Hazy memories of the birth of RCs

[jason.1969]

I make no claim that this is the true history...it's just how things unfolded to me as a collector between the ages of 8 and 19, growing up in Los Angeles.

I bought a couple packs in 77 but 78 was the year I got hooked and shot for all 726. True I was only 8 but I couldn't have named a single rookie before I started getting the four-player cards (boring) and All-Star Rookies (cool) in packs. My goals were simple--Garvey, Bench, Carew, Reggie, pretty much anyone with the All-Star shield or great stats on the back (Ryan, Madlock, Kingman,...). I would have traded ANY rookie for any Dodger common or anyone who EVER hit .300.

Through dads, brothers, cousins, etc., there were a few kids in my class with older cards, including RCs of established stars...at that time, we still cared little more for these than any other "old card" of a great player. For instance, a 1976 Hank Aaron would get you a 1975 Fred Lynn or Jim Rice pretty easily...maybe even both.

The situation stayed about the same in 1979-80...stars over rookies any day of the week, but things finally changed in 1981 thanks to two players whose RCs are practically free today: Super Joe Charboneau and Fernando Valenzuela.

Charboneau such a good rookie year (and a rhyming name) that he was an instant star and a player whose card we all wanted when we opened packs in 81. There wasn't anything speculative going on, even as we knew baseball cards were sometimes worth a lot of money. Most likely, we would still trade him for a Ron Cey or (definitely) Dave Parker, but he was still the first RC I looked forward to pulling.

Of course as the young season unfolded, Fernandomania swept L.A. if not the whole country. There was a moment, maybe after his fourth win, where I searched obsessively through my piles of Topps, Fleer, and Donruss to see if I had any of his cards. Somehow I knew they would be worth a ton.

My predictions were confirmed when I went to a midseason card show and saw Valenzuela cards selling for as much as three whole dollars! I think there was even a dealer offering to buy for a dollar.

For the first time, I actually WANTED doubles, even quadruples, of the same card. I would rather pull Fernando (or Fernand!) from a pack than even the "C" Nettles!

Somehow none of this carried into 82 though I remember Ripken being a pretty good pull...but not like Fernando. And I still didn't notice any MAJOR ripple effect to older RCs of established stars. I would have to say 1983 was the year it all changed for me.

I went to an early season card show and found that ALL (really, all!) the excitement was around three players I'd barely heard of: Wade Boggs, Ryne Sandberg, and Ron Kittle. And around fourth place was the Ripken RC, even though a MUCH better card of him was available in the 1983 Topps set.

A trend had started. In 84 it was Mattingly and Strawberry, in 85 it was Gooden, in 86 it was Canseco (and to a lesser extent Coleman), and so on and so on. By then, the whole point of buying packs was to get RCs. By 1990, I can remember flipping through Upper Deck packs so fast I didn't even notice who the players were...just that they were Kevin Maas or not Kevin Maas.

Looking back on the names in this post, it's hard not to laugh. Most of the players are nearly forgotten, and most of the cards are "junk." For every hot rookie who had a HOF career, there was another under the radar who turned out just as good...Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Kirby Puckett, ...

So bringing this to a close, I credit the birth of the RC phenomenon to Fernando, its maturation to Kittle, Boggs, and Sandberg, and its coronation to Canseco. I'm curious how the rest of you recall the RC era unfolding.