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Rookie Baseball Cards Rookie cards are very popular with collectors and often a player's rookie card will be much more valuable than cards produced in subsequent years. Starting with the 2006 Major League Baseball season the MLB players association and major card manufacturers, Upper Deck, and Topps, have agreed to mark all official rookie cards with an official rookie card logo. This was to make is easier for collectors to identify rookie cards. For a players card to be eligible for the rookie logo he must be listed on a MLB teams active 25 man roster.
Before the 2006 baseball season the generally accepted collector definition of a rookie baseball card was the first appearance of a player's card in a licensed Major League Baseball set. This is regardless of whether the player had played any games at the major league level. Sometimes card sets are produced by manufacturers as an extra edition to a regular set that may also include rookie cards but, these have a hobby designation of XRC's or extended rookie card's. For popular players the XRC cards also are in demand and have increased value much like the rookie cards in a regular set. Manufacturers have recently tried to add some new terminology to define a rookie prospect card by calling them "First Year" cards. This is to differentiate between a player's first year for having cards produced in MLB set from a player's actual MLB rookie year which is sometimes a few years after the first card is produced. How do you know if a pre 2006 card is a rookie card or not? The easiest thing to do is to check a price guide. There will be a "RC" next that specific listing, that indicates a rookie card. You can also search for a card on-line and glean information about the card from the description. However, consider the source. Some information is not accurate so try to find authority sites.
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Baseball Cards
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