O/T The concept of a non-sports "rookie card"

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

People have really scraped the bottom of the barrel of possible things to complain about when they get triggered over the use of 'rookie card' with regards to non-sports personalities, and h2oya311 put it perfectly when he said (paraphrase alert) it was just a general way to say 'first' card.

Frank, if you send me a pic, I will gladly plug you in to a 1972 Topps 'In Action' card that you can then call your rookie (meaning FIRST) card. The only proviso is you actually have to be doing something active in the photograph (any activity under the sun counts)...which seems to be getting tougher for many of us these days.

Frank "still waiting for my rookie card" Burkett


Bowling in Chiang Rai, Thailand

Thai Bowling.jpg

[Shankweather]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

I think the term “rookie”’ is absurd in this context.

Hypothetically a guy performs on stage or screen for a dozen years and then ends for the first time on a card or similar item …. That ain’t a rookie anything. It’s a first something.

If Joe Biden or Willie Nelson ended up on a card this year for the first time, would someone with a straight face claim that as a “rookie” something?

Baseball rookie cards aren't dependent on a player's rookie or debut season. It's just the first time they have a card in an MLB set. Like Jeter's 1993 RCs when he didn't debut until 1995 and his rookie season was 1996. Hamlet didn't get a card until the 1880s, almost 300 years after the play was written. But everyone knows this is his rookie card. Everyone.

[JollyElm]

Here ya go, 'Ole Pink Shoes'...


1972frankburkett01a.jpg

[irishdenny]

The "Prince of Preachers" Only Tobacco Card ~

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

Here ya go, 'Ole Pink Shoes'...


Attachment 627925

That’s Awesome!

[Bill77]

Here is an interesting one that I just found. I would have thought that Scott Bakula would have had an earlier card such as maybe a set based on Quantum Leap, but apparently, they never made a Quantum Leap set. His first card is from the 1993 version of Face to Face.

[boneheadandrube]

How About a Ferdinand Porsche Rookie?

1910 PC with Ferdinand Porsche.jpg

[Peter_Spaeth]

Jimmy BUffett's first, from the same issue.

[Cozumeleno]

Originally Posted by Bill77

Here is an interesting one that I just found. I would have thought that Scott Bakula would have had an earlier card such as maybe a set based on Quantum Leap, but apparently, they never made a Quantum Leap set. His first card is from the 1993 version of Face to Face.

I have a couple of these board games, one sealed. There are a ton of rookies in them from what I've been able to research. And they're a Canadian issue that wasn't heavily produced that I have seen. You can find singles on eBay but complete games/sets are somewhat hard to find.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Cozumeleno

I have a couple of these board games, one sealed. There are a ton of rookies in them from what I've been able to research. And they're a Canadian issue that wasn't heavily produced that I have seen. You can find singles on eBay but complete games/sets are somewhat hard to find.

1987 Motto and 1991 Face to Face are great sources of first cards.

[Arazi4442]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

https://www.ebay.com/itm/39290646602...Bk9SR4LO8-qRZA

I know PSA isn’t always completely accurate but they have this one listed from 1930. Earliest one I know of.

[mantlefan]

Long before Disney revived his fame, Davy had a rookie back in 1910:





Earliest Lindy I can find is from a German set issued a year before his famous flight across the Atlantic:



The Boy General's rookie appeared just 12 years after his Last Stand:





Caesar's first card was in that same 1888 set:

[Peter_Spaeth]

Robin Williams.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Another Michael Jackson "rookie" card, this one Australian, 1972 EMI.

[Shankweather]

Originally Posted by Arazi4442

I know PSA isn’t always completely accurate but they have this one listed from 1930. Earliest one I know of.

Very often when PSA says "1930" it's actually "1930s," as in they don't know exactly when.

[Spike]

I brought a half-dozen sealed packs of 1978 Donruss "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" to the 2024 National and challenged my friends to unwrap Steve Martin's first card (he has two in that set). Sam here found it straightaway.

[Peter_Spaeth]

One year later for Steve Martin.

[rhettyeakley]

My favorite early John Wayne card...

Frankie Darro Picture Stamp Club

These are very similar in size and look to the Rogers Peet sports card set and feature essentially "friends" of young actor Frankie Darro, who was a bit of a big deal as a young actor in the early 1930's.

Dates to 1934 as it references Darro's movie "Burn 'em up Barnes"

It features cards of boxer Max Baer, Laurel/Hardy, Shirley Temple, Will Rogers, the Little Rascals, and a young John Wayne.

