Quote:
Originally Posted by rats60
No, it is because Upper Deck, Fleer and Donruss/Playoff were upset that their products wouldn't sell because they had no rookies in them. Topps was using the hobby definition of rookie card to create a new monopoly. So MLB stepped in to again make a players rookie card more accessable to the average collector.
We have had unprecedented growth in the hobby over the last few years. Products are selling out at retail stores. It is because collectors are chasing after rookie cards of young stars, Acuna, Soto, Tatis, Ohtani, Guerrero, etc. That has filtered down into vintage cards.
The hobby took off in the 80s because kids could go to the grocery/drug store or card shop and pull a Darryl Strawberry RC out of 1984 Topps or Dwight Gooden RC out of 1985 Topps. If they had walked into my card shop and I had tried to tell them that wasn't a rookie card, you had to buy this $10 traded card, they would have left and never come back.
The definition of rookie card is what it is. I don't understand why a few people want to change it. If it were to be changed, who gets to make that decision? The majority of collectors, collect modern cards. It has always been that way. The vast majority want an inclusive definition. You calling the 1984 Fleer Update Kirby Puckett's RC is never going to change the fact that his 1985 Topps, Donruss and Fleer cards are his rookie cards.
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But by your own definition, once traded sets were more widely distributed, they WERE rookie cards. So kids could never buy a pack with a Pedro Martinez rookie, a Nomar rookie, a Mike Piazza rookie, I could keep going. So what? They chased other stuff including chase cards.