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  1. #1




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    What is a Rookie Card? Baseball

    I'm a hockey card collector and posted this question in that section on this site and got a range of answers and some i did not expect. So i thought i would ask the same question in Football, Baseball, and Basketball and see what Collectors of their sports view as a RC/Rookie Card.

    Since the 70's when the hobby started to become a business a RC/Rookie Card was always viewed a a players 1st year card found in a base set or traded set or a main stream product. But in the last 20 years we now have parallels, inserts and insert sets (a complete 100 to 400+ card set found randomly inserted in a main stream products packs that is not a parallel).

    so the not so simple question is what do you or your sport consider a players RC/Rookie card? Are parallels RC/Rookie Cards? Are Insert sets RC/Rookie cards? Are inserts Rookie Cards? or is any card made in the players Rookie year a RC/Rookie card?

  2. #2




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    One other thing to consider do we need new monikers for Rookie cards?

    RC (rookie card) for the true rookie card from a base set.
    RYC (rookie year card) for all parallels, inserts and insert sets
    PRC (pre rookie card) for all cards created before the players professorial rookie year -Mainly in Baseball and Hockey

  3. #3







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    A rookie card is suppose to be the first pack issue / regularly distributed release of a player. It never had to match up with the player's rookie year (that would be a rookie year card) and it was never an insert or parallel. They changed things up recently but even the new rules aren't followed by the people who want these new rules. I hate to say it but we basically just went back to the beginning of rookie collecting of the 1980s when people wanted RATED ROOKIE on the card and you had boxed sets and weird releases being pumped out that weren't rookies but were still "rookies".
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  4. #4




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    A rookie card is suppose to be the first pack issue / regularly distributed release of a player. It never had to match up with the player's rookie year (that would be a rookie year card) and it was never an insert or parallel. They changed things up recently but even the new rules aren't followed by the people who want these new rules. I hate to say it but we basically just went back to the beginning of rookie collecting of the 1980s when people wanted RATED ROOKIE on the card and you had boxed sets and weird releases being pumped out that weren't rookies but were still "rookies".

    so my question would be is the Topps Tiffany cards or the Donruss opening day set from 1987 a RC? also is the players RC the 1983 or 1986 XRC or the 1984 or 1987 base set cards? Basically to me a XRC should not be a thing. The traded sets are the players RC. Also Parallels and inserts (like RPA) are RC's also. If they are not a players RC by the standard old definition then what collectors want now are not true RC, they want the rookies insert or parallels and RC are no longer collectable for the most part if Parallels and Inserts are not also a players RC.

  5. #5







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    so my question would be is the Topps Tiffany cards or the Donruss opening day set from 1987 a RC? also is the players RC the 1983 or 1986 XRC or the 1984 or 1987 base set cards? Basically to me a XRC should not be a thing. The traded sets are the players RC. Also Parallels and inserts (like RPA) are RC's also. If they are not a players RC by the standard old definition then what collectors want now are not true RC, they want the rookies insert or parallels and RC are no longer collectable for the most part if Parallels and Inserts are not also a players RC.

    The original definition doesn't have Topps Tiffany as rookies since they are parallels. Though it is a separate set. XRC cards were a little before my time so I never really fully understood the point of the designation but it was basically to clean up Beckett's definition as it got crazy in the late 80s with all the releases. That's why I don't really understand the people now that are so hell bent on calling a rookie card something with very strict rules because they clearly don't follow the most basically designations. They eat up parallels and box set "rookies" all day.

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