[wake.up.the.echoes]

I find this topic to be completely fascinating. As a child of the 1980s, I have always been taken with the concept of a rookie card. As I turned away from collecting cards from the 4 major sports in the United States (baseball, football, basketball, and hockey), and toward collecting, first, boxing, and now soccer cards exclusively, I have tasked myself with identifying and collecting the "rookie" cards of significant players. Soccer doesn't really have an international hall of fame, so deciding the players to collect is a unique part of my pursuit. I am aware of beckett's definition of what constitutes a rookie card. In my own pursuit I decided to try and find the earliest released card for each player. I definie "rookie card" as a player’s earliest appearance on an item made for either collectible or informational purposes. This broad definition of the term allows me to collect a wide array of items. I very much appreciate the ideas that you guys have of setting up a page/database that identifies several options for which rookie card to collect. I think it helps a collector who would prefer a traditional card as a rookie to collect, and also the collector who would prefer to collect the earliest collectible, regardless of the "medium" on which it is presented. I hope to emulate/imitate some of your work with regard to creating a soccer database.