Posted By:
boxingcardmanExhibits:
Since they are my obsession, I have to raise a point on this quote from Wes: "I also associate exhibits with postcards and do not put them in the rookie card equation. It could be because while not all of them do, some exhibits have postcard backs."
Actually, the vast majority were never intended to be used as or sold as PCs. The first PC backs surfaced on the regular issue machine vended cards in the 1928 set and are a small minority of the printing from that issue. That means 7 years of production weht by without a PC back. And, by the mid-1930s they were basically done with PC backs. Almost none of the post-1939 cards have PC backs: there are a few known rare printings in the 1950s with Mutoscope PC backs on them and some of the 1961 Wrigleys have PC backs (again a small minority of the print run). The 1925-29 PC back set itself was initially issued blank backed, then had a PC back put on it, then had that back modified to state that the cards were not for use in exhibit machines (an early effort at product differentiation, I suppose). Since many of the key rookies (Gehrig, Simmons, Lazzeri, Gehringer, Comns, etc.) precede the printing of these cards with postcard backs, I don't buy the argument that they are postcards and not rookie cards. I'd argue that from 1921-27 (at least) Exhibits were as pure a collecting vehicle for baseball cards as you can imagine. They were sold nationally, without any other product, for the sole purpose of collecting. But if you insist that Exhibits aren't true rookie cards, please sell me your Gehrig, Lazzeri, Combs, etc. cards on the cheap. I will give them a good home, I promise.
Prookies:
Another of my pet issues. Philosophically, why do we care about rookie cards? Because they are first (or for the cynics, because Jim Beckett decreed 25 years ago that we should). But if there are multiple "prookie" cards that precede the "first" card, doesn't that destroy the significance of that "first" card? Can you have a first if there are one or more "before the first" and you have to attach an asterisk to it to explain how it is but isn't the guy's first card? The 34 Zeenut Dimaggio is his first card ever. The 36 R issues are his first cards as a major leaguer. Which sounds more impressive (hint: it ain't the latter).