How the desk checks facts
RookieDesk's only first-hand experience is checking: reading the manufacturer's PDFs, counting checklist lines, opening grader fee pages and comparing sources. This page says how that works, which sources count, and what we never do.
Which sources count
- Official first: the manufacturer's checklist and odds sheet PDFs, product pages, box guides and release calendar (Topps and Topps Ripped, Panini America, Upper Deck), and each grader's own service and fee pages (PSA, SGC, CGC).
- Every article needs at least three independent sources, at least one of them official. Short news needs two, one official.
- Secondary sites (DK Network, Checklist Insider, Cardlines, Cardboard Connection) are used to cross-check and are labelled "secondary" wherever we cite them.
- Collectors' posts on Reddit and forums are quoted word for word with a link, as what collectors say. They are never the source of a number.
- Player background on rookie pages comes from open data (Wikidata, Chadwick Register, nflverse), credited on the page.
How a fact gets into an article
- Before writing, the desk builds a source table for the article: each fact, its source URL, a short verbatim quote and the date it was read.
- Only facts with a row in that table go into the article. Before publishing, every number, date, name and quote in the draft is matched against the table, and quotes are checked on the live source page.
- A fact that cannot be matched is removed. When two sources disagree, the article says which one we used and why: the box beats a preorder listing, the manufacturer beats a secondary site.
- Each article shows how many sources it cites and the date its facts were last checked. That date changes only after a real re-check.
How we read an odds sheet
- Odds are copied from the manufacturer's sheet, row by row, with the box format column they belong to (Hobby, Jumbo, Value, Mega, Hanger). We never estimate odds from box breaks, openings or forum posts.
- Topps' sheets print "1:N" without saying what N counts. We read it as one card per N packs of that format, on average, and we say so where it matters.
- A ratio is an average over the print run, not a promise for one box. We do not turn "1:81" into "one every few boxes".
- A dash or a missing row means the sheet lists no odds for that format. We write "no ratio on the sheet", never "impossible". Case hits and serial numbers are not marked on Topps' sheets, so our odds index has no filter for them.
Our counts and our data pages
- Checklist pages, team lists, player pages and the odds index are built from the text of the manufacturer's PDFs, each with the PDF link and the date it was read.
- When the desk counts lines itself (cards in a set, rookies, autographs per team) the article says "our count". Manufacturers revise checklists; when a new PDF changes a count, the article gets a PATCH line.
- Checklist downloads (CSV) carry the manufacturer's PDF link and the check date in every row.
Prices and dates
- Every price is a dated snapshot with its source (manufacturer store, grader fee page, eBay sold listings). We never write "currently costs".
- Release dates come from the manufacturer's own pages first; dates from other calendars are labelled secondary, and dates that move are logged on the release calendar.
What we never do
- Tell anyone what to buy, hold or sell, or predict prices. RookieDesk publishes data, not investment advice.
- Claim to have opened boxes, pulled cards or submitted to a grader, or invent writers, credentials or box breaks.
- Show an AI-made image as a card, a product or a person. AI images are only generic illustrations and are labelled.
AI and corrections
Articles are researched and written with AI tools; the checks above are what happens before anything is published. Details: how we use AI. When a fact changes or we get one wrong, the article is fixed in public with a dated PATCH line, and the corrections page lists every one of them.