Victor, The Rookie Specialist, looks at the past and present-day status of the rookie card all in an effort to better understand the future of this hobby icon.
Great question. I guess the answer comes in the form of what hat am I wearing at the time of purchase. If I desire long term monetary value then the 86 Topps Traded Tiffany is the card to have. If I have my PSA Set Registry hat on (I love the registry) I'll need the 86 Fleer Update. If I have my nostalgia collector hat I'm chasing the 87 Donruss or the 87 Topps. If I want something a bit more oddball-ish I'm choosing the 87 O-Pee-Chee. Crap! Let's just get them all 🤣👍🏽
Hello Victor, thanks for the video. What do you think the 2023 NSCC Silver Pack card Victor Wembanyama #VM? That’s not true RC and just the first NBA uniform card, isn’t it? Thank you
Hi Jason! Yeah, so typically, the manner of distribution matters. Cards that were printed exclusively for an event like NSCC do not qualify for a true RC designation. Still, it's a great card, and I typically refer to those as Rookie Year cards. Also, technically, he had not debuted in an NBA game yet. Appreciate you tuning in! 👍
But Victor your using your brain. We are now in the era of idiocracy, using your intelligence has been banned. We are all supposed to smoke dope and live in a fantasy world where everything is equal.
I have so many of those old cards and something always looked off. To my pre-teen self, I just blamed it on lower quality production standards. Now I realize what they were all missing - logos!
I really don't get into card values. Historically, collectors don't hold in high esteem cards that are partially licensed or zero license. Manufacturers have been pushing this stuff on us for decades and they just don't take off. I don't believe they will in the future either, of course I could be wrong.
Hey Victor I wanted to ask you about the 23-24 NBA Topps Chrome cards… the cards don’t have the team logo does that make it a true RC ?? The cards are very expensive and I don’t want to buy them if they aren’t true RC cards…
Hi George! I’d like to share with you my most recent article I wrote for Hobby News Daily, it answers this question directly. Its a fun easy read I hope it helps: www.hobbynewsdaily.com/post/unlicensed-rookie-cards-does-it-really-matter Short answer, True RCs must be fully licensed meaning league and the Players Assoc.
As a kid, I was drawn to the logos of NFL teams. In the 70s, Topps didn't put the logos on the helmets. As a result, I didn't want football cards and was more drawn to baseball. As it turns out, it effected my collecting to this day as I am only a baseball card collector. Great topic Victor and thanks for putting it together.
Victor i recently found your channel, and i gotta say, its a breath of fresh air...being in my mid 40's, im obviously an old school kid when it comes to my cards from the 80's and 90's...I love em' because that was my time as a kid and get sick and tired of hearing the term Junk wax...I should have started off saying i think hour music in the background is fine, and if folks have a problem with it, and this is coming from a Marine (known for not being as polite as some would prefer) but they can let you know about the "music" being distracting or whatever in a more decent way, than just a cold "hey that music is distracting" end of comment with nothing else..I also have a decent PC collection of ultramodern cards...now this statement i think can only come from actual experience, and its this... when ya walk into a Walmart or Target, whatever and see the 70+ different "types" of cards, i literally see no difference in the "production" amount today as opposed to the "junk wax" era... obviously cards like 1 of 1's and numbered cards generally, do help with the "supposed" rarity of a card, but i have a huge gut feeling (from experience and/or a simple scan of say eBay) that the SP or SSP (which can be a bit subjective on the use of those terms) and the inserts & parallels are covering every inch of the screen...they simply do not appear to be so "rare" even though they supposedly are...Another thing is Autographs, something that at one time we would have never done to our best cards, because writing on a card damages the card, and sticker autos to me are a joke, but i get they've become popular (but thats the catch) now its so common, i feel nothing special about having a Rookie card of a great/future HOF'er/HOF'er player with an auto...becauae they're just everywhere...it goes back to old adage, too much of good thing can and usually becomes a bad thing... finally I simply love a normal/base good looking rookie card. And the reason they dont give actual print amounts on base cards, is becauae then, as if its not obvious already, everyone would realize they're still mass produced like they were in the mid 80's to...well the present...not even accounting for the fact we have about 40 million more people in our population (obviously not all of those collect, but you understand what I'm saying)...i think it all comes down to motivation...If your a collector first, thats the lifeblood of the hobby, that being said, every and i mean every, collector still hopes or would like to think their cards will be worth a little more than what they paid if they ever sell some, but we know deep down this is generally not true, for 80's till the present...it