Sports Card Terms & Definitions

A list of common sports card terms and lingo defined. Learn the language collectors and investors speak!

Terms & Abbreviations Defined

1/1 – One of One. A card that is the only of its kind in existence.
Base – The most common card from a set.
BC – Bowman Chrome
BCA – Bowman Chrome Auto
BGS – Beckett Grading Services (grading company)
Breaker – Someone who opens sealed card products.
Buyback (razz) – In a razz situation with a buyback, the winner can either take the card or take the buyback, which is a percentage of the total value of the card paid in cash by the seller (usually 80%+) who then keeps the card.
Buyer’s Premium/BP – Most auction houses charge the buyer a fee as a percentage of the winning bid (gavel price). This is called a Buyer’s Premium.
Cardboard – Card folk slang for baseball cards.
Case Hit – A rare set or variation inserted into products one per case.
CL – Checklist
Comps – Refers to sold listings of cards similar to the card being discussed as a way to help gauge value.
Crossover – Sending a card graded by one grading company to another grading company in hopes of achieving a specific grade.
Dealer – A person who buys and sells cards to make money. The term is especially relevant if cards are how they make their primary income.
Die-Cut – A card intentionally designed with cutouts by the manufacturer as part of an insert set of a product.
Dime – Card graded BGS 10
Error – A card with a printing mistake by the card manufacturer (sometimes intentional). Often, error cards are worth more due to rarity.
Flagship – Refers to Topps Series 1, 2, and Update. Flagship is the annual set Topps has produced since its entry into the sports card world decades ago.
FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out
FS – For Sale
FT – For Trade
FY – First Year. FY is usually used in the context of describing a player’s first year of cards. It’s especially relevant in baseball where a player can have prospect cards prior to their rookie season (like a Bowman Chrome Auto) as well as rookie cards from their actual rookie year (like Topps Chrome).
GCR – Graded Card Review. Refers to sending an already graded card in for a grading company to review in hopes of bumping a grade or crossing from one grading company slab to a specific grade from another grading company.
Gem – Short for “Gem Mint” grade, such as a PSA 10 or BGS 9.5.
Group Break – A group of people crowd funding a box or case of sealed card product, often purchasing a team, player, or a random spot that will determine their team or player. A breaker will open the product, and the participants will receive all cards of their designated team, player, etc.
Hit – Refers to non-base cards offered by a sealed card product, especially autographs or jersey/patch cards. Some products advertise with a saying like “3 hits per box on average!”
Hot Pack – Usually seen on eBay, hot packs are advertised to have a specific guaranteed hit. Without opening and finding a way to reseal the pack, it’s virtually impossible to know what’s inside, so we highly recommend avoiding hot packs as they are usually a form of scam.
IG – Instagram
Inscription – A phrase or word an athlete writes alongside an autograph (e.g., “500 HR Club”). Inscriptions typically add value since they’re less common than a player’s autograph on its own.
Insert – Card from a sub-set of a product. Usually insert sets are rarer than the normal base set of a product, but value can be more or less depending on popularity of the set.
LR – Also L/R. Left/Right, referring to the comparison between the centering of the left of the card and the right of the card.
NFS – Not For Sale
NFT – Not For Trade
NT – National Treasures, a high end Panini product
OC – Off-centered, referring to the centering of a card being uneven
On-Card – Refers to an autograph being signed directly on the card rather than on a sticker that’s adhered to the card.
Opportunity Cost – When you make a decision, opportunity cost is the loss of potential gain from all other decisions you could have made instead. We cover the concept in great depth here.
Parallel – A different color version of a base card, which is often serial numbered. For example a Gold Refractor is the same image as the base card, but it has a gold border and is often serial numbered to 50. Parallels are almost always viewed as more valuable than the base card unless the base is an SP.
PC – Personal Collection
PP/ Ppal – PayPal, an online payment processor & wallet commonly used in the card world.
PP FF – PayPal Friends & Family. This method of payment does not charge the seller any fees. It also does not offer any buyer protection, so this method is not recommended unless you have 100% trust in the seller.
PP Goods – PayPal Goods. This is the normal method of payment through PayPal, which charges the seller a small fee and provides the buyer with buyer protection against fraudulent sellers.
Pop Report – Short for Population Report. Refers to the records kept by grading companies showing how many of each grade currently exist for each card.
Pop “X” – The number of cards of a certain grade from a certain company. For example, if a card is pop 3, that means there are 3 of the card in that particular grade. Keep in mind the pop can change (sometimes dramatically) as more cards are graded.
Pristine – Card graded BGS 10 (official term on BGS label)
Prizm – A popular Panini card product in the basketball and football markets. “Prizm” also refers to the parallel versions from multiple Panini products (e.g., “Orange Prizm”). A Prizm is Panini’s version of a Topps Refractor.
PSA – Professional Sports Authenticator (grading company)
PWE – Plain White Envelope. Usually when you see this, it’s in the context of the way a card will be shipped.
Rainbow – Collecting one of each parallel of a specific card.
Raw – Ungraded card
Razz – Crowd funded raffle, often occurring on social media and in live groups. Typically the value of the card is divided into X spots, and each participant pays an entree fee. The list is randomized (various ways to do this) and the winner gets the card.
RC – Rookie Card
Refractor/Ref – A chrome card with a shiny rainbow finish. The surface of the card ‘refracts’ the light.
Re-Slab – Sometimes the case of a graded card will get scratched or cracked. Re-slab refers to sending the card back to the grading company for a new case. Usually the grade isn’t changed unless the damage to the case impacted the card.
RPA – Rookie Patch Auto
Serial Number – To manufacture scarcity, card producers will stamp a limited quantity of parallels or inserts with a specific number corresponding to how many copies of that specific card exist. For example, a Gold Prizm from Panini Prizm is stamped with “X/10” on the back of the card. Often, 1/X, X/X, and the player’s jersey number/X will sell for slightly more than the others, especially for popular players.
Shilling/ Shill-Bidding – When a seller uses a different account to bid on their own auction to raise the price. This practice is illegal.
Slab – A graded card. Name comes from the slab-like case into which graded cards are sealed.
SP – Short Print. A card that is printed in more limited quantity than its base set counterpart.
Snipe – The act of putting in a late bid on an eBay auction. Sites like Gixen offer automated snipe services.
SSP – Super Short Print. Even rarer than a normal short print.
Sticker Auto – An autograph card where the athlete signed a number of stickers rather than the card itself, and the manufacturer then adhered the sticker to the card. Very normal practice in the card world, but generally thought of as less desirable than on-card autographs.
TB – Top/Bottom, referring to the comparison between the centering of the top of the card and the bottom of the card.
TC – Topps Chrome
TG/ True Gem – A card graded BGS 9.5 where all four sub-grades are 9.5 or higher. Sometimes a card with three 9.5s and one 10 sub-grade will be referred to as TG+/True Gem Plus. Similarly, two 9.5s and two 10s is sometimes called TG++.
Variation – A card that is different than the normal base version. This can be a very minor difference, like yellow font instead of white. It can also be a major difference, like a completely different picture.
Vintage – Refers to older cards. Most people consider vintage to be cards from the 1970s and prior.
Wax – Sealed card product. Can refer to sealed packs, boxes, cases.

For more foundational card information, see our guide to Sports Card Basics.