The rookie card (RC). The Good and the bad.

[asportscardhistorian]

To start. I like rookie cards. I collect them. I am pro rookie card. I don't want rookie cards to magically disappear.

(Here it comes)....

BUT.... I feel that so so much of our beloved hobby is dominated by the rookie card craze, it overshadows the so many other wonderfully beautiful cards created over the last 150 plus years.

I have seen so many times collectors open wax boxes full of 500 plus cards and keep "the hits", which translates to like 8 total cards. The other 492 (500-8) are donated to the card shop or closest trash can. It just makes me sad. Why produce 90 plus percent of the cards each year, if only a large portion of the hobby cares about maybe 10 percent of what's made?

To end my mini rant:
How can us collectors help value and keep appreciating the rookie card, but also value and appreciate the non-rookie cards?

Go check out a modern stadium club set! Or the recent Topps Chrome Platinum sets! All the cards in the set are awesome. Beautiful photography! Put those sets in binders and enjoy!

- Mike S.

[steve B]

It's certainly a puzzle.

At one time, probably before I started collecting I think most collectors were set collectors.

The whole "rookie card" thing had taken hold by 77, and I'm sure earlier.

But there was a reason.
Most collectors were kids, and many kids collected for maybe 3-5 years.
Then stuff was given away or thrown out but some kept a handful of their favorite players.
At the time most rookies didn't become stars right away, so were less saved than other players.

By 1980 that wasn't really true anymore, and rookie cards were being hoarded as investments (earlier too, but it becoming a big thing was gradual. )


For a long time it's been "the rookie card is the most valuable" and more recently the money has reinforced that. Even without a good reason in most cases.
So people keep the cards currently worth money, knowing that most commons will be very inexpensive by later in the year.

[raulus]

I'm not sure that we can really do much. It's a phenomenon that seems like it's here to stay. The fact that the market places a serious multiple on the rookie seems like it will continue to be self-perpetuating, and it's hard to imagine any of us really managing to change that. My advice is to not fight it, but make peace with it. I just don't see any other alternative, because as much as it's cathartic, yelling at clouds seems rather ineffective as a strategy.

About your only option is to seek to be a set collector, and spend lots of time curating and extolling the value of all of the non-rookies in your sets.

Of course, if we're going to talk about rookies, then we also need to have raging discussions about real rookies v. fake rookies.

Look no further than Jordan's 86/87 Fleer.

Or 52T Mantle and Mays.

Or the Leaf Robinson, alleged to be from 49 and not 48.

And if you really want to get people excited, then you can dive into the pre-war era, where all sorts of extra regional issues and oddball sets come into play.