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by boneheadandrube

How About a Ferdinand Porsche Rookie?

Was Prince Heinrich's last name really Fahrt?

[edhans]

Originally Posted by Mark17

Was Prince Heinrich's last name really Fahrt?

I think that's the German for "drives".

[Peter_Spaeth]

1991 Face to Face Bob Newhart and Richard Pryor. Pryor has some in role cards in an earlier Topps Superman issue but going with this one.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

If none have been produced, somebody has to create one for George Carlin and Mitch Hedberg. Both at the top of the comedy food chain for me.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

If none have been produced, somebody has to create one for George Carlin and Mitch Hedberg. Both at the top of the comedy food chain for me.

Here is Carlin's first, from the same issue.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Glad to know he has a card. Man, that set design leaves a lot to be desired, though! Wow. On the positive side, they wouldn't have been bad for autograph purposes, with a spot to sign underneath the mugshots!

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Glad to know he has a card. Man, that set design leaves a lot to be desired, though! Wow. On the positive side, they wouldn't have been bad for autograph purposes, with a spot to sign underneath the mugshots!

They were issued in Canada as part of some sort of board game, so emphasis was not on the design. The set is a gold mine for non-sports first cards.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

They were issued in Canada as part of some sort of board game, so emphasis was not on the design. The set is a gold mine for non-sports first cards.

I'm in Canada. What was the game called? I'll be sure to scour every thrift store I'm in.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

I'm in Canada. What was the game called? I'll be sure to scour every thrift store I'm in.

Face to Face. There is also a 1993 edition, see example.

[BeanTown]

Not sure if Walt Disney with Mickey Mouse has been shown yet

[Peter_Spaeth]

1930s Brazilian issue of Ray Bolger that I think may be his first card. Despite the Wizard of Oz, there are very few contemporaneous cards of Bolger, and almost none of Jack Haley or Bert Lahr, for some reason.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

1930s Brazilian issue of Ray Bolger that I think may be his first card. Despite the Wizard of Oz, there are very few contemporaneous cards of Bolger, and almost none of Jack Haley or Bert Lahr, for some reason.

Is it perhaps due to Bolger being the most well known of the trio at the time? I feel like, many years later, Bolger would be the one that most people could name above the others. Bolger and Margaret Hamilton have to be the best known besides Garland.

Hamilton clung on to that role for the rest of her life.

I'll always remember Clara Blandick because of the rarity of her autograph.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Is it perhaps due to Bolger being the most well known of the trio at the time? I feel like, many years later, Bolger would be the one that most people could name above the others. Bolger and Margaret Hamilton have to be the best known besides Garland.

I'll always remember Clara Blandick because of the rarity of her autograph.

Maybe but there are infinite numbers of 30s and 40s movie issues with countless obscure names. The short supply of cards of these three is striking. I have two Bolgers, one Haley and no Lahrs.

[Peter_Spaeth]

1978 European sticker of Emmylou Harris.

[Fred]

How about Alfred E. Neuman, 8 years prior to the first release of Mad magazine. This post card has a cancellation date of 1944.

AEN-s.jpg

[h2oya311]

That Alfred E Newman is fantastic!!

[BeanTown]

Originally Posted by h2oya311

That Alfred E Newman is fantastic!!

+1

[Yoda]

Peter, your collection of non-sports cards is terrific. I particularly like the young Churchill, which proves he had hair at one time in his youth. Is it rare?

[Yoda]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

Frank "still waiting for my rookie card" Burkett


Bowling in Chiang Rai, Thailand

Attachment 627713

Frank, did you make the split?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Yoda

Peter, your collection of non-sports cards is terrific. I particularly like the young Churchill, which proves he had hair at one time in his youth. Is it rare?

John, I wouldn't say rare, but it depends on frame of reference.

[KJA]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Basketball too given the huge gaps in production prior to 1969. 1948, 1957, 1961 so lots of "RCs" of players 5, 6 years into their careers.

And then the gap in production in the 80's so 1986 Fleer set had quite a few RC's of players who weren't really rookies like Jordan. Unless you count the STAR releases.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by KJA

And then the gap in production in the 80's so 1986 Fleer set had quite a few RC's of players who weren't really rookies like Jordan. Unless you count the STAR releases.

IMO people who don't count the Star releases are people who don't want to pay for a 101 Jordan.