42 terms

Glossary.

Distribution, configuration and wholesale commercial terms, defined precisely. Where something genuinely varies by product or manufacturer, the definition says so — a confident wrong number gets repeated, and “a case contains twelve boxes” is wrong far more often than it is right.

Configuration

9 terms

Blaster: A retail configuration containing a small number of packs in a printed box, sold at a mass-market price point.; See alsoRetail configuration
Box: A sealed unit containing a set number of packs. The box is the unit most hobby transactions are denominated in.; Packs per box varies by product. It is not standard across manufacturers, across product lines, or reliably across years within the same line.; See alsoPack Case Inner case
Boxes per case: The count of boxes inside a manufacturer case for a specific product — the number required to convert any case price into a comparable per-box cost.; See alsoCase Box
Case: The manufacturer shipping unit, containing a set number of boxes. The number of boxes in a case varies by product and is not standard across the industry.; Because boxes per case varies, comparing two distributors on case price without normalizing to a per-box figure is the most common costing error independent shops make.; See alsoInner case Box Boxes per case
Channel exclusive: A configuration produced for a specific retailer or channel and not available through general wholesale distribution.; See alsoChannel Channel restriction
Hobby configuration: Product manufactured for the hobby channel — card shops and hobby distribution — typically with different content, odds and pack counts from retail configurations of the same product line.; See alsoRetail configuration Channel
Inner case: A sub-carton within a manufacturer case, containing a set number of boxes. Not every product has one.; Where an inner case exists it is frequently the most practical purchase quantity for a single store — more than a box, considerably less capital than a full case.; See alsoCase Box Case break
Pack: The smallest sealed unit of trading card product, containing a fixed number of cards set by the manufacturer for that product.; Cards per pack varies by product and by configuration. A hobby pack and a retail pack from the same product line frequently contain different counts.; See alsoBox Hobby configuration
Retail configuration: Product manufactured for the mass-market retail channel, including blasters, hanger packs, fat packs and multi-packs, generally at lower price points than hobby product.; Retail configurations are a different product for a different buyer, not a lesser version of the hobby product. For tourist corridors and impulse-driven locations they are frequently the more appropriate inventory.; See alsoHobby configuration Blaster

Distribution

11 terms

Allocated product: A product whose available quantity is smaller than requested demand, so that quantities are assigned by the distributor rather than ordered freely.; See alsoAllocation
Allocation: The rationing of product whose upstream supply is smaller than downstream demand, distributed against defined criteria rather than in order of request.; Allocation begins at the manufacturer and repeats at each level of distribution. No allocation criterion creates product that does not exist.; See alsoAllocated product Preorder Indicated interest
Allocation confirmation: A distributor’s written statement of the quantity a dealer will actually receive, issued after a preorder and before fulfillment.; See alsoPreorder Allocation
Authorized distributor: A distributor granted a formal, documented right by a manufacturer to distribute its product, usually under a written agreement.; Authorization is a specific legal status, not a description of doing business with a brand. A distributor should not describe itself as authorized for a manufacturer it has not been authorized by.; See alsoChannel restriction
Backorder: An order for product a distributor does not currently hold, held open against expected inbound supply.
Case break: In distribution, opening a sealed manufacturer case in order to sell individual boxes. Distinct from a consumer break, in which packs are opened live for participants.; Not every product can be case-broken. Some are supplied under terms that prohibit it and some are packaged so that breaking the case damages presentation.; See alsoCase Box
Channel: The route by which product reaches an end customer — hobby, mass-market retail, direct-to-consumer or another defined path.; See alsoHobby configuration Channel restriction
Channel restriction: A limit imposed by a manufacturer or supplier on where, to whom or in what channel a product may be sold, enforced by the distributor as a condition of the account.; Channel restrictions override a distributor’s own allocation criteria. They can be geographic, account-type based or channel based.; See alsoChannel Authorized distributor
Fill rate: The proportion of confirmed allocations actually delivered, over a stated period.; See alsoAllocation confirmation
Indicated interest: A non-binding statement by a dealer of the quantity it would take at an indicated price, registered before a distributor commits capital to a product.; Aggregate indicated interest is what a distributor carries upstream when it argues for allocation. It commits neither party and is usually one of the criteria weighted in a later allocation decision.; See alsoPreorder Allocation
Preorder: A binding request for a quantity of a product a distributor has opened for order ahead of release, subject to later allocation confirmation.; A preorder and an allocation confirmation are distinct stages. Between them the confirmed quantity can change, because the distributor’s own supply can change.; See alsoIndicated interest Allocation confirmation

