As an aside, what's to be done when a nonsports figure just has no contemporary cards? Photo, for me.

No wonder Taupin stayed behind the scenes :p

Back to cards. 1962 Eastwood. 1984 Arnold.

Early Rolling Stones. Dutch, listed as 1965-1967, so not sure if there is something earlier.

1965. They may have earlier postcards.

only 850 songs in the songbook, and not 1 hard to listen to. One of the Best selling Artists of all time... Here's his solo "Rookie card":D without the "Heartbreakers"

1977 Monty Punk also has first cards of Blondie and Elvis Costello.

Punk, New Wave and "Tompetty" are three very different things.

Isn't that funny. That's the Genre they tried to box him in at the beginning.

I think this 1977 Monte Gum Punk set also has "Kiss" rookie cards as well?

Was John Wayne in anything earlier then these arcade cards?

https://qualitycards.com/pictures/1240192007.jpg

Holy Cow! 1932

I had never heard that. There's nothing more "American Rock & Roll" than Tom Petty. That's his category.

Thanks for that. Interesting.

If he had just debuted a few years earlier, he wouldn't have had to put up with their need to pigeonhole him. He would have been right alongside Springsteen, obviously not as another "second coming of Dylan", but just in the unabashedly American R&R vibe of their compositions. Two different sounds, but the spirit is the same and both are quintessential R&R. That's it. Just plain ol' rock & roll. If more proof was ever needed by the industry that he was just a rock & roller, all they had to do was wait a couple of years to see how, of all the younger generation of musicians of the era, Petty seemed to be so quickly and warmly embraced by the old guard. Not normally so easy an accomplishment. The old guys dug him, on both sides of the pond.

(I write this not even from the vantage point of being a Petty fan.)

In that late 1970's era, I suppose an artist just wasn't allowed to be "rock & roll". Everybody had to have a label/category attached to them.

As a retired performing musician/guitarist...amongst other musicians, 1st and foremost, Tom Petty was a great song writer. There are truly very few song writers on the planet (ever) that can/could write great songs by themselves. The great songs are usually collaborative efforts. Most musicians are very jealous of the great song writers :) But they still love the music! I suppose though when it comes to music, beauty is in the ear of the beholder. So I digress :) I love this thread, great cards!!

Me too. I love the cards on this thread And I especially love the articulate retrospects from the Net54ers. Much better than the "Stolen" threads.:)

I collect fictional character rookie cards and I love it. We should definitely call them rookie cards, because the term has taken a life of its own independent of being a rookie in a sport. Sometimes it's difficult figuring out what card is really the rookie card. Is it enough that they appear on the card, or do they need to be the main subject of the card?

What is Godzilla's rookie card? Is it one of these from the 1965 Donruss King Kong set?

https://allthecubs.com/wp-content/up...-king-kong.jpg

Is it this 1994 Trendmasters that came in an action figure package?

https://allthecubs.com/wp-content/up...endmasters.jpg

1995 Amada Godzilla was the first pack-pulled set dedicated to Goji. Is card #1 the rookie card?

https://allthecubs.com/wp-content/up.../07/1995-1.jpg

Or is it #34 because it's the first one that says "Godzilla" on the front?

https://allthecubs.com/wp-content/up...07/1995-34.jpg

Is there room for XRCs in non-sports cards? If PSA won't grade it can it count as a rookie card? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

LOL, big fan of the "What type of skin cream do you use?" card. :D:D

I, too, prefer the First Card designation, as others have said. It's a little tricky in many instances compared to the rookie card designation, though.

Many players have more than one rookie card, which is accepted. They're all simply known as rookies. But 'first card' infers that it's an individual's very first card -- even if that technically isn't the case. And many non-sports subjects have more than one card debuting in the same year (i.e. Queen/Princess Elizabeth, who has a few from 1935).

I'll leave it up to the pros to figure it all out. In the meantime, here's a card of Beethoven. Given the abundance of cabinets, CDVs, and what defines a card, I'm not bold enough to call it his first. So let's just say 'early.'

Frank "still waiting for my rookie card" Burkett


Bowling in Chiang Rai, Thailand

Attachment 627713

Baseball rookie cards aren't dependent on a player's rookie or debut season. It's just the first time they have a card in an MLB set. Like Jeter's 1993 RCs when he didn't debut until 1995 and his rookie season was 1996. Hamlet didn't get a card until the 1880s, almost 300 years after the play was written. But everyone knows this is his rookie card. Everyone.

https://allthecubs.com/wp-content/up...7/Hamlet-s.jpg

Here ya go, 'Ole Pink Shoes'...


