

The sealed plastic case a grading company puts a card in, with a label showing the grade and a certification number.

Guide · Glossary

36 words you’ll hear at any card show, from rookie cards and parallels to slabs and pop reports, in plain English.

What makes a modern card rare: a rookie logo, a serial number, a patch, an on-card autograph and a parallel border.

Base card: The standard card of each player or character in a set, the most common version.
Rookie cardRC: A player’s first card from a licensed set in their first season. Usually marked with an “RC” logo, and the card collectors chase most.
Insert: A card with its own design that is not part of the base set, inserted into packs at set odds.
Parallel: A version of a base card or insert with a different color, border or finish. Same photo, rarer card.
RefractorPrizm: A shiny, rainbow-reflecting finish on chrome-style cards. Topps calls them refractors; Panini’s Prizm calls them prizms.
AutographAuto: A card signed by the player. “On-card” means signed on the card itself; a “sticker auto” is signed on a sticker placed on the card.
RelicMemorabilia card: A card with a piece of jersey, bat or other game-used or event-worn material in it.
Patch: A relic with a multi-color piece of a jersey patch or logo, worth more than a plain swatch.
RPA: Rookie patch autograph: a rookie card with both a patch and a signature. The top card of many modern sets.

NumberedSerial numbered: A card stamped with its print run, like 23/99: card 23 of 99 made. Lower runs are rarer.
One of one1/1: A numbered card with a print run of one (1/1). The only copy.
Short printSP, SSP: A card printed in smaller numbers than the rest of the set without being numbered. SSP means super short print.
Chase card: The rare card everyone opening a product is hoping to pull.

Raw: A card that has not been graded, in a sleeve or toploader rather than a slab.
Slab: The sealed plastic case a grading company puts a card in, with a label showing the grade and a certification number.
Grade: The condition score a grading company gives a card, usually on a 1 to 10 scale; 10 is the best.
Gem MintGem, GEM MT 10: A 10 at most grading companies: the best grade a card normally gets.
Centering: How evenly the picture sits within the borders. Off-center cards grade lower.
Pop reportPopulation report: A grading company’s count of how many copies of a card it has graded at each grade. A low “pop” means few exist in that grade.
Cert number: The serial number on a slab’s label. Look it up on the grader’s website to check the slab is real.
Crossover: Sending a card already graded by one company to another company to regrade it into that company’s slab.
Reholder: Putting a graded card into a new slab from the same company, for example after the case is scratched.

Comps: Recent sale prices of the same card in the same condition or grade: how buyers and sellers agree on value.
Hobby box: A sealed box sold through card shops and hobby dealers, usually with better odds for autographs and relics than retail.
Retail: Boxes and packs sold at big stores. Cheaper per pack, with different odds and sometimes their own parallels.
BreakCase break: A live opening of sealed boxes or cases where buyers pay for a team or a slot and get the cards that match.
Penny sleeve: The thin, soft plastic sleeve a card goes in first.
Toploader: A rigid plastic holder a sleeved card slides into, to keep it flat and safe.
Trade night: An evening meet-up, often after a show closes, where collectors trade and sell to each other at tables.

HoloHolofoil: A card with a holographic picture box.
Reverse holo: A card where the holo finish covers everything except the picture.
Full art: A card whose artwork fills the whole card instead of a box.
Alternate artAlt art: A rare version of a card with different artwork, often a scene, at much lower pull rates.
Secret rare: A card numbered higher than the set’s official count, for example 210/198.
Booster box: A sealed box of booster packs from one set.
Elite Trainer BoxETB: A Pokémon box with several booster packs plus sleeves, dice and other play accessories.

Now find a table to try them out: card shows this weekend, or read your first card show.