[JLange]

I've wrestled with the rookie card defns as well, and have settled on the "First XYZ Card" rather than "Rookie Card." "XYC" can mean anything, such as the first Topps card, or minor league card, or first appearance in your favorite team's uniform, etc. This has been quite liberating for me, as now it is less confusing and can often be answered quite clearly. As primarily a Cleveland Indians collector, it has been quite useful for me to identify the First Cleveland Card of players rather than get into a debate about their rookie cards. As an example, Joe Charboneau's First Cleveland Card is unequivocally from the 1980 Cleveland Indians Team Issue Photocards set. If I limited myself to pondering what his rookie card is, there would be endless debate about which contender from the 1981 Topps, Fleer, Donruss, OPC, Kellogg's, Drake's, Squirt, or All-Star Program sets of that year is perhaps more legitimate. I get to avoid all the nonsense using "just the facts," and answer the question we are all trying to answer anyways.

One challenge I have encountered, though, is that many cards are truly hard to date, including JD McCarthy PCs, certain Team Issue PCs, Exhibit Cards, etc. As more hobby info becomes available, though, more and more of these sets and specific cards from these sets will be dated as well.