Quote:
Originally Posted by AnthonyT
For me, more specifically, is the first Topps Flagship base card with the RC logo that is the true rookie card. Parallels, autos, chrome, etc, are not the "TRUE" rookie cards. Just additional cards that are more rare or popular.
|
For me, this raises the question: Then, so what if a card is the true rookie? If there are a few hundred thousand of them, and they are easy to come by, that doesn’t generate a whole lot of excitement. There’s the universality of the card, in that all collectors can recognize the flagship card and then, I guess, be part of the same club by owning a $5 piece of cardboard, or the $40 version in a PSA 10 case. (Unless it’s short-printed. Or the player doesn’t have many other rookie cards.)
If the Topps black or Topps Chrome gold refractor versions aren’t rookie cards, then why do they demand so much more money? Because they’re rare, yes, but they demand significantly more than equivalent second-year cards and rookie-year cards that are distinctly inserts. And why are rookie-year autographs so desirable? A Juan Soto 2018 Topps Chrome Update sticker auto sells for significantly more than a 2019 Topps Chrome Future Stars orange /25 auto. The lesser card is a lot more rare and with an on-card sig. Why is the other one worth so much more?
I suppose the answer is because they’re rookie-year (or rookie-related). But it’s a distinction without a difference. Whether someone wants to deem a card a true rookie card or a rookie-year card, collectors approach them with the same mindset—as long as we’re talking about cards that are, in one way or another, variations of the base set. (This would primarily be marked by the shared design.)
And there is definitely a distinction between a rookie auto or parallel and an insert rookie-year auto or insert. The 35th anniversary cards, for instance, are inserts, and thus aren’t quite as desirable as their main-set counterparts, whether we’re talking autos, color parallels, or Chromes.
So, to me, limiting the distinction of “true rookie card” to the base flagship card doesn’t really seem to mean a whole lot.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro