[nolemmings]

My recollection is similar to others here. There was some spiking of Brett rookies right around 1981 after he had chased .400. That year I had moved to AZ from Minnesota, where I really hadn’t noticed any interest in rookie cards, but when the ‘82s came out and I attended my first shop and show here, Yount rookies were in demand and there was passing reference to ‘75 Bretts having been hot “for awhile now”. By 1983 it was definitely in full swing– everyone needed to grab as many Boggs and Gwynn rookies as they could find, and Ripkens were hot. Funny thing, the ‘82 Topps Traded Rookie card of Ripken was extremely more popular than the regular issue multi-player version, as we were for the first time introduced to and enamored by the “limited issue” fallacy. By the next year the RC craze had fully taken hold, as I recall Mattingly rookies–especially Donruss–being ridiculous, and Strawberry updates were in great demand. People also couldn’t wait for the update sets with Gooden and Clemens (less so)-Puckett had yet to make a splash.

So it was a done deal by 1984, with Beckett monthly coming out that year and reinforcing everyone’s need to jump on these rookie cards while they could–although I do not remember when it first used the “RC” designation in its listings. I also recall when I went to a Tri-star show in 1984 with the specific goal of landing a ‘54 Kaline (Frickin beautiful card IMO), the price had tripled from the previous year and I was “schooled” that it was his rookie card (gee thanks, Boss). The Rose rookie was hot during this time as well, but it was a one-off, and I recall no other rookies being hot for their own sake prior to around 1981. I do not recall the Aaron rookie becoming hot when he got the HR record, but that would make sense (not much most of us could do about it back then, as there were limited outlets for finding old cards). The 1952 Mantle has always been desirable, but is not his rookie and was not chased as such by those in the know–which was most of us. And Rats is right, multi-player cards with rookies were mostly ignored–especially those that had players from different teams ala the ‘67 Carew, which meant they could not be sorted with their teammates. That may have explained the early allure of the Brett and Yount stand alone rookies too, as they were far more attractive then say, Rice and Lynn from that same set.