General Forum

The age old "what is a rookie card" question.    I was looking at Tom Brady cards for a friend and noticed that he has around 30 cards designated as RC.    Is this the new norm?    I don't know much about post-1990 cards so I had to ask.

I don't know the specific number, but it wouldn't surprise me. And, that puts RCs in different light compared to pre-90s.

Nowadays it's probably more about the other stuff, like SN, Mem, Auto, etc.

I'm not very knowledgeable about the modern era of cards. But I feel RC should only be designated to the first year cards.  That being said, with the 20-30 subsets from each base set, I suppose it is possible to have 30+ RC cards. 

I don't know what year Brady entered his sport, but there are as many RCs as there are base sets released. For some years, only one set...for others, almost 50. It all depends on what was produced. Personally, I prefer the higher numbers. 

Subsets (numbered as part of the base set), inserts, parallels and promos are generally not considered RC, although there are exceptions. Well, not for parallels. 

I'd like to see the hobby adopt a RY (Rookie Year) or RS (Rookie Season) designation for them, but nobody cares what I think.

If there are cards in more than one year with the RC tag, that's just a mistake.

Personally speaking, I only consider it a rookie card if it was actually issued in their first season. For example, the NBA lockout in 2011-12, Panini chose not to issue rookie cards that year. All the 2011-12 rookies didn't get cards until 2012-13, but I don't consider them RC- only the players who were actual rookies in 2012-13. The hobby does not agree with me, but that's how I have my Excel files annotated.

i always thought and by doing general searches it comes up the same.. the RC is the product of the base set and not subset or inserts

Beckett made the Ulitimate Rookie Card Encyclopedia in 2006. If I recall, Beckett had this "the RC is the product of the base set and not subset or inserts" in their monthly price guides.

I guess where I am confused is which set would the RC need to be used, and which set would it not be.  For example, if a 1st year player was to be included in this year's baseball sets, and for sake of an arguement, the parallel sets and insert sets would not qualify, which major release would have the RC, or would all of them.  Bowman, Bowman Chrome, Bowman Sterling, Donruss, Donruss Diamond Kings, Finest, Panini Prizm, Topps, Topps Allen & Ginter, Topps Big League, Topps Heritage, Topps Tribute, etc...etc...  Would the RC designation be on the first release of the year?  After that is determined, then also consider the insert and parallel sets to see if should be designated.  Crap, my head is spinning.  I guess I have a lot of questions. 

Give me the first issued card over the "official RC" all day every day.  It gets really stupid when you get outside the big 4.  Hmm, would I rather have a 1965 issued Arnold Palmer or a 1990 Pro Set?

What year is Derek Jeter's RC? 

As FiresNBeers wrote how many sets are you talking about. Depending on the year and how many companies were working at the time. I can see it happening. There are player that have had a card and the next year their card is labeled their rookie card. It's all about the timing of when they started playing when the printing press was printing and when someone decided to mark it as a rookie card.