The words collectors use at the counter and in the order book. Pick a term to read its meaning; full entries explain how to recognise the thing and how our catalog names it.
- Ask
- A seller's price for a specific copy; the lowest ask is the price you pay now.
- Auto
- A card signed by the player, on-card or on a sticker; certified by the publisher.
- Base
- The plain version of a card, printed in the largest quantity; every parallel is a variant of it.
- BGS
- Beckett Grading Services; known for sub-grades and the black-label 10.
- Bid
- A buyer's written offer, open until it expires or a seller accepts it.
- Binder
- A collection you organise and can show publicly, with its market value tracked.
- Case hit
- A card so rare it appears about once per sealed case, not per box.
- Centering
- How evenly the image sits between the borders, left/right and top/bottom.
- CGC
- A grading company known from comics, now grading cards; uses a 10-point scale with half grades.
- Comps
- Comparable sales used to judge what a card is worth.
- Corners
- The four points of the card; sharpness and whitening decide a grade first.
- Counter
- A partner shop or desk where cards are handed over, collected and checked in person.
- Dispute
- Raising a problem on the order page before confirming; the money stays held while it is looked at.
- Edges
- The four sides; chipping and roughness show here, especially on dark borders.
- Gem mint
- The top grade — PSA 10, CGC 10, BGS 9.5 or 10.
- Graded
- Authenticated and sealed in a slab with a numeric grade by PSA, CGC, SGC or Beckett.
- Hand-over
- Passing a sold card to its buyer at the counter named on the listing — the seller has 48 hours to arrange it.
- Insert
- A card from a themed subset inside a product, outside the base numbering.
- Last sale
- What a copy actually sold for, with date and condition — the number that matters.
- One of one (/1)
- A parallel with a print run of exactly one copy.
- One-touch
- A magnetic hard case that holds the card without touching its corners.
- Parallel
- The same card reprinted on a different stock, colour or finish, often serial-numbered.
- Patch
- A card with a piece of a worn jersey or patch embedded; multi-colour patches are rarer.
- Penny sleeve
- A soft plastic sleeve; the first layer on every card.
- Pop report
- A grading company's count of how many copies it has graded at each grade.
- Print run
- How many copies of a parallel exist; the number after the slash.
- Prizm
- Panini's equivalent of the refractor: a reflective parallel with its own colour ladder.
- PSA
- The largest grading company; a PSA 10 "Gem Mint" is its own book on AllCardzz.
- Raw
- Not graded; trades on the condition its seller declares, from Mint down to Poor.
- Refractor
- A chromium-stock parallel with a rainbow sheen — Topps Chrome's ladder starts here. Full entry →
- Relic
- Any card with embedded memorabilia — jersey, bat, ball, glove.
- Reprint
- A later reproduction of an original card; legitimate when marked, a fake when passed off as the original.
- Rookie card (RC)
- A player's first licensed card in a major set, usually marked with an RC logo; carries a premium.
- Serial-numbered
- A card stamped with its copy number and print run, e.g. 23/99.
- SGC
- A grading company favoured for vintage; black-label slabs.
- Slab
- The sealed plastic holder a graded card lives in, with its label and cert number.
- Spread
- The gap between the lowest ask and the highest bid.
- SP / SSP
- Short print and super short print — cards deliberately printed in smaller numbers than the base.
- Surface
- The front and back faces; scratches, print lines, dimples and gloss loss live here.
- Team bag
- A resealable bag that seals a toploader shut for transit.
- Toploader
- A rigid plastic holder a sleeved card slides into.
- Tracked delivery
- Post with a tracking number; the only kind accepted on AllCardzz.
- Variation
- A version of a card with a different photo or detail, sometimes unannounced.
- Wishlist
- The cards you want; sellers browsing the wishlist can see it and list against it.