[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

What's Mark McGwire's Rookie card?

Honestly, it doesn't matter to me, what somebody determines is a Rookie card, or not a rookie card.

I would naturally gravitate towards earliest available card, even if it's a minor league / college league / or even little league issue. I think they're all interesting choices.

How you actually assign value to each one of these using the word "Rookie", I have no idea, but just like everything else it's going to be based on supply/demand, or simply holding out for the right price for your rarity.

The only thing that bothers me is when a card's actual issue date is misrepresented by the seller, or you see a fantasy card (again, I have no problems with these in theory either), with an issue date on the back, that has been completely concocted by the card artist, and is being passed off as a Rookie card.

If you think baseball is complicated, you should check out some of the more obscure sports. I've been getting into Formula 1 lately, and I've seen nearly every card issued of any particular important driver, described as a "Rookie" card by one seller or another. I've also seen certain sets misidentified purposely, as being issued earlier then they actually were. The knowledge base is so limited, and there's enough new collectors interested in these things, that it's easy to pull the wool over a lot of eyes if you don't pay close attention.

Same with soccer. The word is abused by ebay sellers.