Cartophilic terminology

[loose cannon]

I would not claim to be the most experienced collector and I was wondering whether terminology is the same world over or whether different countries have their own words and phrases used in card collecting which are not used in other countries.

For example the word 'pickup' meaning, I believe, a recent card aquisition is used widely in the US but I haven't herard it used in the UK. Am I wrong? are there UK card collectors who use this word (apart from when they're on an American site)?

Perhaps a lexicon of cartophilic terminology might be useful so members from different countries can translate what each other are saying...

[Captain Pugwash]

I have heard pickup used in the U.K: as in I had a good pickup last week.

I would probably say: I had a good buy or a good find.

[mrp1017]

Pickup is one of a gillion words that mean the same thing. Its just a continuation of the bastardization of the American English language. Disgusting,isn't it?

[IanSammel]

I have heard pickup used in the U.K: as in I had a good pickup last week.

I thought a pickup was a kind of truck.  Or maybe he plays the guitar 

[fossil]

thats what my grandaughters say, 'grandad, can i have a pickup', when they are tired.
it is the same when i read palaeontological journals, the american journals miss out the first 'a', , where european and english speaking colonials keep the first ;a;.
secondly, since joining this website, i have often heard 'slab', couls someone let me know what this is, as i have no idea, never having heard of this term since collecting

[mrp1017]

"Slab" to me is a reference to a graded card.
"I got my card slabbed at PSA last week."

[Captain Pugwash]

Slab or slabbed.

Sealed in rigid plastic at a cost !!!!

[fossil]

that sems to be rather a bizarre way to treat a card, i don't understand the purpose of this ?
do collectors do that to all of their collection, or only individual cards or their entire collection.
they must work out pretty bulky for storage

[Captain Pugwash]

Not only bulky,expensive too.

mrp1017 would have more detailed knowledge than myself.

The idea is to have a card graded.This then guarantees the card is genuine to the owner or future buyer.
Due to the high money spent on certain cards in the USA, this system was introduced due to forgeries coming on to the market.

In Dave Jamieson's book: Mint Condition How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession. There is a detailed chapter on this subject.

I would recommend this book even if you are not interested in Baseball.

[loose cannon]

OK, here's another one for you - What's a 'sectional'? As in "When do you think the first back ' sectional ' set was released ?" - seen on a US website.

[mrp1017]

When grading hit the market here it quickly put to rest any instance of the seller overgrading his card and the buyer being unhappy with it. It also made cards more liquid as there was now a consistent standard, backed by a legitimate public company, confirming its authenticity and preserving it against the conditions that harm cards. Mail order was now reputable and eBay was taking off. The perfect storm.

But the card also became another product. It was now not the card that it was, but a graded example of that card. Hard to describe but the grading added an extra value on it for the service.  A service that rescued an industry and defined the rarities of some issues that were, at best, speculation.

The best part about it all was when the main grading service created a Set Registry that triumphed owners of sets and the conditions they were in. Every card in that set is weighted as to rarity and condition sensitivity and player selection. Factor in the given grade, divide by the amount of cards in the set and you have a grade of the set. Collectors now beat the bushes for higher examples as to beat the guy next to him and get a better overall grade. It was genius and a boon for the card dealers.

[mrp1017]

OK, here's another one for you - What's a 'sectional'? As in "When do you think the first back ' sectional ' set was released ?" - seen on a US website.

Never heard of this term. Maybe it was referring to a subset of the main set. Many baseball issues had smaller topic sets within a larger set. Something like in the 1972 Topps set there were several subsets. One was called Boyhood Photos that showed a ballplayer and a pic from when he was growing up.