is 100% the investors (ones for major profit) and 100% the grading companies that are being allowed, unfortunately buy all of us, to dictate what is "considered" valuable and what isnt...I still have some cards that are said to be worth nothing, but I'd never part with them because of what they mean to me for different reasons. I also miss the value of a card being determined by what the buyer is willing to pay to have it...not because they scanned thier phone and see 100 people paid this, so thats what your card is worth...no its not, it may be worth way more to me, or frankly way less at times...to they one's who are younger I will sound like an old man saying i miss the good old days, first im not old, but they'll realize that when they're 45-ish, i would've called me old when i was say 26, but I'd have been wrong...i still have the joy of opening a pack of baseball cards, because of just that...i enjoy it, i dont toss the pack if i dont get a numbered card or a sapphire refractor...Becauae i played baseball (even a tiny lil bit of upper level ball-before i was cut...lol and went into the Marines) and i still watch every braves baseball game i can, because i love the sport...i have no problem pulling out RC's of my favorite players and top-loading them, even if the major sites tell me it's worth $2.00...im not beholden to that..sorry comment is unnecessarily long, but let me add just one more thing concerning grading...when i see a "10" of some card sell for say $3,500 and then a "9" of the same card from the same company sell fro $480, that is way way to much of a discrepancy (especially) when we all know, most cant tell the difference between a 9 and 10...including the graders...its an artificial creation that the 10 os just that much more valuable not even realizing pop reports also tells you how many cards of any grade for that card have been graded...its an artificially created rarity...there may be only 100 10's but add up all the grades and its always obvious the card is not even remotely rare, not even counting the ones that haven't been graded...the hobby as a whole simply handed over the ability to decide what is valuable from one person to the next, to the grading companies...and we're all part of the problem...now, however, its entrenched and there's no going back...except and until something else or another method comes along to take its place...and it will...because the the only thing that always changes, is change...Anyways love the fact that you appreciate base cards...it use to be nice to have the occasional chase card, but thats slowing being played out as everything (short of base cards) are being made to appear as chase cards...this era will be looked back on as the "junk wax parallel/insert/auto era" most of us with any experience can see this as clear as day...just think of the what 30-ish Ronald Acuna RC's there are... kinda makes the 1 or 2 RC's from back in the day look a little better if we're being honest...love your content and perspectives of the hobby in general.
I wanted to do a video on tennis but the last tennis video I did seems like no one was interested in the sport, video did poorly. I'm not sure about your question without looking into it, you may have inspired a video on it. I know in baseball 1st Bowman cards are made for prospect players. Those who have not yet made it into a pro level. They are not true rookie cards to me, more of a pre-rookie.
Panini and Fanatics are going to be out of business because they’re going to keep up the gimmicks, kids won’t be starting because they can’t afford it and the hobby is going to die. I’m also I’m not gonna order online. I wanna go to a card show if I can’t do that I’m done.
Victor, as many years as I’ve collected cards, I’ve never realized logos weren’t there. I didn’t even think about that. I just thought it was topps choice to just put the team name there.
Standards are important, I agree. But I think the issue we are experiencing now is the price of licensed product vs unlicensed. So people want to feel good about buying something less expensive and still get a rookie card. So this leaves the leafs and Wildcards of the world to rescue "poor" collectors.
I'd have to wait until all products are released in order to make a fair assessment. Doesn't seem like that will happen until 1st quarter of 2025. I'll be sure to make another video on the topic. Also, I really try to stay away from market values. I'll present the cards and let you decide. Appreciate you tuning in. 👍🏼
Hoops #277 base RC is the true Rookie. First flagship pack pulled rookie in a Spurs uniform. It just is. Also, I don't see Wemby's career lasting long than 7 years. Look at any player over 7'4. That will give you all the proof you need. That being said, Ant Edwards will have a much better long term upside as he will end his career in the top 10 in all-time scoring, with multiple mvps and rings. Not all with the Wolves as I think he will sign elsewhere next FA.
Trying to knock the Ant man Immaculate off my list today. I hope you're right about his rookies. I've been buying rookies over 2nd/3rd year autos n inserts
@true_rcs I think have think 20 out of the 32 5 star graded rookies. Mostly blue parallels. Your video definitely made me tighten up what I purchase of his. I hope it plays out to where the 5 stars will be most desirable and valuable down the road.
