The most desirable cards of post-war players are usually scarce regional or minor league issues that predate the nationally issued mainstream sets. You can define it however you want but if you ignore large classes of cards that predate the 'rookie' the whole point of having the earliest card of the player gets lost. I am always going to opt for the Cal Ripken or Rickey Henderson minor league cards over their later 'rookie' cards.
And what to do about Japanese and other foreign players who are now excelling in MLB and are potential HOFers? Do we ignore a decade of Ichiro cards from Japan and annoint his first Mariners card as the rookie? Seems kinda silly.
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