Sports cards

Wave Prizm

Also written: Wave · Ray Wave · Raywave

A refractive finish etched into rippling bands, so light rolls across the card in waves instead of one sheet.

PatternThe reflective layer is textured or shaped

A Wave parallel is a refractive card whose finish is etched into rippling bands. Tilt it and the light rolls across the surface in visible waves rather than as one continuous sheet — the same refractive layer as a plain prizm, interrupted on purpose.

How to spot it

• Bands, not points. Wave gives you long rolling ridges of light. If the shine breaks into circles you are in the disco family; if it breaks into straight rays, lazer.
• The ripples run the whole card, over the photograph as well as the border.
• They move. More than most patterns, wave needs the card tilted to read — a flat scan can make one look like an ordinary prizm.

Panini runs wave finishes across its lines; Topps runs its own ray-wave family inside chrome products, where the pattern is a set of radiating waved lines over a refractor. The names belong to the manufacturers; the mechanism is the same one in both cases.

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