TRADING CARD

A 'trading card' (or 'collectible card') is a small card which is intended for trading and collecting. The cards began originally as premiums distributed with tobacco products, but later became very popular as inserts to bubblegum packs. Eventually, the cards became the more desirable content, and the gum, with few exceptions, is no longer included in trading card packs.
Trading cards are traditionally associated with sports; baseball cards are especially well-known. Cards dealing with other subjects are often considered a separate category from sports cards, known as non-sports trading cards. These often feature cartoons, comic book characters, television series, or movie stills. They should not be confused with a trade card.
As with playing cards, which they generally resemble, trading cards are often used to play various games. In the 1990s, cards designed specifically for playing games became popular enough to develop into a distinct category of collectible card games. These tend to use either fantasy subjects or sports as the basis for gameplay.
The development of the Internet has brought the development of various online communities, through which members can trade cards with each other. Cards are often bought and sold via eBay, which has been a boon to card collectors, but has led to the demise of many local card shops.
The value of a trading card depends on a combination of the subject's popularity, the scarcity of the card, and the card's condition. In some cases, especially with older cards that preceded the advent of card collecting as a widespread hobby, they have become collectors' items of considerable value. In recent years, many sports cards have not necessarily appreciated as much in value due to mass production, although some manufacturers have used limited editions and smaller print runs to boost value.
In some jurisdictions, trading cards are distributed by police officers to children in order to boost public relations. While throughout America baseball cards are popular, in Canada the Royal Canadian Mounted Police distribute cards of each Mountie in the Musical Ride.

Contents

Terminology

Condition descriptors

Companies that produce or have produced trading cards

Categories of trading cards

Sports cards

Non-sports cards

Movie & television cards

See also

Terminology

Presented in logical order, not alphabetical:

★ 'Cards' - usually the standard baseball size of 2.5 in. by 3.5 in., but 'widevision' cards are of the tall historically-basketball size.

★ 'Packs' - the original wrapper with base and insert cards within, often called 'wax packs', typically with two to eight cards per pack. Today the packs are usually plastic foil wrap.

★ 'Wrappers' - the original pack cover, often with collectible variations.


★ 'Retail Cards' -- cards, packs, boxes, and cases sold to the public, typically via retail stores.

★ 'Hobby Cards' -- items sold mainly to collectors, typically via mail-order. Usually contains some items not included in the retail offerings.

★ 'Blister Packs' -- factory plastic bubble pack of cards or packs, for retail peg-hanger sales.

★ 'Rack Packs' -- factory packs of unwrapped cards, for retail peg-hanger sales.

★ 'Tins' -- factory metal can, typically filled with cards or packs, often with inserts.

★ 'Boxes' - original manufacturer's container of multiple packs, often 24 packs per box.

★ 'Cases' - factory-sealed crate filled with card boxes, often six to twelve card boxes per case. Often 24 packs per box.

★ 'Common Cards' -- also known as base cards. Nonrare cards that form the main set (for example Cards 1-200).

★ 'Parallel Cards' -- usually a modification of the main set of base cards which contains extra foil stamping, hologram stamping and are often seen one per pack up to one per 36 packs.

★ 'Insert Cards' -- also known as chase cards. Nonrare to rare cards that are randomly inserted into packs at various ratios like 1 per 24 packs for example. An Insert Card is often different from the main set, contains a different number on the back such as SS01 to SS10, etc.

★ 'Promo Cards' -- cards that are distributed, typically in advance, by the manufacturer to enhance sales.

★ 'Redemption Cards' -- special cards that come in packs that are mailed (posted) to the manufacturer for a special card or some other gift.

★ 'Sketch Cards' -- insert cards that feature near-one-of-a-kind artists sketches.

★ 'Autograph Cards' -- printed insert cards that also bear an original cast or artist signature. Rarely Seen.

★ 'Box Topper Cards' -- cards that are included in a factory sealed box.

★ 'Case Cards' -- card or cards included as a bonus in a factory sealed case.

★ 'Oversized Cards' -- any base, common, insert, or other cards not of standard or widevision size.

★ 'Unreleased Cards' -- cards printed by the manufacturer, but not officially distributed for a variety of reasons. Often leaked to the public, sometimes improperly.

★ 'Base Sets' -- a complete set of base cards for a particular card series.

★ 'Insert Sets' -- a complete set of a particular class of inserts, often called a 'subset'.

★ 'Master Sets' -- not well defined; often a base set and all readily available insert sets; typically does not include promos, mail-in cards, sketch, or autograph cards.

★ 'Factory Sets' -- card sets, typically complete base sets, sorted and sold from the factory.

★ 'Uncut Sheets' -- sheets of uncut base, insert, promo, or other cards.

★ '9-Up Sheets' -- uncut sheets of nine cards, usually promos.

★ 'Sell Sheets' -- also 'ad slicks'. Usually one page, but increasingly fold-outs, distributed by the manufacturers to card distributors, in advance, to enhance case sales.

Condition descriptors

★ 'M/NM' -- Mint/Near Mint. Items without any flaws. For example, not misprinted, with corner dings, card creases, etc.

★ 'Excellent' -- A near perfect card, but with a dinged corner or other very minor imperfection.

★ 'Very Good' -- Looks fine at arm's length, but looking closer reveals soft corners and other imperfections.

★ 'Good' -- A card with writing on it, poor centering, a mild crease, or worn but present corners.

★ 'Fair' -- A rather damaged card, such as bad crease or worn-off corners.