Short answer is the hobby. Then documented by Beckett Publications in the early 80s. You can read about it more detail in my book, Amazon link available in show notes.
Taking the good with the bad I suppose. I could use SGC but the secondary market isn't kind. Most of the time I do well with my PSA grades but then there's time like these.
I think the Hobby defines Flagship not as longevity or importance, rather in terms of Market Capitalization. So that if you add up all the cards out there of that product would the total value be more or less. That most likely rules out extremely low print products like National Treasures even though on avg they are the highest value. But if you look at cards as Stocks/Shares in a company then Nation Treasure issues very few Shares/Cards. Under that definition Hoops is in the Middle
I wonder if that same theory works in baseball. Collectors of baseball tend to still use the method I speak of in the video. While basketball and football is determined by money? Man that's tough to swallow.
Collectors made this hobby, in the old days they buy to collect that is why we see rare cards today because of them Modern flippers and investora destroyed the hobby
I totally agree! I just struggle with the term “flagship” that word doesn’t mean most popular it means it’s the first product released with the longest tenure.
So what’s Shaq’s official rookie card in this case? Or did I misinterpret what you were saying as he was signed with Classic in 1992… Does that means that rcs from Fleer UD Topps etc. aren’t “official” rookie cards?
No. That’s not the case. His Classic cards are collegiate cards and feature him in his LSU uniform. Plus they’re not properly licensed. I refer to these type of cards as pre-rookie cards. Thanks for tuning in 👍🏼
@@true_rcs Thanks much appreciated Victor! What is your pc like? Predominately true rookie cards of favorite players and if so do you care if you have them in a 10 grade? Just out of curiousity!
@@roderickalbus5818 I prefer rookie cards of hall of famers in any of the four major sports. I prefer 10s especially for ultra modern players but I also have budget restraints so I typically go with the grade I can afford.
im pretty sure those griffey stars were dollar cards on comc before the boom. I figured id look them up the other day to see if this star hype has bled into those. They were around 60(and up)bucks on ebay. "Theyre trying to break the wheel" is the perfect analogy for this new generation of hobbyists. But its not about age. Most of the jordan star pumpers are gen x and boomers. The common thread of the wheel breakers seems to be they jumped into the hobby in the last 5 years.
I think the Jordan Topps card on back of the stadium club refers to his (first) card made by topps. I think they didn’t want to promote fleer on their product.
no one knows exactly how many star jordans were produced. many times employees would work extra hours/days to help produce supply w.o supervision and would just make cards for themselves because they were paid 1-4$ an hour back in the 80s. nothing new.
I once owned multiple graded complete sets of the 1988 Star Silver Griffey. The problem with these sets, in my opinion, is that they actually are pre-rookies. Griffey debuted in 1989, so are those truly rookies? Not to mention, you have the Star Silver, Star Nova and Star promos all released around the same timeframe. Between 1988 and 1989 alone, there's roughly over three-dozen Griffey cards from Star. Star didn't end there, though: They used some of the same rookie card images across their early 1990s sets, as well as going crazy with the promos and "limited" print run sets. In the early 90s, Star decided to expand even further into subsets, releasing Star Platinum, Star Gold, Star Silver, etc. Griffey Star cards were produced from 1988 until 1992, and there's clearly no shortage of these cards. It seems Star went crazy on printing Griffey. While I loved these sets for a long time and truly believed in them, it honestly is just a massive mess of Griffey madness.
Hi Andy! I’m assuming you’re referring to 2023-24 Topps Chrome. I have an entire video giving my reasons. But it really comes down to Fanatics strong arm business tactics, not a fan of the Players Association reneging on their contract with Panini either, whole thing seems corrupt. Also, not fully licensed therefore falls a bit short for a true RC designation. Other than that I really do enjoy Topps Chrome overall.
i use both terms interchangeably, but then i am pretty sloppy/lazy with my vocabulary. growing up in the hobby i am probably more apt to call them rookie cards though but agree with you that the term does not play so well on non-sport figures. I've been collecting music cards for a decade and only about half well-known bands have a definable rookie card from established set, which leaves considerable gray area for the others. For example, Tom Petty 1977 Monty Gum PUNK is definitely a RC. But for say, Nirvana or Metallica it's a total stone throw. be well friend
the billy joel isn't a sticker-it doesnt have adhesive on the back. it's called a sticker though, because people/europeans "stuck" them in books-only they used glue.
