Surprise, surprise ... Derek Jeter's Rookie Cards are in demand

Let's all act surprised when The Captain gets his Cooperstown call later today -- it will make things a lot more exciting than some who-got-snubbed or who-shockingly-got-in commentary. Those are too predictable.

Since I'm feeling a tad contrarian today, here's where I'll rattle off my take on Derek Jeter and his Rookie Cards and how the one I'd want right here, right now today is the one you see above, not some big-money, elite-graded slab.

The New York Yankees shortstop appears on more than 18,000 different cards but only eight of those -- just eight! -- are classified as Rookie Cards based on the traditional definitions. (Insert cards are not RCs. Autographs are not RCs. Even RC parallels are not RCs and so on.) And technically, the card you see above didn't arrive in the most-traditional of forms, either, as it came from the 1993 Topps Stadium Club Murphy set -- a boxed set limited to just an announced 128,000 copies which is inevitably lower than anything else -- that also does get dubbed a RC from back then.

The huge-money card is his 1993 Upper Deck SP -- especially if you can land one in a slab with an elite grade, which is nearly impossible with all that foil that just didn't cut well by slabbing standards. If you don't land it in a high grade? Well, it's still in demand but not commanding the stupid money that is out there for those highest copies (if they even exist).

The safest Jeter picks? His 1993 Upper Deck or 1993 Topps cards -- but even those have different concerns and possibilities. The UD card is heavily glossed with cards that stuck together even way back then -- if you can find a high-grade slab, grab it. Meanwhile, the Topps card is, by today's standards, perhaps the one most people will grab first and most-often since it's flagship but it has a Gold parallel that can steal its thunder and even a Micro card that is far from an easy find in centered good shape. (Those aren't RCs -- the eight are in the gallery below.)

The 1993 Bowman RC? It's from those awkward transition years from when Bowman grew up between the oldschool cardboard but before Bowman decided it really wanted to be premium with gloss, foil and legitimately white stock. This one often looks yellowed with fuzzy printing and bad centering ... along with a T-shirt photo that doesn't really inspire pinstriped greatness. It's a card where the back might almost be more appealing than the front -- it certainly has a little more going on.

The rest of them -- 1993 Pinnacle, 1993 Score and 1993 Score Select -- are a trio that would make Sergio Leone proud. It's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly all over again. The Pinnacle Rookie Card (The Good) actually might qualify as one of his best cards overall -- and one I'd might grab slabbed after the Murphy -- but it suffers from the chippy glossed stock with black borders on both its front and back that can make it brutal more often than not condition-wise. (And I'm not sure I'd trust that gloss now with sealed packs ... can anyone out there tell me if these are not bricked?) The Bad in my mind is Jeter's Select card as he floats on a sea of sky and clouds on the card front (the sky's the limit, right?) in another awkward pose (there were a few that year) ... but at least these cards were somewhat cleanly printed and cut. (I do remember cards losing surface ink somewhat easily while sorting and bouncing around boxes back in the day, too, so beware now.) The Ugly is simply Score with its Dukes of Hazard type for his name line combined with a weird Draft Pick logo with another dose of awkward among everything else. This card is sooooo disjointed its not even funny ... front and back.

I've never considered myself a big Jeter fan -- more of a lightly-casual hater because that goes along with the team and all their rings -- and I've pulled more than a few of those RCs in the past. I slabbed some of them, traded or sold most of those or never wanted them if I hadn't pulled them. (Actually, now that I think about it, I never pulled a few of those.) You'll note that I really haven't talked cost here -- they'll vary, but most of these are available on a modest side of things raw or even slabbed in some cases. (Others, as sort of noted, can be pricey in some slabs.)

But the Murphy card? Well, it's far rarer than the rest and it costs more than most, too. I don't even remember the last time I saw one in the wild ... where I might have momentarily contemplated buying one if it had presented itself. I can't say I've ever really hunted one, though, either, but knowing the stock and the gloss of that time I'd only want it slabbed so there weren't any surprises. (Or fakes as "reprints" are out there, too.)

So now, on Election Day 2020, I do find myself surprised a bit ... not by the voting, though. That's a given. I'm surprised that I've even written this or looked at the cardboard that I've quickly run won.

I'm surprised that I want a certain Derek Jeter Rookie Card.

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