History of the Rookie Card

It’s no secret. This website centers around my passion for collecting rookie cards of Hall of Famers. However, historically, it’s complicated and confusing. And it would do collectors well if we understood the history of the rookie card.

Universal Agreement!?

When asked, “what do you collect?” it typically brings a smile to my face. However, a better question would be, “what are you currently collecting?” For me, it doesn’t matter the sport, card manufacturer, nor era. It’s going to be rookie cards of Hall of Famers.

There is nothing the hobby can produce that will sustain the long-term value like the RC.

Most collectors identify with a type: some are, set collectors, some are player collectors, and yet for others, it can be a team, autographs, vintage, etc.

No matter the niche, all collectors have this one universal thing in common – they appreciate and or recognize the value found in rookie cards.

However, don’t be fooled if I painted you a picture of peace, love, and unity among collectors and rookie cards.

On the contrary, the history of the rookie card can be a touchy subject, much like politics or religion. There have been challenges, debates, and opinions that go back decades.

The History of the Rookie Card – 1980s

In the 1980s, the hobby gave birth to the RC Boom. It started early on with Fleer and Donruss. A courtroom victory over Topps gave them the right to manufacture and distribute sports cards.

By 1984 Topps ups the ante by creating something different, Tiffany sets. And the flurry of competition begins.

The competition responds with special releases of their own, and by the mid-to-late ’80s, there is a cluster of brands and unique issued sets that included cards of rookie players.

Manufacturers knowing that collectors love rookie cards, began to include them into the Update sets earlier and earlier. So, naturally, they all wanted to be the first to feature that player.

The hobby was trying to find itself in attempting to unravel this mess, but natural questions arose: 

Are the Tiffany, Glossy, and Update sets considered RCs? How about factory sets that are in a specific region? Are they considered RCs? What if a player has two cards in the same set? Are they both considered RC?

By 1986 collectors were in an uproar about all the confusion. Hobby publications tried to help by creating the XRC identifier. Which means the card was released in an “extended” set. 

Typically, these sets were released after the baseball season and were an extension of a base flagship set. 

The original intent of these Update sets was to capture veteran players that were perhaps traded to other teams. Or capture the rookie players that were possibly overlooked in that year’s base set.

But giving cards this XRC identifier caused an uproar among collectors. People could not agree, and another adjustment had to be made by hobby publications. 

They stopped using the XRC identifier after the 1988 season but grandfathered in the cards that already had it.

The Chaotic Ending to the 1980s

On the horizon, a giant was approaching. In 1989, Upper Deck made its debut, and the RC craze is once again set ablaze!

Demand was high, and manufacturers kept right on printing. In my opinion, the driving force behind the “Junk Wax Era” was the demand of the RC.

In 1980, there was the Topps & O-Pee-Chee brand only, but by the end of 1989, there were over 190 different sets created by five manufacturers Topps, Fleer, Donruss, Score, and Upper Deck.

Most were distributed at the national level, and others were only regional; some were extensions of the base set while others came from retail chains. Baseball cards were everywhere.

The History of the Rookie Card – 1990s

More competition as Leaf & Pacific enters the arena of sports card manufacturing.

In 1992 Bowman included Minor League Draft Picks still in street clothes, and the hobby flocked to those RC’s like seagulls in a parking lot after you chuck the rest of your french fries out the window.

Collectors lost their minds trying to get their hands on these. That same year Bowman re-brands itself by self-proclaiming itself “The Home of the Rookie Card.”

It was a genius marketing scheme but also a top-notch product with excellent card stock and design. Then, in 1992 Bowman turned white-hot and flipped the hobby upside down.

The Hobby Impact of the Insert Card

1992 brought another complex issue. Shaquille O’Neal was still under contract with Classic, a non-licensed card manufacturer. They enforced this contract and did not allow licensed manufacturers to print RC’s of Shaq-Diesel.

So as a solution, licensed manufacturers created redemption cards, a great strategy, right! But, wrong, this caused a lot of debate within the hobby. 

Due to the distribution and timing of the contract, collectors did not get their redemption cards until the end of the season, going into the 1993 season.

Some of these redemptions came back numbered like an insert set rather than part of the base set to complicate matters further.

By 1992 the Insert Card Boom hit the hobby, and we embraced them with open arms. It revolutionized the hobby yet again.

