It can also be inlaid in smoother woods to achieve very exciting prints. Needless to say, I love oak prints. Pine is soft wood, easily available, cheap, very easy to cut. I would say that it is not suitable for detail if I had not seen the work of James Mundie, who cuts pine blocks with a single edge razor blade to achieve astounding effects. For the rest of us, pine splinters under the attack of woodcut knives and chisels and yields similar results as birch.
Grain is more open than birch and gets fuzzy with time, so wood-like effects are possible.
Seal it with varnish. Shina is a plywood, comes in several grades and thicknesses and it is precut to your particular taste. Most printmakers I know that use shina have to seal it with varnish or similar to prevent it from splintering. It is a soft wood, very easy to cut but is not suitable for very fine detail. Hey, no piece of wood is safe around me.