[jimivintage]

Originally Posted by HRBAKER

It's hard for me to grasp the concept of collecting something
that no two people agree on what it is. When someone says
they collect T206s, we all know what that is. To me literally
there is no such thing as a Rookie Card, there is what we each
prefer to call an RC if we are so inclined. It's a hobby construct
on which there will never be wholesale agreement. That's
fine for some but I think that is a major contributor to the
narrowness of the appeal of the RC pursuit.

I understand this point of view, and one thing that Phil attempted to do at Oldcardboard is give the collector the first 5 known cards for each player. That has allowed me to decide what I think is the right card to represent that HOFer in my collection. I'd just like to see it organized differently to where things can be separated into minor leagues, first major league card, and so on. It would be tricky for some players given that they were featured on multiple issues and controversial issues, too. Heck, even the 1988 Alomar card varies for some collectors. I personally prefer to have the 1988 Donruss card to represent him because I know it was issued before any of the Traded issues midway through the 1988 season.

I'm certainly open to starting some sort of database that attempts to keep all HOF RC collectors "happy" with options. Since there isn't an exact HOF card for many of the HOFers, then this is just the best that can be done, right?