Attachment 627925

The "Prince of Preachers" Only Tobacco Card ~

That’s Awesome! :D

Here is an interesting one that I just found. I would have thought that Scott Bakula would have had an earlier card such as maybe a set based on Quantum Leap, but apparently, they never made a Quantum Leap set. His first card is from the 1993 version of Face to Face.

It's only a postcard but...
 

How About a Ferdinand Porsche Rookie? :)

Attachment 628285

Jimmy BUffett's first, from the same issue.

I have a couple of these board games, one sealed. There are a ton of rookies in them from what I've been able to research. And they're a Canadian issue that wasn't heavily produced that I have seen. You can find singles on eBay but complete games/sets are somewhat hard to find.

1987 Motto and 1991 Face to Face are great sources of first cards.

I know PSA isn’t always completely accurate but they have this one listed from 1930. Earliest one I know of.

NS Rookies
 

Long before Disney revived his fame, Davy had a rookie back in 1910:


https://caimages.collectors.com/psai...49Crockett.jpg


Earliest Lindy I can find is from a German set issued a year before his famous flight across the Atlantic:

https://caimages.collectors.com/psai...INDYSMALL3.jpg

The Boy General's rookie appeared just 12 years after his Last Stand:


https://caimages.collectors.com/psai...CUSTERPSA5.jpg


Caesar's first card was in that same 1888 set:


https://caimages.collectors.com/psai.../N15Caesar.jpg

Robin Williams.

Another Michael Jackson "rookie" card, this one Australian, 1972 EMI.

Very often when PSA says "1930" it's actually "1930s," as in they don't know exactly when.

I brought a half-dozen sealed packs of 1978 Donruss "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" to the 2024 National and challenged my friends to unwrap Steve Martin's first card (he has two in that set). Sam here found it straightaway.

One year later for Steve Martin.

My favorite early John Wayne card...

Frankie Darro Picture Stamp Club

These are very similar in size and look to the Rogers Peet sports card set and feature essentially "friends" of young actor Frankie Darro, who was a bit of a big deal as a young actor in the early 1930's.

Dates to 1934 as it references Darro's movie "Burn 'em up Barnes"

It features cards of boxer Max Baer, Laurel/Hardy, Shirley Temple, Will Rogers, the Little Rascals, and a young John Wayne.

Was Prince Heinrich's last name really Fahrt?

I think that's the German for "drives".

1991 Face to Face Bob Newhart and Richard Pryor. Pryor has some in role cards in an earlier Topps Superman issue but going with this one.

If none have been produced, somebody has to create one for George Carlin and Mitch Hedberg. Both at the top of the comedy food chain for me.

Here is Carlin's first, from the same issue.

Glad to know he has a card. Man, that set design leaves a lot to be desired, though! Wow. On the positive side, they wouldn't have been bad for autograph purposes, with a spot to sign underneath the mugshots!

They were issued in Canada as part of some sort of board game, so emphasis was not on the design. The set is a gold mine for non-sports first cards.

I'm in Canada. What was the game called? I'll be sure to scour every thrift store I'm in.

Face to Face. There is also a 1993 edition, see example.

Not sure if Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse has been shown yet

1930s Brazilian issue of Ray Bolger that I think may be his first card. Despite the Wizard of Oz, there are very few contemporaneous cards of Bolger, and almost none of Jack Haley or Bert Lahr, for some reason.

Is it perhaps due to Bolger being the most well known of the trio at the time? I feel like, many years later, Bolger would be the one that most people could name above the others. Bolger and Margaret Hamilton have to be the best known besides Garland.

Hamilton clung on to that role for the rest of her life.

I'll always remember Clara Blandick because of the rarity of her autograph.

Maybe but there are infinite numbers of 30s and 40s movie issues with countless obscure names. The short supply of cards of these three is striking. I have two Bolgers, one Haley and no Lahrs.

1978 European sticker of Emmylou Harris.

How about Alfred E. Neuman, 8 years prior to the first release of Mad magazine. This post card has a cancellation date of 1944.

Attachment 632501

That Alfred E Newman is fantastic!!

+1

Peter, your collection of non-sports cards is terrific. I particularly like the young Churchill, which proves he had hair at one time in his youth. Is it rare?

Frank, did you make the split?

John, I wouldn't say rare, but it depends on frame of reference.

And then the gap in production in the 80's so 1986 Fleer set had quite a few RC's of players who weren't really rookies like Jordan. Unless you count the STAR releases.

IMO people who don't count the Star releases are people who don't want to pay for a 101 Jordan.