What are trading cards printed on?

Answer 1

Many things. Each TCG company usually uses something that makes it unique to all the others. But if you are wanting to print your own. I've heard card stock paper is good. Then just trim them after you are finished to the size you wish to have.

Answer 2

Cards are printed on large sheets of cardboard. It involves multiple runs through color presses. Once the printing is done, the sheet is run through a die cut machine that punches out the individual cards.

The process for creating Rare vs. Common vs. Uncommon varies. It can be done by printing all the Rares on one sheet and not printing many sheets, or it can be done by printing multiple Commons on a sheet with a single instance of a Rare. So if the sheet holds 100 cards (I believe they are actually bigger). They could print 5 separate Rare Cards 1 each, 10 Uncommons, 2 each, and 15 different Commons, 5 each. That gives you a 1 in 20 chance of a rare and a 1 in 5 chance of an Uncommon.