Topps Traded: True RCs?

[Drewk86a]

I found a stack of 2003-04 Topps Traded cards and looked them up as a goof. I noticed that many, including some decent NHL-ers including (Rob Scuderi, Ryan Kesler, Kari Lehtonen, Alexander Semin, to name a few) are all listed as RCs.

Is that legitimate? Are cards from Topps traded sets considered true RCs?

[RGM81]

Yes.

[RGM81]

Here's the list, courtesy our good friends at Beckett: http://www.beckett.com/search/#term=...ded&attr=24464

[ginx86]

Is that legitimate? Are cards from Topps traded sets considered true RCs?

When I collected baseball as a kid they were considered XRCs but it seems like they changed that in the mid-90's and started considering them true RCs. I could be wrong on when that changed though since I'm just working off of memory.

[centrehice]

Traded were a completely different set than the regular Topps, henceforth they have their own Rookies.

There were actually much fewer cases made of Traded.

[reoddai]

Someone else please correct me if the dates are wrong.

The definition of RC has also changed over the years. You'll find in the mid 90's that RC referred to first appearance in a wide release hockey card set, which generally had to be licensed by the NHL. For example, Luongo was depicted in a Team Canada uniform in Black Diamond. Now, a true RC generally means a widely available card from the base set featuring that player in an NHL uniform from an NHL licensed set. So, the Ice RC /99 are considered rookies since they're part of the base set and widely distributed, but an Expo stamped card is not. Another example would be a Toews card from the O Canada set of ITG (07-08) featuring him in a team Canada jersey is not a rookie card, but any card featuring him in a CHI uniform that year is.

Here are the various date ranges of generally accepted rookie cards. I've tried to identify producers of the various brandsThe rule of thumb is that if a player shows up in a hockey card for the first time in one of those sets during that year, its a rookie. I think Topps owned OPC at some point, but I kept them separate just because of the popularity of each and the fact that OPC was a Canadian company (maybe subsidiary) so much so that it could almost be called a separate entity.

I also can't keep track of all of the short term companies from the 90's and early 00's. Suffice it to say that these companies were all licensed at some point and have genuine RC in at least one of their sets.

1910-1930 - Various Cigarette brands
1930-1950 - OPC, Ice Kings and Gum
1951-1964 - Parkhurst and Topps
1965-1967 - Topps
1968-1989 - Topps & OPC
1990- 1995 - Topps, OPC, Upper Deck, Pro Set (yes), Score, Donruss
1995-2003 - Topps, Pacific Upper Deck, BAP/ITG
2004-2010 - Upper Deck
2011-Present - Upper Deck and Panini

So, in answer to your question, yes Topps can be considered true RC. Topps was THE manufacturer in the US for a period of over 40 years.

[marekschwarz33]

Yeah, they are considered true rookies. The Kari Lehtonen card was actually pretty hyped back in '04 if I'm remembering right.

[centrehice]

Topps Traded has a slightly less MSRP per box than the regular Topps issue did, and less cases made overall.