★ 'Poor' -- A seriously damaged card.

★ 'Pack Fresh' -- just removed from the pack, box, or case. Not necessarily M/NM.

★ 'Factory Fresh' -- items not distributed via packs, but instead directly from the manufacturers. Also known as 'unused'.

Companies that produce or have produced trading cards

★ Ace Authentic ★ Action Packed ★ Artbox ★ Bowman Gum a.k.a. Gum, Inc. ★ Card Lynx ★ Classic ★ Collector's Edge ★ Comic Images ★ Custom-TradingCards.com ★ Dart Flipcards ★ Digimon ★ Donruss ★ Fleer 1981-present ★ Futera Sports Cards (Australia and UK) ★ Game On Sports, Inc. ★ Gloopy Toys 2005-present ★ Goodwin & Company 1887–1890 ★ Goudey 1933-1941 ★ Hoops ★ Inkworks ★ Insetcards ★ In The Game ★ Leaf Candy Company ★ Nintendo ★ Monsterwax ★ O-Pee-Chee ★ Pacific Trading Cards ★ Panini ★ Parkhurst Products ★ Pokemon 1996-present ★ Philadelphia Gum

★ Pinnacle Brands ★ Playoff (company) ★ Press Pass ★ Pro Set ★ Pro Line ★ Rittenhouse Archives ★ SAGE ★ Score ★ Select Australia ★ SkyBox International ★ STAR ★ TheCardKid Inc, TK Allan ★ Tobacco Bad Kids ★ Topps ★ Upper Deck 1989-present ★ Webkinz 2007-present ★ Wild Card ★ Wizards of the Coast ★ Yaquinto Printing Co., Inc. ★ Tokenzone, Inc.

Categories of trading cards

Sports cards

★ Australian Football League

★ Baseball

★ Basketball

★ Boxing

★ Football

★ Golf

★ Hockey

★ Racing

★ Tennis

Non-sports cards

★ The Aquabats!

★ Ben 10

★ DC Cosmic Cards

★ Digimon

★ Garbage Pail Kids

★ Kiss (band)

★

★ Marvel Universe Cards

★ Naruto

★ Pokémon

★ Wacky Packages

★ Yu-Gi-Oh!

★ Zatch Bell!

★ World of Warcraft

★ Chaotic

★ Webkinz

Movie & television cards

★ Ace Ventura

★ The Addams Family

★ Alf

★ Alias

★ Alien

★ All My Children

★ American Gladiators

★ American Idol

★ The Andy Griffith Show

★ Angel

★ The Apprentice

★ A-Team

★ Austin Powers

★ The Avengers

★ Babylon 5

★ Back to the Future

★ Battlestar Galactica

★ Baywatch

★ Beavis and Butt-head

★ Beetlejuice

★ The Beverly Hillbillies

★ Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

★ The Bionic Woman

★ The Black Hole

★ Blue Chips

★ Bozo the Clown

★ Buck Rogers

★ Buffy the Vampire Slayer

★ Casper

★ Charlie's Angels

★ Charmed

★ Coneheads

★ The Crocodile Hunter

★

★ CSI Miami

★ CSI NY

★ Dallas

★ Damn Yankees

★ Daredevil

★ Dark Angel

★ Demolition Man

★ Doctor Who

★ Doom

★ Dukes of Hazzard

★ E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

★ Elvis

★ Flash Gordon

★ The Flintstones

★ Free Willy

★ Ghostbusters

★ Gilligan's Island

★ Godzilla

★ Grease

★ Gremlins

★ Growing Pains

★ Happy Days

★ Harry Potter

★ Hellraiser

★ Hercules

★ Highlander

★ Home Alone

★ Home Improvement

★ The Honeymooners

★ Hook

★ Howard the Duck

★ I Love Lucy

★ Ice Age

★ In Living Color

★ Independence Day

★ Indiana Jones

★ It's a Wonderful Life

★ James Bond 007

★ Jaws

★ Jaws 2

★ Jaws 3-D

★ Judge Dredd

★ Jurassic Park

★ King Kong

★ Knight Rider

★ The Lord of the Rings

★ Lost in Space

★ Lost Season One

★ Lost Revelations

★ Lost Season Two

★ Mallrats

★ Marilyn Monroe

★ Mars Attacks

★ M
★ A
★ S
★ H

★ The Mask

★ Men in Black

★ Monty Python and the Holy Grail

★ Mork and Mindy

★ Mr. Bean

★ Pinocchio

★ Raiders of the Lost Ark

★ Rambo

★ RoboCop

★ RoboCop 2

★ Rocky

★ Rocky II

★ The Rocky Horror Picture Show

★ Roy Rogers

★ Sabrina, the Teenage Witch

★ Saved by the Bell

★ Scarface

★ Scooby Doo

★ SeaQuest DSV

★ Sesame Street

★ Shrek

★ Shrek 2

★ The Simpsons

★ Smallville

★ The Sopranos

★ South Park

★ Space Jam

★ Spawn

★ Species

★ Speed Racer

★ Spider-Man

★ Spider-Man 2

★ Spider-Man 3

★ Spike

★ Star Trek

★ Star Wars

★ Stargate

★ Starlog

★ Starship Troopers

★ Superman

★ Tank Girl

★

★

★ Total Recall

★ Veronica Mars

★ Waterworld

★ ''The Wizard of Oz''

★

★ The X-Files

See also

★ Cigarette Cards

★ Error card

★ List of collectible card games

★ Trade card

★ Artist trading card (ATC)