In this section I will cover several frequently asked questions involving mostly trading card games.
What are popular card games?
The oldest and most popular card games are Magic the Gathering, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. Other card games that are around for a while already are Final Fantasy, Force of Will, Weiss Schwarz and Cardfight Vanguard. New and upcoming card games are Flesh and Blood and One Piece TCG. Some other games also got rebooted, for example Digimon Card Game.
What are popular non-game cards?
Popular non-game cards are mostly sports cards, for example Basketball, Baseball, Ice Hockey, Football and Formula 1 cards. There are non-sports cards too, like Star Wars cards. These cards are often produced by companies like Topps, Panini or Upper Deck.
What are popular buying and selling platforms?
In the United States the most popular platforms are eBay and TCGPlayer. In Europe the most popular platform is Cardmarket.
What is a good card tracking tool?
I myself prefer EchoMTG for Magic the Gathering cards. It is easy to add cards, track the purchase and optionally sale prices and you can opt in to receive emails about price changes. There are different pricing plans available, the $3 per month plan is enough to satisfy my needs.
What is a trading card?
A trading card is a card that can be used to play games with after creating a deck of cards, common numbers are 40 or 60 cards for a deck. They can also be collected to enjoy their artwork. They are found in both starter decks and booster packs.
What is a non-game card?
A non-game card is often a sports card, or a card featuring a popular franchise. For sports they usually portray the players, and for other franchises they portray the popular characters most often. They are most commonly found in card packs. The term booster seems to be most commonly used with games. Packs or boxes of non-game cards are usually referred to as retail or hobby products.
What is a booster pack?
A booster pack usually refers to a pack of trading cards. One usually finds one or more rare cards and a lot of more common cards. The number of cards in a pack can vary wildly, but between 10 and 15 is a common number. Rare cards generally allow for more complex decks which are often stronger. This product is most often targeted at kids.
What is a booster box?
A booster box is a box of booster packs. Common numbers of packs in a box are 24 and 36. Just like booster packs they often feature artwork of the game on the packaging. This product is targeted at (young) adults.
What is a booster box case?
A booster box case is a box of booster boxes. Common numbers are 4 or 6 booster boxes in a case. This product is targeted at retailers and therefore does not feature any artwork on the packaging.
What is a starter deck?
A starter deck is a small box featuring a ready-made deck with which you can play games. The power level of these decks is usually not very high and most often the packaging features artwork of the game as well. This product is targeted at players of any age. It can also be found in wholesale boxes.
How should cards be shipped?
Ideally cards should be shipped in a soft plastic sleeve within a toploader within a bubble envelope. Optionally one could swap the bubble envelope for a regular envelope or the toploader for two pieces of cardboard, but that is only acceptable for cheap cards. In any case make sure that no piece of tape can touch the card, not even the edges.
