When Did RC Become Most Important?

[ncinin]

Rookie Cards may have been a thing in other areas of the country but I never heard of a premium for a rookie card or the importance of a rookie card until 1981.

Tim Raines and Fernando Valenzuela were sought after and I began hearing the importance of a rookie card.

I thought it was a short term fad and argued that a card of a player of worth alot more than other years was stupid but I lost that argument. I still think it is silly that a rookie card is worth multiples over other years without regard to series the card is in, etc but I don't make the rules.

[HistoricNewspapers]

Ruth has so many earlier and rarer cards than his Goudey cards it is so comical that Beckett would do such a thing.

Maybe it was done as a way of making them more valuable because they are more common and more transactions could be done with them.

As opposed to the better earlier cards where they weren't sold as often because they are more scarce.

Same thing with 1949 leaf Jackie Robinson being proclaimed as his rookie card, which it isn't, and given a huge premium as a result. He has earlier, rarer, and more attractive cards than the Leaf.

[Tony Gordon]

I remember digging through the cello packs at the Convenient Food Mart looking for George Brett rookies in 1975. The old couple that ran the mart would scream at me whenever I flipped through the cellos. Never stopped me though.

[bcbgcbrcb]

My indoctrination to the RC thing came in late 1981. One of my elementary school buddies was at my house and we were talking trade for 1981 Topps baseball cards. I needed 3 more commons to complete my set and my friend had all of them. When I asked what he wanted in trade for them, he inquired if I had any of the Los Angeles Dodgers Future Stars cards. I replied that I had three extras of that one and he stated that he would trade the last three cards that I needed for my set in exchange for the 3 Dodgers FS cards. Afterwards, I wondered to myself why someone would want 3 of the same card but I didn't really care, I had just completed my season long journey of putting together a complete 1981 Topps baseball set.

Of course, after eventually looking up that Dodgers FS card in the price guide and seeing that they sold for $3 each at the time as Fernando Valenzuela's rookie card, I quickly realized that there was tremendous value in "Rookie Cards". I caught on pretty quickly though and by early 1982, I was buying unopened rack and cello packs with Cal Ripken Jr., Kent Hrbek, Johnny Ray, etc. on top and quickly became a major player in the rookie card investing game from there.

[Griffins]

I was active in shows, conventions, mail order auctions, etc from '72 to '76, and it was not a thing. Got a table at the first national in '80 to sell off my collection and it was an obsession by then, led by the '75 Rice rookie. I had it has part of 100 card common lots, and got so many requests I pulled it and sold it solo.
So I"m guessing somewhere between '76 and '79.

[Yoda]

While I hold the '51 Bowman Mantle and E102 Cobb, which I believe to be his true RC not PC, my favorite is a PSA 8 of Juan Marichel with a 10 signature.
Juan's signature is in fountain pen ink and just flows unlike the hen scratchings one sees now, especially modern basketball stars. How about others?

[HistoricNewspapers]

Originally Posted by Griffins

I was active in shows, conventions, mail order auctions, etc from '72 to '76, and it was not a thing. Got a table at the first national in '80 to sell off my collection and it was an obsession by then, led by the '75 Rice rookie. I had it has part of 100 card common lots, and got so many requests I pulled it and sold it solo.
So I"m guessing somewhere between '76 and '79.

Fred Lynn around that time too. I always remembered Lynn being one of the earliest chase rookie cards since he won MVP his rookie year.

[quinnsryche]

Being from Chicago originally, my first taste of RC mania was the 1983 Topps Ron Kittle. Tony Gwynn was pretty hot too. Couldn't keep them in stock in my dad's store. After that was the 1984 Fleer updates of Clemens and Gooden. I will say though, the Rose rookie was ALWAYS at the top of most people's list as a gotta have but I don't know exactly when that started.

[Bridwell]

I remember going to the big annual show in the Detroit area. I went every year from 1971 to 1978. It was about 1976, when a few dealers started promoting rookie cards as being worth double or triple the price. It was a gimmick but it gradually caught on. By the mid 1980's it was all the rage.

In 1971, most dealers had about the same price for commons as for star cards, believe it or not. By 1973, the stars were being marked up to maybe double the price of a common. Rookie cards weren't any higher than any other card of the great players.

I still chuckle when dealers call a Cy Young T206 his "rookie card". He was 42 years old and had won almost 500 games by that time!

[D. Bergin]

I think people forget this, but for the longest time a Rookie card designation was only considered if the card in question was issued in a traditional gum or wax wrapper type "pack", and had a widely accepted distribution model.

Also, oddball sized stuff was not considered (ie, Exhibits, Goudey Premiums, etc.).

Nobody even guessed what the Rookie cards of tobacco era guys were.

Even in the 80's when all those traded sets came out. Darryl Strawberry's Rookie card was 1984, Roger Clemens, Kirby Puckett and Dwight Goodens Rookie cards were in 1985.

The Raines and Ripken traded set cards, may as well have been 2nd year cards of those players.

The earlier "Traded" cards were considered pretty neat, but mostly a novelty if you couldn't pull it from a pack at a convenience store.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

The earlier "Traded" cards were considered pretty neat, but mostly a novelty if you couldn't pull it from a pack at a convenience store.

.....and if you remember in the late 80's, Topps and other companies began to combat this perception by finally beginning to issue Traded and end of year 2nd Series releases into Wax Box product, across all the different mainstream sports releases.

[ullmandds]

I was into collecting pretty hardcore in the late 70's-early 80's. As long as I can remember 1st year cards were coveted.

[sreader3]

Originally Posted by ncinin

Rookie Cards may have been a thing in other areas of the country but I never heard of a premium for a rookie card or the importance of a rookie card until 1981.

Tim Raines and Fernando Valenzuela were sought after and I began hearing the importance of a rookie card.

This is how I remember it. Fernando and Raines in 1981. They would sell for $3-5 each when you could get the whole set for $15-20. The card shop in my area (an L.A. suburb) would advertise discounted Fleer sets with “No Nando.”