Historically, a sub-set would be found within the base set itself. Now the sub-sets are seen outside the set in the form of inserts (or chase cards).

Add to the insert card boom, advanced computers, printing technologies, and what evolved were great-looking cards and a host of parallel cards.

But are parallels and rookie players that are included in insert sets considered rookie cards? Some collectors said, NO! Others said, YES!

By 1999, manufacturers introduced another significant change within the hobby. The autographed / serial numbered rookie card. Oh boy! Here we go again!

The History of the Rookie Card – 2000s

Collectors fascinated with the idea of having a rookie auto couldn’t get enough—Sells of unopened product sore to new heights.

These serial numbered beauties had limited supply and high demand. These rookie autos were serial numbered, mostly between 499-3999, and it prevented manufacturers from mass-producing cards as they did back in the 1980s.

Upper Deck tried to capture some of this autographed rookie card momentum by releasing a set licensed by the MLB but not the MLBPA.

The industry felt that this was cheating in a sense, and hobby publications quickly made an exception and resurrected the XRC identifier to put out the backlash of collector’s frustration.

Right about the same time, manufacturers start to release serial numbered, parallel RCs.

These had some computer design variations and were branded with serial numbers too. However, many collectors felt that this was another form of cheating the system.

The hobby took notice and decided that parallel cards can’t be considered rookie cards. But of course, not all collectors agreed with that.

In the early 2000s, manufacturers were trying to one-up each other by releasing many brands, each with its type of variant or twist, to create something different and exciting. 

Still, before a product had a chance to gain momentum, a competitor quickly released another brand and suffocated any momentum from its competitor. 

This crazy cycle continued month after month, year after year. Production of different brands and their parallels spiraled out of control. The number of relics, autographs, serial numbered parallels left collectors scratching their heads.

The History of the Rookie Card by 2005

Add to this madness the likes of LeBron James rookie cards. It felt like it was turning into a hobby for millionaires. 

Many collectors were being priced out and made the mistake of keeping up with the influx of product releases.

It discouraged many collectors, myself included, and forced some collectors to bow out of collecting altogether. Finally, I tapped out in 2004.

Maybe it was one business trying to take out its competitors. Perhaps they were riding the wave of good fortune, and perhaps it was greed.

I don’t have any evidence that indicates that manufacturers purposely set out to confuse and frustrate collectors, but that was the outcome. 

By 2005 collectors and the industry determined that the rookie card was broken!

MLBPA Steps in as Mediator

In 2005 the Players Association stepped in to assist the card manufacturers in defining what a rookie card is and the rules for using the MLB RC logo on card fronts.

This noble cause would remove consumer confusion. (So they hoped).

The mandate issued to all licensed-card manufacturers was, “Remove the licensing logos from the cards of all players without major league service. Once a player is placed on a 25 man roster, he will be eligible to appear on cards with the MLB RC logo.”

The goal was to help collectors distinguish which players were indeed making their major league debut and who weren’t.

The mandate further stated, “…no manufacturer will have the right to include non-25 man roster players in their products as anything other than insert cards.”

At that time, Evan Kaplan, Director of Licensing and Business Development for the MLB Players Association, said this,

“In baseball, as in other sports, a player’s Rookie Card should only be produced in the season in which he reaches the Major Leagues for the first time.”

So it’s all good in the neighborhood, right? Wrong! Topps released multiple products outside the scope of this mandate for several months afterward.

When asked about it, they claimed, “they intend to meet the requirements of the MLBPA but that these releases are a mere production, scheduling conflict.” One last kick in the teeth by Topps to its competitors.

The Dark Era of Reform

So the history of the rookie card comes to a pivotal point. The “rookie card” goes under reform.

The industry was in desperate need of improvement, things were headed down a wrong path, and this amendment would be the first step in making things right.

The next logical step was to define what exactly constitutes a rookie card? So the MLBPA, the card manufacturers, sports card dealers, and collectors put their heads together to reconstruct the rookie card to revitalize this pillar of the card community.

In Part 2 of this series, we will look at The 10 Commandments of the Rookie Card.

Happy Collecting Collectors,

Learn. Collect. Enjoy.

---

Sources:

Payne, Mike. The Changing Face of the Rookie Card. Beckett Baseball Magazine. October 2005 | Issue 247.

Beckett Rookie Card Encyclopedia. Dallas, TX. Becket Media LLC. 2nd Edition 2014.