Sports Card Terms Every Collector Should Know

Below are 22 out of the most important sports card terms that you should remember when collecting sports cards.

1. An autograph (AU or auto) is a card the player has signed.
2. Base Card denotes typical, not-noteworthy cards that are part of the product’s main set. Opposites: Inserts, refractors, and patches/autographs.
3. Bubble mailer with tracking (BMWT); a high-end way to ship a card to a buyer, which is more protective.
4. A ding is a damaged corner. It’s a card condition that can hurt its score and value.
5. The grade is a score used to judge the card value. Sports card collectors use third-party services to evaluate potentially-valuable cards.
6. Hit refers to an autograph or relic card that is pulled out of a pack or box of cards.
7. Hobby Box; a box of sports cards sold directly to distributors or individual dealers. More serious collectors are after hobby boxes. These boxes offer some sort of guarantee regarding autograph and relic cards.
8. Inserts are different from the base cards and randomly inserted in packs along the base set. They will usually have a title and look very different then the base set.
9. Junk Wax denotes the ’80s and ’90s produced in stunningly high quantities.
10. One Touch is a type of hardcover case that is used to hold a card.
11. Plain White Envelope (PWE) is a way to ship a card, but not so protective!
12. Rookie Card (RC) is the first that features an athlete at the highest levels.
13. Redemption is a card mailed to the manufacturer (or redeemed online) for a hit.
14. Refractor is synonymous with parallel and refers to reflective cards that are rare variants of the base cards.
15. Relic Cards (or Memorabilia Cards) features a piece of material from a player, event, or playing field.
16. Retail Pack is seen at places like Walmart and Target– opposite: hobby boxes or packs.
17. Rookie Patch Autograph (RPA) can refer to a true rookie card, one that features a hard-signed signature from the player or one with a portion of a game-used patch.
18. Short Print (SP) is a card that was printed in smaller quantities than the other cards. Sp’s are usually produced toward the end of a numbered set.
19. Slabbed is a hobby term for a professionally graded card coming from the slab case that will display the card’s score.
20. Sticker Auto refers to autographs that an athlete signed on a sticker, and then the sticker was applied to the card.
21. Super Short Print (SSP) is the rarer version of a short print.
22. Top loader is a durable protective sleeve for a card.

We tried gathering the most popular and useful slangs and sports card terms in this blog. If you are interested in selling your collection, American Legends is the most honest and reliable company to turn to.

Call us at 914-725-2225 and tell us what you have!