What is Aaron Judges true rookie card?
curch
Posts: 590 ✭✭✭
I am only a vintage collector but really enjoy Aaron Judge. With so much new and different product out today, I have no idea what his true rookie card is. Any help?
Always looking for vintage wax boxes!
0
Comments
.
I've gotta ask, when did this whole "rookie card" thing start? Back in my day, the rookie card was the first card the player had. Now a player has cards for a few years across multiple manufacturers but their "rookie card" is the one that has some RC insignia on it? Help an old cooter such as myself understand because it makes no sense to me. To me, it looks like the people that got priced out of the actual rookie card (which is most of us) got together and decided that the cheap base card 3 years down the line is the actual rookie card.
Arthur
Players might have a “true” rookie card where the RC appears on the card, but the question you might be asking is which rookie card do collectors place a premium value on as far as brand... IMO it seems that the Bowman Chrome cards that come out in regular Bowman usually bring the highest values, and the Heritage auto inserts that are numbered also command a premium.
Hi Curch,
I was also exclusively a vintage and PreWar collector— until I started watching Aaron Judge.
Now I collect Judge right alongside Mantle, as my two primary focuses.
Regarding Judge’s rookies...
The intial fundamental options before collectors of any player today are:
Auto or non-auto?
Base version or a rarer parallel version?
Personally, I like the fun of collecting them all.
That said, here’s a simple breakdown:
XRC: 2013 Bowman Chrome
This comes in Auto and non-auto versions.
Also comes in base, with rarer colored-border parallels.
Rookie Cards:
2017 issues are the ones you’ll be looking for, and they sport the MLB “RC” logo/badge. Personally, I like these over the Bowman Chrome pre-major league XRC's.
While personal preference should always be the guiding principle, one cannot go wrong focusing on these three key brands below; they are all great, in no ranking order...
Topps Heritage
Topps Archives
Topps Chrome
Again, auto or non auto is a choice we collectors have. Along with base card, or a rarer parallel.
Heritage
Heritage offers the “classic” dual face rookie card with Tyler Austin, as well as an “Action” Judge RC that features Judge alone.
Archives
Archives offers a 1960-style RC that is notoriously tough for centering, as well as a 1959 Bazooka style and a 1960 rookie stars style (think Yaz rookie).
Topps Chrome
Topps Chrome offers the catching pose card pictures above.
As one branches out from those key core brands, Topps offers collectors some other very cool products, i.e., the Definitive and Transcendent lines. But as a vintage collector I found those three key brands to be the best way to get started.
PSA did a nice breakdown in an SMR article last year. As work permits today I can also try to add some images to clarify.
Overall, as I have opened my mind to the modern space, I have found the options given us collectors accomplish two great things:
For one, the options allow us to find cards we really like, as opposed to being somewhat forced to embrace one RC we may not be that aesthetically "into." (I am looking at you 1963 Rose, 1969 Reggie, and 1979 Ozzie.)
Secondly, the choices before us allow each collector to distinguish his own collection with cards that may not be in another's collection.
Hope that primer was helpful.
Instagram: mattyc_collection
The RC card issue is where the hobby went astray, imo.
To me, a true "Rookie Card" isn't some super-limited short print insert. Its a regular issue card. The "problem" is, there just isn't a very large market anymore for "general cards" - its super short print cards almost exclusively that everyone other than true hobbyists are after. So "real" rookie card hardly even matter anymore for players over the past 15 years or so(some exceptions).
There is a further "problem" with Aaron Judge, though. His autograph cards were essentially triple printed. Topps has never before put an auto RC card of one player in every single issue/line. No single player has more auto RC cards than Judge, and its not even close. And forget individual set issues, there are over 50,000 Judge autograph cards out there and a mere fraction of that number in collectors. Some people will come along and try to steer you to specific auto cards, ones of which they probably own, while telling you to avoid all the ones listed for $150 to $200 on COMC and ebay that have been there for a year or more. Your best bet is just grabbing a couple standard issue cards like the Topps or Bowman Chrome cards and forget the over-produced autograph silliness.
I actively collect Kirby Puckett. I have collections of Michael Jordan, Emmitt Smith, Roberto Clemente, Dwight Gooden, Tom Seaver, Errict Rhett and Evan Longoria.
I think I'm in the minority on this, but when it comes to PSA set registry sets of HOF RC's, I feel like there should be multiple options that qualify for a particular line item allowed for many of the players on the list, as opposed to limiting to a certain one.
This is the best answer and the one that I also go by. People can say that the Bowman Chrome isn't his rookie because he wasn't technically playing with the Yankees in the Majors yet but neither was Jeter when his cards came out in 93 and I think its just common card knowledge to know that the 93 Jeters are his rookie cards although his first game wasn't until 1995.
So, yes, 2013 Bowman Chrome paper, Chrome, Refactor, Auto - either of these will do. Then followed by Heritage signed in Blue and Red "Topps certified autograph" cards and his regular 2017 Topps catching pose like the one listed which was inserted into series 1 packs. Those are his to go to cards.
Thank you for all the answers. My plan was just getting a sealed box that his true rookie was in, just to put aside.
Agree. What's McGwire's rookie card? Chipper Jones? Mariano Rivera? I think the market dictates which cards are the rookie cards. That is, after all, what it is all about. The only reason collectors began to care about rookie cards at all was because of value. Therefore the true determination should come from the market.
Obviously, everybody can collect however they want and if your goal is to get the RC insignia cards then that has merit. But I think when we're looking for "official" terminology we have to look to the why above.
Arthur
To make your good idea a great one get the box AND get the rookie card too. That way you won’t be tempted to crack it open
.
The Registry card will almost certainly be 2017 Topps Chrome
My Podcast - Now FEATURED on iTunes