When Did RC Become Most Important?

[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!