Mike's Guide to Beginning Collectors:
by Mike D. Wittman

To everyone who is new to collecting: Welcome to the world's greatest hobby! If you're a sports fan, there is nothing more enjoyable than collecting cards of your favorite player.
If you're not a sports fan, you will soon become one with this hobby. You may have been interested in card collecting when you read something on the web, or in a magazine. A friend, relative, or spouse may be collecting and has sparked your interest. Or maybe you drive past a hobby shop on your way to work or school every day and say "I wonder what is going on in there." Luckily, in your internet search, trying to find a way to get started, you have stumbled upon one of the most helpful and friendly message boards on the net. There are many helpful people here who are more than willing to answer your questions. Anyway, this guide will attempt to answer all of your questions and get you started on the enjoyable road to card collecting.
In the guide, "card vocab" words will be in bold print.
Enjoyment or Investment?
You can begin a collection in many ways, but first you have to make an important decision. Are you making this collection for enjoyment, or are you making it for investment? You should decide upon this before making getting your first card. A collector collecting for enjoyment will collect cards he is interested in, and pay as much as he sees fit for them. A collector collecting as an investment collects cards he thinks will go up in value for a price that he can profit from. Each choice is OK, and you will probably find yourself having a enjoyment collection and an investment collection. This decision is important because it will control how you search and find cards.

What are cards?
A card is a piece of usually cardboard that can be collected and traded. Cards come in packs of 1 card to 15 cards. Common pack sizes are 5 cards and 8 cards. Packs are sold in boxes with usually 10-24 packs per box. Boxes are packaged in cases with 12 boxes commonly in a case. There are several types of cards. Base cards are the most common types of cards. When you buy a pack of cards, most of the cards in it will usually be base cards. These cards feature one or more players or events and are not valued for that much. Rookie cards are the first cards of a specific player in a specific set. True rookie cards are the first ever cards of a player. Inserts are special cards that are rarer than base cards. Some cards may be foil or have different designs. They are called inserts because at the factories, these special cards are inserted into packs at a specific ratio. For example, a certain card may have an insert ratio of 1:6, which means on average, you would get one of these with every 6 packs.
Parallels are cards that look very similar to base cards but usually have one minor difference. These cards are usually inserts and are sometimes serial numbered or #'d
Serial numbered cards, often called #'d cards or numbered cards, have been factory numbered out of a certain number. For example, if a card says 87/100 on the back or front, that means only 100 of this card exist, and this card is number 87. These cards are often very rare, as nowadays cards are numbered to as low as 50,25, or even 1, which means that there is only one card in existance. These are called 1 of 1s
Within the last 5 years, companies have cought on to a craze of game used memorabilia cards. These cards are often called GU. Game used cards have a piece of jersey, bat, base, or other apparel or equipment that a player has worn in a game embedded in the card. These cards are often serial numbered. There is a special kind of GU card called patch cards, which are cut from the piece of the patches on the jersey and are rarer than regular GU cards.
Autographed, or auto'd cards feature the players signature on the card, usually with a cutout, a sticker, or directly on a card. These are sometimes shortened to AU. These are the rarest of most cards and the most valuable.
Here is some more vocab, contributed by darthtampon. Thank you, John!

Beaters n. cards that have been so badly beaten up -- with lost corners, pen marks, pin holes -- that they have no real value on the market. "Mostly beaters are used to help fill up older, harder-to-get sets until acard in better condition comes along. Syn. Tipton Mints.

Book: To sell for a certain price according to a price guide, the most popular being Beckett's. "That Frank Thomas books for $5."

Card shark: Someone who rips you off. "Don't trade with Jerry; he's a card shark."

Cherry picking: The practice of searching for inserts by first opening a few boxes of cards to see if any patterns emerge, then using your knowledge of that pattern to go to a shop and obtain all the inserts in a box while actually buying only a few of the packs. This practice is frowned on by most collectors and dealers, but happens with alarming regularity. [ED:i.e., Don't do it! Don't be lured by those eBay auctions. ~Mike] Syn. insert search.

Common: A card of a player who is not a star and which therefore
commands no special premium; usually available for next to nothing.

