The word "vintage" is key to understanding the difference between a reflective surface such as a mirror and a retro reflective surface such as a bicycle or car reflector. Retro means backwards or backwards. In the reflective tape industry, this means returning light to its source, not from elsewhere.
A mirror is reflective, but not reflective, because it emits light in different directions depending on the angle of incidence. If it's just a tennis ball, it's like throwing the ball at an angle against a wall. The ball will hit the wall and bounce at an angle very similar to the angle at which it arrived the other way. Now imagine a wall that curves around you so that when you throw a tennis ball at it, the ball always comes back to you. That would be called retroreflection. The figure below illustrates this.
