Becketts needed overhauling for a long time.
The "rookie card" thing meant something with 50's-60's cards, but not so much afterwards. Fewer got saved, so they were tougher to find.
There was a big debate around the time the update and later draft pick sets started coming out. Some wanted the draft pick card to be the rookie, some the mainstream set. Add safety/charity sets produced by colleges, minor league sets and the company that made the Highschool prospects set (Little sun?) That had Jeter in it.
Very confusing.
Then Beckett pushed the defenition as "first card form a major nationally issued set" and pushed the usually small updates and draft picks out as well as the tiny regional sets.
I always read their defenition as "earliest card made in big enough quantity that it can be hyped to high prices but still be readily available to dealers."
I looked at one in toys r us yesterday. $10 for a not so interesting magazine with a large price guide that looked fairly inaccurate.
Steve B
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