Best "Baseball Card" Book Ever?
 

For my birthday, my wife bought me The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin & Company (1886-1890) by Jay Miller, Joe Gonsowski and Richard Masson.

This is such an impressive book! The thoroughness of the content, the quality of the photography, the sturdiness of the book itself, makes me wonder how another baseball card book can be better than this.

Does anyone have any other recommendations of great baseball card books?

Thank you for the kind words. We wrote the book for others, but I probably refer to my copy more often than anyone. Enjoy the read!

this book is a different animal than the one you mention but it's still my favorite and worth a read

Redsfan...that is my favorite too...bought a paperback copy as a kid and still have it even though it is now held together by a rubber band...Goodnight Sibby Sisti wherever you are

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You're welcome, great job!

Incredible......
 

"The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubble Gum Book by Brendan C. Boyd and Fred C. Harris.

I have owned maybe 5 copies of this book as I'm always lending it out and it is NEVER returned! That is a sure sign of a winner! I have read this book many times and go to it often just to read passages like this one that I take liberty in splicing together:

"The day that he died (Harry Agganis) of leukemia at age 25, in 1955,......"

"But Harry Agganis? If something like this could happen to Harry Agganis then what was to become of us? What indeed?"

and these memorable lines about Ted Williams:
"In 1955 there were 77,263,127 male American human beings and every one of them in his heart of hearts would have given 2 arms, a leg, and his collection of Davy Crockett iron-on to be Teddy Ballgame.

Also as Orioles70 aptly pointed out: "Goodnight Sibby Sisti, wherever you are."

This book is an absolute treasure to those who love this hobby. Get it at all costs and enjoy!

I also think that an incredible hobby treasure is: The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin & Company (1886-1890) by Jay Miller, Joe Gonsowski and Richard Masson.

Peace, Mike

PS Here is a photo of the last page of this little treasure:

Attachment 337653

Agree. Glad to see so many others praise it in this thread because it has always seems overlooked to me, or maybe just not as loved by some others. This book was one of the inspirations for my collecting. I recall purchasing a small number of cards from Gar Miller because his contact info was listed in the back of the book.

"Who the hell is Cuno Barragan? And why are they saying those terrible things about him?"

Both of those are excellent choices, and I have copies of each. Still, it's hard for me to pick them over the Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards by Lew Lipset. Just way too much info there to ignore. A resource extraordinaire.

The Hat. The eyes. The name. Somebody definitely has got to be pulling our legs with this guy.




As others have said - this is a great book on bb cards. Written by 2 guys who grew up collecting in the 50s/60s.

And sorry OP if this isn't the kind of book you meant. Maybe you would like the T206 book written by Zappala? It has short profiles on each player and is nice to look at. He also did a book on Cracker Jack cards.

If I recall, I received a copy of that book for joining the PSA Collectors Club several years ago.

Tom and Ellen Zappala write a nice coffee-table book each year for PSA. Nice people too, glad they use their writing skills to help the hobby.

This is a link to their 2018 book

http://perpublisher.com/per227.html

Tom and Rico Petrocelli also host an internet radio show sponsored by PSA and the National. Many important hobby people do interviews with them.

This is the facebook link to their show


https://www.facebook.com/GAcollectib...ntions&__xts__[0]=68.ARB-j1Io_qlNpmEbLepULpUR4D4V6wA3kUig2R3_5uKUVBtqXY3GD8 SZOFue6Fpxe6bH37Tm_RvJI4AXCTcSMXFq5ii6Vz50v--_S8dBT5UFeRqCuRXDtKNXv6cKY9bLe0GfZU7-OZP1F8G7aHGMpuvP7_H3cYjy2ZpMTv2e7x0phTTNhA6JoegCPC 6ifj6KFr5moqFNslCDFnMG9QzWDYnY62o-su5PzhPr_06wWsgupKmtaiiJicLCYZd4mV19Ov3Lf6aYSN7sMF _Gmw_rbqaas8J0FH3ZLl0UuwjuK-eOYfJ1nVAP0ipJV1FluEtJoEzwi7BV1HTQO_KUMFnmfM_tk6M

(Yes that's a long link)

Rich

"Satchel Paige could have been the greatest pitcher in major league history, if he'd been given the chance. Don't look back, America, something might be gaining on you."

