Quote:
Originally Posted by G1911
This has never made any sense to me. Post-war vintage football is replete with "rookies" of long-time veterans. HOFer Frank Gatski's "rookie card" is a 1955 Bowman, his last year as a professional, as just one example (the 1946 Sears isn't a rookie because reasons). 1955 Topps All-American, 1952 Bowman, and 1948 Leaf cards that feature college players can be rookies, even posthumously, but the 1951 Topps Magic's are not. The inconsistent rules, the small set sizes, football rookies are more of a mess than baseball.
It seems to me some players just don't have a rookie card.
"First card" makes more sense to me to use for these things. The silliest is the fictional character rookies. I collect (i.e. hoard) the 1977 Topps Star Wars, or at least I used to do when I could buy bulk for a dime a pop. Ever since the 2020 increases, the younger crowd has been hyping "Luke Skywalker RC" and "Boba Fett RC" in the 1980 set in the Discord groups. Seems kind of silly to me. I suppose every single card in the 1977 set is a "first card/rookie" of whatever is featured.
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Basketball too given the huge gaps in production prior to 1969. 1948, 1957, 1961 so lots of "RCs" of players 5, 6 years into their careers.