Crack some wax: To open several packs (usually a whole box) of cards in one sitting. "Let's go over to Jimmy's house and crack some wax." Syn. busting wax. A pack of cards is called "wax" because until 1991 baseball cards were wrapped in waxed paper to keep the accompanying gum fresh.
"The idea that wax packs could 'keep the gum fresh' apparently ignores the fact that the little pink slabs could be carbon-dated to the Mesozoic."

Doc Jimmy; Dr. James Beckett, founder of the Beckett's guide, on which prices are based. Rel: Beckett: his magazine.

First day: A card produced on the first day of the printing run; these cards have an extra stamp on them and are limited to 2,000. Available only in the Topps Stadium Club series, but the idea has been imitated by other companies, using names such as artist's proof, printer's proof, etc.

Good pull: A good card. "That Michael Jordan autographed card was a good pull."
insert n. a special card, not part of the regular set, that is attached
to each main set. It is numbered independently and often preceded by a
letter (for example, A1).

loaded adj. refers to a set of cards that has a lot of nice-looking
insert cards. "That new Leaf 95 set is loaded."

mail in n. a card or set that can be had only by mailing in a certain
number of wrappers or a special redemption card.

Mint: A card in perfect condition.

Pages: Special plastic pages that hold nine regular-sized cards, used for storage and protection.

Penny sleeve: A soft plastic card holder, made of the same material as pages; usually a card is put in one of these before it goes into a top
loader.

Rack pack: A very large package of cards, sold in some retail outlets, that are hung up instead of being displayed in boxes. [ED: Usually not done anymore, usually for older sets. ~Mike]

Rookie card: A player's first card in a major league set.

Short print: A card of which the company has purposely printed fewer, in order to drive up the value.

Top loader: A hard plastic case, sealed on three sides, into which you drop a card from the top; used for storage and protection of more valuable
cards.

That was a lot of vocab! Well, now you know what kind of cards there are, now you need to learn about the companies.

Card Companies
There are 4 major card companies across the 4 major sports. Donruss, Upper Deck, Topps, and Fleer. Some companies operate under different names. For example, Playoff and Score are both Donruss brands, Bowman is a Topps brand and SkyBox is a Fleer brand. Each year, companies put out many sets, or lines of product. It is always helpful to identify a set by its name and year, because many sets are produced in more than one year. I might say, "This card is from 2003 Fleer Platinum." You can visit each companies website to get more information about the different brands.
Along with those major brands, there are many brands in other sports. In hockey, there is Pacific, which used to make baseball cards. NASCAR and football has Press Pass and Basketball and Football has SA-GE. Minor League baseball has Best, Just, and Royal Rookies.
These brands are not valued as much as the brands above.

Where can I get cards?
So now you want to put a card into your hands. Well, you can get them in many ways. If you want single cards, probably the best place for them is eBay (www.ebay.com). You can set how much you want to pay, and you will probably get better deals there than anywhere else. Another possible place is a card show. A card show is when dealers get together and show their wares to collectors. You can check online at www.tradingcard.com to see where a show near you is. You can go to a card store, where there is usually a knowledgable dealer who can assist you in buying cards. You can even buy them at a local department store. If you are looking to buy boxes, one of the cheapest places is online at Dave and Adam's card world (www.dacardworld.com).

Hobby v. Retail, and what is a graded card?
There are 2 different kinds of packs of cards. Hobby packs can be bought at card stores and online. Retail packs can be purchased at department or toy stores. The cards will be the same, yet you will notice that retail is cheaper. Retail packs' insert odds are worse than hobby. That means you are more likely, but not guarenteed, to get a rarer card in a pack of hobby than a pack of retail.
Also, browsing eBay or here at SCF, you may hear of graded cards. Graded cards are cards that are sent out by the owner to a grading company. 2 of the major ones are PSA(Pro Sports Authenticators), and BGS (Beckett Grading Services). These companies examine the cards and give them a number grade, usually from one to ten, on the quality of the card.
These cards are generally worth more if they get a good grade.

Book Value and Beckett
The concept of book value, or BV, is discussed a lot. BV is generally used to determine a card's worth. The most trusted "book" is Beckett Magazine. This company puts out a pricing magazine every month that lists cards and their BVs. Most people talk about the "high" BVs, which is what someone would probably pay if they bought it in a card store. You should usually pay less than half of the BV if you can. Another magazine called Tuff Stuff also makes a price guide, but they are generally less trusted.

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