Rookie card -continued

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Posted By: warshawlaw

The minor league cards are easy--they are not rookie cards since the player is not in the major leagues. The CDV's and 1 of a kind cards are problematic for me since I always viewed rookie cards as the first regionally or nationally distributed cards for the players. How do we know that the CDV or single format card was ever distributed at all? Ever heard of a proof or a test card? We also don't know whether the item was used as a "card" or is something else, like the ticket situation Leon mentions. I have a Dodgers ticket stub from last year with Shawn Green's photo on it--is that a card? I don't think so. If my ticket stub isn't a card, why is the ticket discussed a card? Because some auctioneer decided that hyping the item as a card made the most sense. Most of these cabinets and CDV'S aren't really "cards" to speak of--they are more akin to promotional photos like the ones given out by teams in the 1950's-1970's to fans who wrote in. I have a postcard-sized Pete Rose photo that I got in the mail in 1977. Is that a card? I collect exhibit cards. Many collectors don't consider these to be "cards" because they are postcard sized and were distributed in vending machines (except later when they were sold in packs). Is the Jimmy Foxx postcard back "exhibit" that I have, which dates from the late 1920's a rookie "card"?

Sorry to go on a screed, but I am tired of reading all sorts of things being hyped as the earliest card, first card, etc., when if they were issued today they would not be classified as a card at all.