Glossary
The vocabulary of card protection, defined plainly. Every entry cites where its facts came from, including the ones where the industry’s favourite words turn out to mean less than they sound like they do.
All terms
- Acid-free
- Acid-free means a material has a neutral pH and will not release acids that yellow, embrittle or stain a card over time.
- Archival safe
- "Archival safe" is a marketing description rather than a measurable standard. Conservation bodies treat the word "archival" as having no fixed definition.
- PVC-free
- PVC-free means a sleeve or holder contains no polyvinyl chloride, a plastic that releases acids as it ages and can bond to the surface of a card.
- Penny sleeve
- A penny sleeve is a thin, soft, clear polypropylene sleeve that fits a standard card and is sized to slide inside a 3 × 4 toploader.
- Semi-rigid holder
- A semi-rigid holder is a flexible plastic card holder, stiffer than a sleeve but bendable unlike a toploader. It is the format PSA requires for submissions.
- Point (pt)
- A point is a unit of card thickness equal to 0.001 inch (0.0254 mm), so a 35 pt card is 0.035 inches thick.
- Inner sleeve
- An inner sleeve is a snug, thin sleeve sized close to the card itself, worn underneath a normal deck sleeve to seal the card in from both ends.
- Double-sleeving
- Double-sleeving means putting a card in a thin inner sleeve and then a second outer sleeve, so that no opening in either sleeve is left exposed.
- Whitening
- Whitening is the pale line that appears along a card's edges or corners when the printed surface layer wears away and exposes the lighter core beneath.
- Gem Mint
- Gem Mint, graded PSA 10, is the top grade on PSA's ten-point scale: four sharp corners, full original gloss, and front centering no worse than about 55/45.
- D-ring binder
- A D-ring binder has straight-edged rings mounted flat to the back cover, so pages lie flat. Round (O) rings curve pages, which Avery says can bend cards.