Vocabulary

There is a lot of lingo attached to collecting trading cards. On this page I hope to help you understand how to communicate in regards to Sailor Moon cards.

It can be tricky when your first getting started as many people you will go to will be experienced and start talking with abbreviations and such you might not understand. Hopefully this page can help.

If there is anything you think should be added or changed, please email me.

Starting off

One of the easiest thing to get confused with, and one of the first things, you will run into, is the way the explanations are set up. I have seen that most traders and what not follow the following pattern:

Series Name-Set Number-_-Card Number-Card Type-_-Card Side-Part Number

Seeing "pp1_001hp_fp1" can seem crazy if you don't know what it means. Here is the explanation:

Pull Pack Set 1 Card 001 Hard Prism Front Side Part 1

Small line's are usually used as spacers between the different parts. Some parts are left off unless they are needed, usually the last two parts. Listing whether it is the front or the back side of the card is only needed when looking at a picture of the card itself. Also, there are very few cards that are more than one part. This means that the image continues on more then one card.

Definitions

Series - A group of sets, like Pull Pack or Cardzillion.

Set - A group of cards, usually between 21 and 72 (but can be higher or lower with each set). Sets make up the different series' of cards. For example, there are 10 sets in the Carddass series. With Series' that only have one set it is usually referred to just by the series name, not the set number.

Trader - A person who finish's their collection by trading their extra's for what they don't have. There are many different kinds of trades, please see below for a list. There aren't many people who strictly trade anymore, many trade but also buy on occasion.

Buyer - A person who finish's their collection by paying for what they don't have and selling their extra's. Buyers don't usually trade, or do it very rarely, as they mostly only buy what they need and don't have extra cards. However, this is becoming more uncommon as many buyers are become traders as well.

Seller - A person who buys cards and sell's them, but doesn't actually collect them, or collects a certain few.

Common - A card that is readily avaibale, usually the cheapest ones.

Uncommon - A card that is not as avaibale as a common, but still not to hard to find.

Rare - A card that is hard to find, usually very expensive. This cards are called rare for a reason.

Ultra Rare - These cards are the hardest ones to find and are the most expensive as well. You might see these once in a blue moon.

Misprint - These cards are mistakes in the actual printing of the card. The borders and the images might not line up, the top color might not have been added, etc., etc. Many people collect these cards for the rarity factor.

Traders

Traders can be just as different as Pull Pack and Cardzillion. Here is a list of the different types of traders out there.

Name Means
Regular These traders try to collect all the cards that are out there, but they look for deals or ways to trade their extra's for one's they need.
Partial These traders only collect the cards they like. They might only collect one series or only cards with picture's of a certain character.
Promo's These traders only collect the promo or preview cards.
Rare's These traders only collect the rare or special cards such as prisms and gold cards.
Purest These traders can seem insane as they go after every card and everything related to them. Money is no issue as they will spend fortunes finishing their decks. They might even collect shrink wrapped boxes and not even open them, hence the "purest" name.

Card Names

*note* Because there are so many different series' and sets, I am still working on this list. Please be patient.

Abbreviation Meaning Abbreviation Meaning
pp Pull Pack cz Cardzillion
pp seal Pull Pack Seal aw/df1 Awesome (Dart Series 1)
c/cd Carddass pm/df2 Prismatic (Dart Series 2)
cw/cdw Carddass W s3/df3 Series 3 (Dart Series 3)
g/gr Graffiti ar/df4 Archival (Dart Series 4)
fm/fa/m Fifth Anniversary Memorial af/flipz Action Flipz
hc Hero Collection ccg/cgc Collectible Card Game
b/br Bromide fc Film Collection
dxb DX Bromide
bp Banpresto

Card Condition

Condition Meaning
Mint/Near Mint (M/NM) Its like new or in perfect condition
Good (G) It is alright but has some problems
Poor/Damaged (P/D) It might have writing, be bent, scratched, or many other things
Misprint (MP) A mistake in the printing of the card from the positioning to the color

Card Size

Name Average size
Standard/Regular 2.5" x 3.5"
Jumbo 7" by 10"
Mini 1.5" by 2"
2x2 2" x 2"

Card Types

There are many different types of cards, so please be patient as I get them all listed. If you know of one that is not listed here then please send me an e-mail.

Type What It Means Definition Example
1 Regular Card The regular or standard cards in a series Here
1c Chase Card The cards that are not part of the regular deck, these include: promo's, mail-away, and the like Here
1hp Hard Prism Card The cards with a prism affect on the front Here
1sp Soft Prism Same as Hard Prism's, but are stickers Here
1f Foil Card The cards with a shiny front side Here
1sf Soft Foil Card Same as Foil's, but are stickers Here
1s Sticker Card The cards that can be used as stickers Here
1l Lenticular (Flip) Card The cards that show two different picture's when moved around Here
1p Pog (Menko) Card The cards that are shaped as circles of varying size's Here
1h Heart Card The cards that are shaped as hearts of varying size's Here
1chp Chase Hard Prism Card Same as a hard prism card but is also a chase card Here
1cf Chase Foil Card Same as a foil card but is also a chase card Here
1dsp/dp Double Soft Prism/Double Prism The cards with a Soft Prism on top then another Soft Prism or Foil Sticker underneath Here
1gf Gold Foil Card Same as Foil's just with a gold coloring or etched into gold leaf/foil Here
1sf Silver Foil Card Same as Foil's just with a silver coloring or etched into silver leaf/foil Here
1gsf Gold Silver Foil Card Same as Gold or Silver Foil's just with gold on one side and silver on the other Here

Examples will appears below.

Fakes

For examples please click here, here, here, here, and here. The images will appear above.

Prism Sticker Cards have begun to run rampant in the Sailor Moon trading card world. These cards are like regular soft prism cards, but they are fakes. Usually made in Asian countries to sell as the real thing.

The easiest way to tell if the card you are looking at is a fake is to look at the prism design. A normal soft prism has a small diamond, square, or glitter design for the prism effect. Prism Sticker Cards have numerous designs, the most common being the spiral and tie-dye design. Also, true prism cards aren't totally covered by the design. It is usually on the background and parts of the outfits and/or facial features.

If you can't figure it out that way then another way would be to look for more picture's of the card, set, or series. A Prism Sticker Card deck, while having all the same pictures, will have all the picture's as prism's. That is a dead give away that they are fakes. There is no official Prism Sticker deck.

Since these cards have become so numerous people have started collecting them as there own deck's. Some companies that make them have started to produce decks that are totally new and all Prism Sticker Cards. So to be fair they are becoming less fake these days and moving more to the side of just being more cards to collect.

I will try my best to list every card that I know of so that people can tell the real thing from the not so real. This way it will be easier to complete their decks and money will not be wasted.