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 know as 'unused'.

Trading Cards

A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card which is intended for trading and collecting. They began originally as premiums distributed with tobacco products, but 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 editorial trading cards or simply nonsports 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 may sometimes be 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 could 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 trading cards depends on a combination of the subject's popularity, the scarcity of the cards, and their condition. In some cases, especially with older cards before the advent of card collecting as a widespread hobby, they have become collector's items of considerable value. In more 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 through America baseball cards are popular, in Canada the RCMP distribute cards of each Mountie in the Musical Ride.