Pokémon TCG Glossary — Every Buying & Collecting Term Explained

Pokémon TCG buying and collecting comes with its own vocabulary, and a lot of it isn't self-explanatory. This is the plain-English reference — short definitions here, with links through to a full guide wherever a term genuinely needs one.

Rarity & printings

• Common / Uncommon / Rare — the base rarity tiers, marked by a circle, diamond or star in the card's bottom corner. See the full rarities guide.
• Holo Rare — a rare card with a holographic-foil artwork panel.
• Reverse Holo — a common, uncommon or rare where the frame is foil instead of the artwork — a separate printing with its own price, not a variant of the plain card.
• ex / V / GX — modern mechanically-special Pokémon with their own card frame; the baseline "chase" tier in current sets.
• Full Art / Illustration Rare (IR) — cards where the artwork covers the whole frame; a real price premium begins here.
• Special Illustration Rare (SIR) / Alt Art — the headline chase tier of most modern sets — alternate scenic artwork, usually the priciest non-secret cards in a release.
• Secret Rare — a card numbered above the set's printed total (e.g. 201/197) — gold cards, rainbow cards and special prints live here.
• Promo — cards distributed through events, products or tins, carrying their own numbering (e.g. SWSH262) rather than a mainline set number.

Condition & grading

• NM / LP / MP / HP / DMG — the five-step raw condition scale, Near Mint down to Damaged. Full breakdown, including price impact, in the conditions guide.
• Slab — a card sealed in tamper-evident plastic by a grading company after authentication and grading.
• PSA / CGC / BGS — the three major third-party grading companies. Compared head-to-head in our grading guide.
• Gem Mint 10 — the top grade on a 1–10 scale, awarded to a card with essentially no visible flaws under grading-standard inspection.
• Sub-grades — CGC and BGS additionally grade centering, edges, corners and surface individually; PSA does not.
• Population report — a grading company's public count of how many copies of a card have received each grade — the closest thing to a real scarcity number for graded cards.

Print runs & editions

• 1st Edition — the very first print run of a set, marked with a small stamp; WOTC used this through the early Neo era. Full detail in the 1st Edition guide.
• Shadowless — a Base Set-only quirk where early copies are missing the drop shadow behind the artwork frame — a separate, sought-after printing from standard Unlimited.
• Unlimited — the standard, uncapped later print run; the overwhelming majority of any set's surviving copies.
• Reprint — a card's exact printing (same set, art, number) reissued in a later product, increasing supply of that specific card. Distinct from new artwork of the same Pokémon, which doesn't compete with the original. Full breakdown: do reprints kill value?

Sealed product

• Booster Pack — the base unit, typically 10 cards.
• Booster Box — 36 packs bundled together, no accessories.
• Elite Trainer Box (ETB) — packs plus sleeves, energy cards and a player's guide, aimed at players and light collectors.
• Collection Box / Premium Collection — accessory-heavy boxed product built around a specific Pokémon, often with an oversized card or pin.
• Full breakdown of every format: Pokémon sealed products explained.

Buying & selling

• Market price / market guide — TCGplayer's algorithmic blend of recent real sales for a Near-Mint English card; a reference price, not a store's actual charge.
• Delivered price — card price plus postage — the number that actually matters when comparing stores.
• Deal — on DexCompare, a live store price at least 15% below the market guide (capped at 70% off, since anything deeper is almost always a listing error). See the live deals page.
• Bulk — low-value commons and uncommons, typically worth a few cents each and usually sold or bought in lots rather than individually.

Where to go deeper

This glossary is intentionally short-form — every term links to the full guide where the topic has enough nuance to deserve one. If a term you hit isn't here, the full guides index covers buying, selling, condition, authentication and collection value in depth.