My Definition of a Rookie Card (1980's & Early 1990's Focused) - 2 Questions...

NGS428

I know we all have our own definition of what defines a rookie card, so not looking for a debate on that.

These are the criteria I am using:
1. Fully-licensed (both MLB and MLBPA)
2. Nationally-distributed set that is primarily focused on current Major League players.
3. Rookie and Traded Sets (XRC) are being considered as nationally distributed.
4. If a player has a base card and an XRC in the same year, the base card is the true rookie (see 1987 Donruss Maddux)
5. If a player only has a XRC for a given year, then those are the rookie cards and any base/XRC in further years are not considered rookies (See 1986 TT/FU/DR Bonds, 1984 FU Clemens)
6. Base or Base Parallel (Topps Tiffany or Fleer/Score Glossy)
7. Player does not need to be in in a MLB uniform (See 1992 Bowman Ramirez)

Questions:

Per my #6 above, at what point in the year were the Tiffany and Glossy sets released? Were they released at the same time of the year as the base sets?

Per my #7 above, I am not fully set on this one. 1992 Bowman vs 1992 Upper Deck Ramirez is the prime example. I know in more recent releases logos are photo shopped on. What do you think on this specific requirement?

ReggieCleveland

I'm not sure I understand. You're asking us how we think you should define your own personal interpretation of the phrase "rookie card" to be?

Arthur

NGS428

@ReggieCleveland said:
I'm not sure I understand. You're asking us how we think you should define your own personal interpretation of the phrase "rookie card" to be?

Arthur

I am just asking the 2 questions listed under my criteria.

Edit: I added a break in the post to make it more clear.

jordangretzkyfan

Tiffany sets were released 4-6 months after the initial release of the base cards. Topps issued base cards in Nov/Dec with Fleer and Donruss shortly after. Tiffany sets were released in late spring once the season was underway and Topps knew who their top distributors/orderers were.

NGS428

@jordangretzkyfan said:
Tiffany sets were released 4-6 months after the initial release of the base cards. Topps issued base cards in Nov/Dec with Fleer and Donruss shortly after. Tiffany sets were released in late spring once the season was underway and Topps knew who there top orders were.

Thanks Chris! Do you happen to know the timing of the fleer and score glossy sets?

stwainfan

It was so much easier in the 1980's. Now you just have too many cards of each player.

DBesse27

I especially like criteria 4 and 5. 83 Topps traded strawberry should trump 84 straw. But 82 Topps 3 player Ripken RC should trump the 82 traded.

jordangretzkyfan

@NGS428 said:

Thanks! Do you happen to know the timing of the fleer and score glossy sets?

My memory is June/July timing, but I am not positive. It was certainly well after their main release.

NGS428

@dustinspeaks said:

@DBesse27 said:
I especially like criteria 4 and 5. 83 Topps traded strawberry should trump 84 straw. But 82 Topps 3 player Ripken RC should trump the 82 traded.

89 Sosa should trump the 90 Sosas too. Really it seems like guys these days get at least 2 years of rookie cards.

Yeah, I saw that 89 Donruss is not even part of his PSA rookie set. Not sure why. Guess just because it is not in a base or traded set. It is a baseball’s best set...

NGS428

@DBesse27 said:
I especially like criteria 4 and 5. 83 Topps traded strawberry should trump 84 straw. But 82 Topps 3 player Ripken RC should trump the 82 traded.

The multi player cards get no love for sure...

DBesse27

@NGS428 said:

@DBesse27 said:
I especially like criteria 4 and 5. 83 Topps traded strawberry should trump 84 straw. But 82 Topps 3 player Ripken RC should trump the 82 traded.

The multi player cards get no love for sure...

I don't particularly like multi-player cards, but in determining a rookie card, timing is everything.