What is an Xrc rookie card compared to a flat out rookie card for baseball?

Answer 1

The abbreviation RC stands for Rookie Card. A rookie card is the players first year of cards, whether or not it is his rookie season. Players may have one or dozens of rookie cards, depending on how highly touted he was as a youngster and in which year his rookie card was issued. A rookie card is generally applied to a player's first appearance on a Baseball card of major card manufacturers like Donruss, Fleer Upper Deck, or Topps. Price guides like Beckett, and Tuff Stuff denoted rookie cards with either a R or RC by a player's name. Designated by the major price guides a card is considered to be a XRC if it was released in an extended or limited set outside of the regular issued set of the major company. Most often once a player was drafted and prior to a player's first major league appearance. There is no exact definition to the difference between an RC or an XRC. Basically it comes down to what designation the price guide give it.

For example of the difference between an XRC, and a RC is Barry Bonds 1986 Topps Traded card #11T, Donruss Rookies card #11, and 1986 Fleer Update card #14 all receive the designation XRC while the Barry Bonds regular issued cards 1987 Topps #320, 1987 Donruss #361, and Fleer #604 all receive the designation RC.