Commercial

13 terms

Aged inventory: Stock that has been held beyond a defined threshold — commonly measured at thirty, sixty and ninety days — and is therefore capital not turning.; See alsoInventory turns
Dealer price: The wholesale price charged to a verified retail account, shown only behind account authentication.; Wholesale pricing is not published publicly by serious distributors. For several product lines, keeping it behind authentication is an explicit condition of supply.; See alsoLanded cost MAP
Dealer verification: The process by which a distributor confirms that an account is a registered business with valid resale credentials and a genuine resale channel, before it can purchase.; Verification protects the distributor’s upstream relationships as much as its own position. A distributor that does not verify is one whose product can end up outside the channel it was sold into.; See alsoResale certificate Channel restriction
EIN: A federal Employer Identification Number issued by the IRS, used to identify a business entity for tax purposes.; See alsoResale certificate
Gross margin: Revenue less cost of goods sold, expressed as a percentage of revenue.; For a distributor and a retailer buying from it, the same product carries two different gross margins, and a healthy channel requires both to be workable. A price that leaves one of them thin eventually removes the other party from the market.; See alsoLanded cost
Inventory turns: The number of times inventory is sold and replaced over a period, calculated as cost of goods sold divided by average inventory at cost.; See alsoSell-through Aged inventory
Landed cost: The total cost of acquiring inventory including the purchase price, freight, duties and any handling — the figure a real margin calculation uses.; A margin computed against invoice price rather than landed cost overstates profitability by whatever freight and handling actually cost.; See alsoGross margin Dealer price
MAP: Minimum Advertised Price — a manufacturer policy setting the lowest price at which a product may be advertised, distinct from the price at which it may be sold.; See alsoMSRP Channel restriction
MSRP: Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price — a non-binding reference price published by the manufacturer.; See alsoMAP
Prepaid terms: Payment in full before an order ships or is released, as distinct from trade credit terms.; Prepaid is standard for new wholesale accounts across this industry and is not an adverse assessment of the account.; See alsoTrade terms
Resale certificate: A state-issued document evidencing that a registered business is purchasing inventory for resale and is therefore exempt from sales tax on that purchase.; In Florida this is the Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax, issued per calendar year against an active sales and use tax registration. It covers items bought for resale, not items the business consumes.; See alsoDealer verification EIN
Sell-through: The proportion of inventory received that has been sold, over a stated period — the measure that says whether a purchase was correctly sized.; See alsoInventory turns
Trade terms: An agreement allowing an account to pay a stated period after invoice rather than before shipment.; See alsoPrepaid terms

Product

6 terms

Sealed product: Factory-sealed trading card product that has not been opened, searched or resealed since manufacture.; See alsoWax Searched product
Searched product: Sealed product that has been examined or weighed to identify contents before resale — a practice that destroys the integrity of the sealed channel.; A distributor that sells only unopened factory cases and boxes, and does not open product itself, is structurally unable to introduce searched product into the channel.; See alsoSealed product
Set: The complete list of cards issued in a specific product release, as defined by the manufacturer checklist.; See alsoSet building
Set building: Collecting with the objective of completing a specific set, typically through singles rather than sealed product.; Set builders are a distinct and durable customer type, weighted toward older and vintage material, and a major driver of supplies demand.; See alsoSet Singles
Singles: Individual cards sold separately, as distinct from sealed product.; Singles demand is continuous and does not depend on the release calendar, which is why a store weighted entirely to sealed product is exposed in a quiet month.; See alsoSet building Sealed product
Wax: Colloquial term for sealed trading card product, from the wax paper packs used historically.; See alsoSealed product

Condition

3 terms

Grading: Third-party assessment of a card’s condition against a published scale, after which the card is encapsulated with its grade and a certification number.; See alsoSlab Raw
Raw: An ungraded card that has not been submitted to a third-party grading company and is not encapsulated in a holder.; Condition on a raw card is the buyer’s own assessment, which is why raw and graded copies of the same card trade at very different prices.; See alsoSlab Grading
Slab: A card encapsulated in a rigid holder by a third-party grading company, carrying an assigned grade and a certification number.; See alsoGrading Raw