I first read the book when it came out--my uncle got it for me--and I don't think it is too much of a stretch to say that it got me addicted to classic Topps and Bowman cards.

Another great seminal baseball card book is The Complete Book of Baseball Cards: For the Collector, Flipper and Fan [1975; Steve Clark]. It gives a great snapshot overview of the hobby as it was in 1974-1975 including a visit to the Burdick Collection, an interview with Sy Berger, visits to card shows, info on the various publications, and even a section with data on rare cards. Some of the information is wrong, but was thought to be right back then, and of course the prices will make you cry, but it is a great time capsule of what it was like to collect just as card collecting was reaching critical mass.


If you are at all into shiny stuff, you must read Card Sharks [1995; Pete Williams]. All the dirt--there is plenty--on Upper Deck and the development of the hobby from a bunch of dweebs meeting in church basements to the corporate big money.

I agree on the Old Judge book, and I only have a handful of Old Judge cards and never plan to collect...it is that interesting and well-researched of a book with an overwhelming amount of images. It would be great to have something of that caliber in all the more complex sets that I do collect.

I would rank the 3 volumes of Lew Lipset's The Encylopedia of Baseball Cards on top of everything however, as it really delves into a wide swath of Pre-WW2 cards (19th Century, Early Candy and Gum, and Tobacco) in great detail. Nothing else has been so useful for me as a resource in my collecting.

Brian

books
 

give dimension to a hobby niche or collection - whether glossy pix to it for you or you want contemporaneous accounts of a game or an era . Lew's books were important as are any of the other ones mentioned here and worth the "read". A few of mine from Lipsett, Lifson (yes that Lifson!) and Kashmanian to Haeger and the Topps tomes......

Lots of good suggestions here, but my vote for best “baseball card” book is The Card - about how Mastro and Lifson bought the famous T206 Wags and all of the shenanigans (and delegate scapel work) behind the scenes at auction houses.

Another great quality about "The Book" is that besides the tone of irreverence they set from the get go (it was almost a book about baseball cards as if written by the staff of MAD magazine...) was that the cards themselves they chose to picture were mostly in average or beat-up (i.e. believable...) condition. I loved them for doing that - and it made me feel much better about my own collection.

I may someday need to 'cull' my collection. Let me know if you're looking for anything in particular...I may have it and would rather share it with a fellow enthusiast than donating it to some faceless public library.

Attachment 345028

Classic Baseball Cards
 

Got this one for Christmas 1987, and it changed my collecting perspective towards vintage.

https://www.amazon.com/Classic-baseb...s=books&sr=1-1

It's not about cards, but one of my favorite books is Souvenir Programs of Five Great World Series by Bert Randolph Sugar (Dover, 1980). It reprints the 1914, 1917, 1919, 1926, and 1934 World Series programs in their entirety.

If you collect the Opie series of WS program reprints, you need this book because the 1926 program included here is the Yankees version, which Opie did not reprint (he did the St. Louis program).

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....4,203,200_.jpg

On a lower level, back in the 90’s, Consumer Reports had a book on baseball cards detailing every major set released into the 1890’s. Generic, I know, but had a lot of info to digest. Inch thick or so. Pretty good book (with pictures :))

Currently, Scot Readers T206 ebook is a must read for the Monster collector. Go as deep as you want. But here, I learned of the different backs,scarcity and things to look for.

Net54 is all about friendship and education. In the few years I have been here, I have learned so much about prewar cards, that I would not learned anywhere else.

P.S. - I am not related to Uncle Leon:eek:

My favorite is also Jay, Joe and Richard’s book. My only complaint is why didn’t they do it in color instead of just doing it all in the cheaper sepia tone. Also, they should have shown all the different back variations.

Rob M
(tongue planted firmly in cheek)

Among other things, I am a professional writer. The influence that book had on my style was pretty profound.