Ok so since I have gotten no real answers here on the boards and was still confused over a few things I took it upon myself to ask some outside sources to answer the "Parallel" question. I have recieved a response and was quite pleased with how well my question was answered. Here is what I got back :
Thanks for the question. I know exactly what you are talking about. I can't say that I have a better answer than what you've been given, but here is my take on what is a parallel and what is not.
Lets say a set has 100 cards. All 100 cards have a base version, and a gold parallel.
Then lets say the card company has a memorabilia version of those cards. I WOULD call the memorabilia versions a "parallel" IF all 100 cards in the set had a memorabilia parallel.
A lot of times, and it happens with UD sets and Panini as well, they'll create memorabilia and autograph cards that look just like the base cards or another insert set, BUT not all the players have the memorabilia or autograph version.
So in this case, the people who catalog your cards, I think they are correct if they list these types of cards as inserts IF not all the players in the set have the memorabilia version.
While confusing to list cards that way, I actually think it does make sense. If I think a base set has a memorabilia parallel, but not all players have a memorabilia card from the base set. Then I'm going to get real confused then. I'd rather those cards get listed out separately so I know who does and doesn't have one.
Hope that helps and made some sense! Let me know if you have any questions.
.................. so again I did not mean to step on any toes I just wanted a clear and simple defenition as to why they are inserts and not parallels and the above certainly works for the Artifacts sets. Please disregard my posts before as I may have been doing more guessing than anything, with that I will no longer hassle anyone about it.