'33 Goudey Ruths are not Rookies

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Posted By: peter chao

John,

According to my recollection, the '84 Donruss rookie Mattingly was the first card that was hot almost from the first time it came out. Probably the hobby had already focused on rookie cards prior to that date but the '84 Donruss Mattingly created the phenomenon known as "rookie" fever. The Donruss card was favored over both the Topps rookie and the Fleer rookies from '84 because it was percieved as being more scarce.

Around the same time or perhaps a little bit after '84 the Pete Rose '63 Topps rookie took off because he was approaching the All-Time hits record. The rookie card became established as the key and most important card to own of a baseball player.

Now in 2005 and 2006, Beckett comes up with their current definition of a rookie card and the Goudey Ruths become rookie cards and probably will soon be much too expensive for my limited Baseball card budget. Laugh out loud. So as far as I'm concerned making the Goudey Ruths rookie cards is not such a great idea. However, I can see why people who already owned these 4 cards prior to 2005 would think the Beckett definition is pretty sound.

Peter