Trading card glossary
Trading card terms explained in a line: conditions, finishes, rarities, grading and market terms.
Condition
- Mint (M)
- A card with no visible flaws at all: sharp corners, clean edges, a flawless surface and good centering. Rare for cards that have been handled or played.
- Near Mint (NM)
- A card that looks unplayed at a glance, with at most a tiny imperfection on close inspection. The reference condition for most market prices.
- Lightly Played (LP)
- Light wear from careful play or handling: a little edge whitening, a small scuff or slight corner wear. No creases or major marks.
- Moderately Played (MP)
- Clearly used: noticeable edge and corner wear, scratches or scuffs, possibly a minor crease. Still whole and legible.
- Heavily Played (HP)
- Heavy wear: creases, strong whitening, scratches or dents across the card, but no structural damage.
- Damaged (DMG)
- A card with tears, water damage, large creases, writing, missing pieces or other damage beyond ordinary wear.
- Centering
- How evenly the printed image sits within the card’s borders. Off-centre cards are worth less, especially when graded.
Finishes and printings
- Foil
- A card printed with a reflective, metallic finish. In many games the foil version of a card is scarcer and priced separately from the regular one.
- Holo (holofoil)
- A card whose artwork box has a holographic foil pattern, while the rest of the card is printed normally. Common term in the Pokémon TCG.
- Reverse holo
- A card where the holographic foil covers the card except the artwork box — the reverse of a holo. Pokémon TCG booster packs usually include at least one.
- First Edition (1st Edition)
- A card from the first print run of a set, marked as such on the card in games that use the stamp (early Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! sets). Often priced well above later printings.
- Shadowless
- Early English Pokémon Base Set cards printed without the drop shadow along the right edge of the artwork box. The 1st Edition run and the first unlimited run are shadowless; later unlimited runs added the shadow.
- Promo
- A card given away or sold outside regular booster packs: at events, in product bundles, with magazines or as prizes. Some are common, some very scarce.
- Alternate art (alt art)
- A different illustration of a card that already exists, often full-art or in a special frame, printed at a lower rate than the regular version.
- Full art
- A card whose illustration covers the whole face of the card instead of sitting in a box.
- Misprint
- A card with a printing error, such as a miscut, missing ink or a wrong back. Some misprints are collectible; many are simply worth less.
Rarity
- Rarity
- How often a card appears in booster packs, shown by a symbol or colour on the card. Rarity affects price, but demand from players and collectors matters as much.
- Secret rare
- A card numbered beyond the official size of its set (for example 102/100), or printed in a scarcer treatment. The exact meaning varies by game.
- Chase card
- The card collectors most want to pull from a set — usually its rarest and most valuable. On CardTrading, chase cards are the most valuable cards by market price among those whose price data passes our checks.
- Pull rate
- How often a given rarity or card appears in booster packs, for example “one per booster box”. Official pull rates are rarely published; most figures are estimates from opened product.
Grading
- Grading
- Sending a card to a professional company that authenticates it, rates its condition on a scale (usually 1 to 10) and seals it in a labelled plastic case (a “slab”).
- PSA
- Professional Sports Authenticator, one of the largest grading companies, grading on a 1–10 scale.
- BGS (Beckett)
- Beckett Grading Services, a grading company that gives sub-grades for centering, corners, edges and surface alongside the overall grade, in half-point steps.
- CGC
- Certified Guaranty Company, a grading company that grades trading cards on a 1–10 scale in half-point steps.
- Slab
- The sealed plastic case a graded card comes back in, with a label showing the card, the grade and a certification number.
- Pop report (population report)
- A grading company’s count of how many copies of a card it has graded at each grade. A low population at the top grade can push prices up.
Market
- Market price
- On CardTrading, the reference price of a card from external market data (the mid price where available, otherwise the low), for a Near Mint, non-foil copy. It is an estimate, not a listing.
- Listing
- A card a seller has put up for sale on CardTrading, at the seller’s own price. “From €X” on the site always means the cheapest active listing.
- Market index
- A number that tracks the market price of a basket of cards — on CardTrading, the most valuable cards of a game, equally weighted, starting at 100.
- Price movers
- The cards whose market price rose or fell the most over a period, such as 7 or 30 days.
- Singles
- Individual cards bought and sold one by one, as opposed to sealed product.
Products
- Sealed product
- Unopened, factory-sealed product: booster packs, booster boxes, starter decks, collection boxes. Its contents are unknown until opened.
- Booster pack
- A sealed pack with a random selection of cards from a set, following the set’s rarity distribution.
- Booster box
- A sealed display box holding a fixed number of booster packs from one set. Opening one gives a good overview of a set’s pull rates.
- Starter deck
- A ready-to-play, preconstructed deck sold as a fixed product, meant as an entry point to a game.
- Set
- A release of cards designed together and sold under one name, with its own symbol and numbering.
Game-specific
- Reserved List (Magic)
- A list of older Magic: The Gathering cards that Wizards of the Coast has committed not to reprint in playable form. Many of its cards are among the game’s most valuable.
- Secret Lair (Magic)
- Limited, direct-to-consumer Magic: The Gathering releases with alternative art, sold for a limited time.
- Borderless and Showcase (Magic)
- Alternative Magic: The Gathering card frames: borderless cards extend the art to the edges; showcase cards use a set-specific decorative frame.
- Illustration Rare and Special Illustration Rare (Pokémon)
- Pokémon TCG rarities for full-art cards with a special illustration, the Special Illustration Rare being the scarcer one and often a set’s chase card.
- ex, V, VMAX and GX (Pokémon)
- Mechanics of different Pokémon TCG eras for stronger Pokémon cards; their full-art and alternate-art versions are often the most sought after.
- Starlight Rare and Ghost Rare (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
- Very scarce Yu-Gi-Oh! rarities: Starlight Rares have a textured foil across the whole card; Ghost Rares a pale, holographic artwork.
- Quarter Century Secret Rare (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
- A Yu-Gi-Oh! rarity introduced for the game’s 25th anniversary, marked with a special emblem.
- Manga rare and SP card (One Piece)
- Special One Piece Card Game versions of cards: manga rares use panels of the original manga as art; SP cards are special reprints of earlier cards in new sets.
- Enchanted (Lorcana)
- Disney Lorcana’s alternate-art rarity: borderless art with a special foil finish, among the scarcest cards in each set.