Rookie card

From BR Bullpen

A Rookie card is the first baseball card on which a player appears. It may be an individual card, or a card shared with other players: it is common for cards to feature the likeness of two to four players who have not yet become major league regulars, but who are youngish and are expected to become regulars at some point. Rookie cards can feature the "rookie" mention prominently or be a Rookie Stars card, or not have any particular distinguishing features.

Topps Rookie card logo since 2006

For reasons that are largely sentimental, these cards are particularly sought after by collectors, and in the case of future Hall of Famers, they are usually the most valuable of all of those on which they appear. This is presumably because whoever collected this card in the first place did so before the player became "famous" and thus showed a lot of flair by hanging on to the card. That of course goes against the traditional valuation system placed on cards by kids (the original market for baseball cards) who value superstar players and players from their favorite team above anyone else and will only trade these cards in return for a large haul; in contrast, a card featuring an unknown rookie has little value - until the player depicted becomes a big shot.

The highest price paid for a modern (i.e post-1986) baseball card was $99,100 for a rookie card featuring Derek Jeter; it was part of the 1993 short-print Upper Deck set. This figure was obliterated in 2020 when a 2009 autographed Mike Trout rookie card from 2009 sold at auction for $900,000.

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