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Plastic DogHi. Don Betz purchased VCBC last year from Dennis Purdy. It is still your best bet for a publication. Don can provide all of the back issues at a good price if you call him directly. I just checked his web-site, which is http://www.vcbc.net/, and this was on there:
"SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION OFFER - 12 issues for $49.00. Call us at 800-417-7670 or email us at jaysport@erols.com with credit card info and we'll have VCBC on its way to you the same day! Back Issues: We'll have a list up soon on which back issues are still available."
My understanding is all of the back issues are available except #7, which covered grading companies. (I picked up my copy of #7 at a Ft. Washington show last year.) Anyway, I'm not sure what price you saw, but that seems pretty reasonable for a subscription to a niche magazine. As for books, the best place to start is probably the 3-volume "Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards" by Lew Lipset. VCBC owns the publishing rights, which has been consolidated into a single volume; you can order that from the number above as well. It is an indispensable source which most readers on this board keep as a reference. It was written in 1983, but is still the single best source for E, T, and N- cards. It was the original information that was used by the annual Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards (Krause publications, available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.), which provides a listing of almost every baseball card ever made with a brief description. This is obviously better for prices than Lipset's book (though just as a rough guide as most really tough cards go for much more than appears in the Catalog), but the Standard Catalog doesn't provide anywhere near the depth of information on vintage sets that Lipset's book does. That said, most collectors also have the Standard Catalog as it lists many sets not found in Lipset's Encyclopedia (bakery issues, obscure regional and minor league issues, etc.)
Lipset provided further information in a hobby newsletter called the Old Judge, but he stopped publishing those years ago. VCBC kind of picked up where the Old Judge left off, and many of the articles that appear in back issues of VCBC are the best information that you are going to find on particular card sets (like Mayos, M116 Sporting Life, Presidential Old Judges, etc.) Some of the articles in the magazine have been written by Lipset, Barry Sloate, Mark Macrae and others with quite a bit of knowledge.
That's my two cents.
Good luck,
Tom