2017-18 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey Forum

All of the mail-in exchange set cards for this set are marked with "XRC" when they probably shouldn't be. Just wanted to confirm with others before any updates were made.

I am a bit rusty at the moment as I have not been active for a while but in hockey the term XRC is a rogue term. An XRC is not a thing really at all as its a RC or its not an RC no middle ground. They are considered an insert because they were not part of the base set. There is likely someone here to answer more clearly than this blithering idiot but if not there is a great source peice listed here with the entire library of the acronyms used here. I just don't recall its location either. Like I said not a real help am I. LOL 

UPDATE

OK I apologize for the silliness above, I am now clear on this. That entire insert set needs to be fixed. First of all the cards are mostly incorrect, as this is not where the EXCH cards go this is for the RED cards, as in the cards with the scratch off code on them. Somebody has placed the player cards incorretly. XRC should be replaced with RED as these are redpemption cards and not the exchanged rookie cards which are listed in the base set. As for the XRC information that I am still not sure on its official use, I think its best for a non-foggy answer LOL

XRC is a Beckett term for cards that would normally be considered RCs, but weren't released in packs in stores. This includes the Topps Traded sets of the 1980s (and Fleer Updates) and in basketball, the Star Co. sets of the mid-80s (that was the not in packs in stores part). This was not meant for cards that are inserts in packed out products. 

Beckett's bias against Star means nothing. Those are legitimate rookie cards. The term does have an actual use, however. Starting in the 2000-01 season they issued redemption cards for players in the next year's draft. This means that the players have cards from before they actually played. The term existed before the cards did. 

Not sure how it relates to hockey, yet. 

My LCS will use the XRC term for mail-ins and redemptions if not part of the base set, a second card in the same base set, card in series 2 or update set, likely a few others. I have used a method that my friend (RIP bud) that opened his shop years ago said first issued card by brand in base set of the year they played is a RC and nothing more. No PRC no XRC .......... just good ol' RC. I bend a little and use PRC personally (think CHL, AHL, etc), as well don't forget the silly WJC era for RCs but I am pretty positive that the NHL now uses the same rules to describe the RCs for its players. Cards not in a NHL uniform do not count as true RC, a player does not have to play a league game but should appear in "full dress" with exceptions to the rules, think Georgiev in this years UD, draft day cards, etc. This has been my experience over my 25 years of collecting.

I personally don't consider the WJC cards as rookie cards even though the hobby did for a while. It is before their NHL career began so it can not possibly be a rookie card when they aren't a rookie yet. 

I also don't consider cards issued in later seasons to be actual rookie cards either. For example the 2011-12 NBA rookies don't have legitimate rookie cards since Panini chose not to put them in the few 2011-12 sets they bothered to produce. 

The hobby as a whole doesn't agree with me, but I don't care. 

With that said, I do enjoy collecting minor league hockey cards and by that I don't mean Minor, I mean anything not NHL. AHL, CHL, ECHL, etc. Of the three main sports I collect hockey is the only one where you can build a full career on cards. Hockey also has pretty decent international representation on cards, which I like a lot and wish I had better access to. Basketball and auto racing do not have either, unfortunately.

Billy, just curious then, the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr card - not his true rookie since he hadn't played a MLB game until that season? (It was released months before he played in a MLB game.)

If he played that season it counts. I'm not sure what his situation was, but using an NBA example. Joel Embiid was drafted in 2013 and became a member of the Philadelphia 76ers that year. He was in the NBA...but he was too injured to play. He was too injured to play the next year as well, finally getting the chance to play in 2015-16. But he was a member of the team, so his cards from 13-14 and 14-15 count. 

Another example...Tyrone Nesby. Joined the NBA in 1998-99 season as an undrafted player. Didn't get cards until 1999-00. Darrell Armstrong joined the NBA in 1994-95, didn't get cards until 1997-98 season. Neither of them have rookie cards in my reckoning, although the hobby in general assigns the rc tag to them. 

And then what about the players who never saw action in the majors, yet appeared on cards as being inthe majors? No RC for them?

There are plenty of examples available, but here's a famous one that's an RC but the player never played in the majors