History Lesson Please (Sports Collectors Digest)

[mintacular]

I picked up a couple early 80s SCD monthly magazines the other day and it was a real treat reading some of the in depth articles (including ones on the '57 set and combo player cards). Also checking out the buy/sell ads during the "mail order" days. Was SCD basically the Beckett of the early 80s? Were they primarily a price guide? How old are they, was Bob Lemke the main editor, and isn't he a member here? What happened to them and are they now pretty much just a yearly price guide? Does any one have any for sale, would be interested in the reading material...Thanks.

[steve B]

They were way better than Beckett. I learned a lot from the articles in SCD, but Beckett is rarely much more than an iffy price guide with some fluff articles stapled to it.

I'll have to see if the pile of them out in the garage is still usable.

Steve B

[bcbgcbrcb]

SCD in the early 1980's was one of the primary sources of buying and selling baseball cards, both vintage and modern via advertisements. As previously stated, some good articles on the hobby as well as there was very little up-to-date information available to the general public regarding baseball card collecting.

[aelefson]

Hi-
I subscribed to SCD from the late 1980s through the mid 1990s. This was the best hobby publication, but the price guides were mostly ignored (most folks used Beckett's monthly for pricing, or SCD's big book). The biggest thing about SCD back then was it was where every dealer advertised. Some folks even purchased a very expensive subsciption to ensure they got their copy before most other people so they would have a chance to buy the best items. Think of it as the Ebay of the time period. And yes, the articles were much better than Beckett's back then (SCD focused more on vintage). It went downhill pretty quickly by the late 1990s.
Alan

[U240robert]

I subscribed to SCD for ages in the early 80's until the 90's.
Beckett is, more or less, just a price 'guide'.
I'd say SCD was more the 'ebay' of it's time.
It was odd doing auctions over the phone or by mail !

[GoldenAge50s]

Those 1980's SCD's were published every 2 weeks, not monthly. I have several boxes of them from about '83 thru around '87 that I saved.

Back then there were several columnists, short articles, a great Classified section & and everybody who was anybody had ads somewhere within!

I couldn't wait for each issue & read them cover to cover in that thick little magazine format!

[Volod]

I have seen Bob posting here, but don't know how recently, or if he checks in regularly. He did edit SCD and its brief sister pub, Baseball Cards Magazine in the mid-80's. What years were you looking for?

[Orioles1954]

Weren't these weekly for a time?

[DaClyde]

Recently Bob has been posting a lot to his blog based on what he's been reading from his microfilmed collection of The Sporting News. Oh, how I would love to see some sort of microfilm or digital (Please! Please!) archive of all of those old Sports Collectors Digests and Baseball Cards magazines. The history if our hobby is somewhat inaccessible to the current generation of younger collectors.

[Griffins]

Bob is tied up on a project for the next week or two and probably unavailable, but I'm sure he'll respond to this when he's back online.

[U240robert]

I have some old SCD's and Baseball Card Magazine. I should scan some of the prices it's great.
I do remember well, $4 for NM commons of '53 Bowman Color.
The Reese was $12 back then.

[Bigdaddy]

Yes, SCDs fo the 80's and 90's were THE place to buy and sell cards. Take away Ebay, on-line forums like this, on-line auction houses, email, and everything that relies on the internet, and what you are left with is SCD.

You could get the normal 3rd class mail subscription, or pay extra for the 1st class mail delivery and get your issue a couple of days early - sort of like the 'sneak peak' Thursday or Friday evening entry into the big card shows.

In addition to the articles and typical buy/sell ads, there were listings for card shows (remember all those?) and the autograph guests.

Things gradually went downhill with the advent of the internet and the loss of advertisers (which was the heart and soul of the magazine) and all that remained was mailer for the latest Roaches Corner auction.

I have not picked one up in quite a while.

[Gary Dunaier]

If memory serves me right, SCD also had a subscription option where you could have your copies overnighted to you via Federal Express. As you might imagine, this was a very expensive option.

Those who only know of today's SCD as a biweekly pamphlet would be surprised to see copies from the late 1980s and early 1990s, when it was a weekly and each issue was in the neighborhood of 200-300 pages.