NBA Basketball Cards 101: Card Terminology

Base - Regular cards/Basic card, which may contain 60, 90, 120 or even up to 300 cards per set.

Insert - Subsets, usually it contain 10-20 card per set created under a series example “Jambalaya” series, “Total O” series. It random insert to the pack with fix ratio. Ex, 1:29 mean 1 out of 29 packs.

Jerseys - Cards that contain event worn / game worn jersey pieces. Some of it may have multiple color or player in the card.

Patches - Cards that contain event worn/ game worn jersey patches (usually multi-color)

Autographs - Cards that contain autograph(s) of playerso On-card auto – hand signed by player directly on card, it usually worth more than

sticker auto card.

o Sticker auto – hand signed by player on sticker and stick on card

o Cut auto – The autograph or material is obtain from a 3rd party source and authenticated by card manufacturer. Usually from legend who passed away.

o Inscription/Nickname - personal message / nickname singed on card. Like “The Worm” nickname of Dennis Rodman.

Printing plates - metal plates which used to print the card. Has 4 colors ( Black, Red, Blue, Yellow) and always is 1/1 masterpieces

Numbered cards - short print/SP cards, can be as rare as only “1 of 1". First copy (i.e. 01/25), last copy (i.e. 299/299) and number same as the player's jersey number (i.e. 7/xx for Brandon Roy)

Chromeo Chrome Base - cards with a chromium, shiny surface

o Refractors - even more shiny

o X-fractor - chrome with mini-square patter

o Superfractor - refer to picture, usually a 1 of 1

Jersey Tags - cards contain tag from jerseys

Logoman - usually 1 of 1

Team Logo - patch from the team logo (partial or whole)

Die-Cut - non-rectangular card

9-Up/Uncut Sheet- Uncut sheet of nine cards, usually promos. Box Topper Card - Card included in a factory sealed box.

Film card – card content a piece of film with memorable moment for the player.

Video card – introduce by Panini which have a LCD and chip to reply highlight moment for the player.

Parallel Card - A modified base card, which may contain extra foil stamping, hologram stamping that distinguishes the card from the base card.

Rookie Cards - cards released in the rookie year for a player (sometimes people do not count certain inserts and consider them not true rookie card)

Baseball patch – cards contain pieces of baseball

Basketball patch – cards contain pieces of baseball

Game Floor - cards that contain pieces of game used floor

Booklet Cards - card that opens up into 2 or more panels

Buybacks - card manufacturers buy cards from older series, and re-insert them into new releases, sometimes autographed (i.e. the Melo below is a jersey card from 03-04 black diamond and re-released in 04-05 ultimate autographed)

Manufactured patch - patch that is manufactured just for the card, never been used in events or game, nor worn by any player (sometimes letter patch can be manufactured as well)

Letter patch - letter patch product base on player, city, team name.

Sketch cards - artist hand-drawn cards

Plexi-Glass cards - cards made of plexi-glass

Gold Cards - card contain real 14k or 22k gold

Redemption cards - when manufacturers could not produce the card in time or the release / waiting for a player to sign. They put redemptions into packs, which owner can redeem it on company website and cards will be mail directly to the owner.

Rainbow - getting every variation of a single card

Graded card - card submitted to grading company, sealed in a case