Vintage Baseball Card Books - Help Me Add to the List Please

[olecow]

The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book. This book isn't about the history of vintage cards per se, but it has numerous pictures of cards, and oftentimes hilarious descriptions of either the card or the player. It's out of print, and I've noticed the price has gone up quite a bit since I bought mine, but I highly recommend it if you can find it for a reasonable price or at a library.

https://www.amazon.com/American-Base...ollectors+book

[Kawika]

An important adjunct to my card collection is the small library of books and magazines I have accrued. Most are not so much about baseball cards as they are about the players and the era they played in. They bring the cardboard to life. Some titles which I consider indispensable:

The SABR Deadball Stars series - two volumes of brief biographies of the players that populate our beloved pre-war tobacco and candy cards. There is also a similar book about nineteenth century players.

https://www.amazon.ca/Deadball-Stars.../dp/B008SLJZBS

https://www.amazon.ca/Deadball-Stars.../dp/1574889826

https://www.amazon.ca/Nineteenth-Cen.../dp/1933599286

Two retrospectives of the photography of Charles Conlon. Utterly sumptuous portrayals of our bygone heroes. You are there. You can smell the cigar smoke.

https://www.amazon.ca/Baseballs-Gold.../dp/1419701975

https://www.amazon.ca/Big-Show-Charl.../dp/1419700693

Last but certainly not least the one book no collector should be without. Baseball recounted by the men who played the game.

https://www.amazon.ca/Glory-Their-Ti.../dp/0061994715

[toppcat]

Here's the bibliography from my book. I may have a list I did a few years before that with the hobby books in my library, will rummage. There's a lot more than you might think.

BOOKS
America’s Great Boxing Cards 2008-2009, self-published by Adam S. Warshaw. A major trailblazing boxing card guide by a collector who also is expert when it comes to the Exhibit Supply Company and their arcade cards. Updated annually and the current edition is available at http://www.lulu.com/ . Adam also has a companion boxing card website at http://www.americasgreatboxingcards.com/
American Card Catalog 1953, by Jefferson Burdick. The Advertising Director was Woody Gelman.
American Card Catalog 1960, by Jefferson Burdick. The final version of Burdick’s life’s work. I use a reprint edition from Nostalgia Press that was issued in 1988 and refer to it often.
American Tobacco Cards, by Robert Forbes & Terence Mitchell, (Tuff Stuff Books, 1999). One of the best hobby books ever written, impeccably organized, offering a detailed look at the subject matter.
Baseball Card Variation Book, Vol. 2, The Post-War Years 1948-1989, self-published by Dick Gilkeson in 1989. The E&V Bible.
Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards & Collectibles, 10th ed. 2005. Comprehensive and massive guide.
Beckett Football Card Price Guide, 25th ed. 2008-09. A solid guide that includes information on many obscure sets.
Checklist & Prices of U.S. Non-Sport Wrappers, 3rd ed. 1993, self-published by John Neuner. An indispensable early guide to non-sports wrappers.
Classic Baseball Cards - The Golden Years 1886-1956, by Frank Slocum (Warner Books, 1987). Lavishly illustrated book that shows full sets of Bowman cards, among many others.
Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards Volume 3 - 20th Century Tobacco Cards, self published by Lew Lipset in 1986. Already a pioneering hobbyist well before this was published, his comprehensive look at early 20th century tobacco cards capped a three volume series of groundbreaking research.
The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book, by Brendan C. Boyd and Fred Harris, (Warner Paperback Library, 1975). This is the one, the book that started it all and not just for me. The section on Sy Berger and Topps is essential reading and the entire book is a joy. This is the mass market edition I have owned for almost forty years and is thumbed almost to dust.
Mint Condition, by Dave Jamieson, (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010). Interesting look at the early and current days of the hobby.
Non Sports Bible, by Dr. James C. Watson, (Sheridan Books, Inc. 2007). Massive guide concentrating on E & R cards from the 1920’s to the 70’s, with many details on foreign issues derived from U.S. sets. Contact non-sportsbible@comcast.net.
The Sport Americana Baseball Memorabilia and Autograph Price Guide, Number 1, by Dr. James Beckett and Dennis W. Eckes, (Edgewater Book Company, 1982). A fairly obscure work, this had the first faint workups of checklists for Hocus Focus and made me wonder for years why none of the other guides listed them. A number of non-cardboard Topps issues are also detailed in this guide.
The Sport Americana Price Guide to the Non Sports Cards 1930-1960, Number 2, by Chris Benjamin (Edgewater Book Company, 1993). The old Sport Americana Guides spurred my interest in the history of the hobby and oddball and hard to find sets. This particular volume has a heavy concentration of early Topps material displayed within.
Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards 2011. The “big book”, full of checklists for tough sets.
The Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards. The first 110 years of baseball cards, covered here.
Topps Baseball Cards: The Complete Picture Collection- A 40 Year History, by Frank Slocum and Red Foley, with an Introduction by Sy Berger (Warner Books, 1990). Forty years of Topps cards, with photographs of card fronts from all regular issues.
Topps - The Auction – Guernsey’s Catalog from 1989 has hundreds of illustrations of production material.
Total Television, by Alex McNeil, (Penguin Books, 1996). A guide to TV programming from 1948 onward, fun to read and quite informative.
Updates & Additions to the American Card Catalog, pamphlet compiled and self-published in 1990 by Chris Benjamin. Twelve years of updates and corrections to the 1960 American Card Catalog, as originally published in the Card Collectors Bulletin.
Vintage Hockey Collector Price Guide 1910-1990, self-published by Bobby Burrell in 2006. This is an invaluable and superbly illustrated guide to hockey cards and memorabilia. A high water mark In the field of hobby guides, it’s filled with looks at both well known and ridiculously obscure sets.
The World’s Best Unopened Pack, Wrapper & Display Box Guide, 2nd. ed., self-published by Mark Murphy in 2002. An educational, well illustrated guide to unopened packs, wrappers and boxes.
1948 Through 1986 Unopened Baseball Wax Packs, Boxes and Wrappers Price Guide, 2nd ed., self-published by Darren Prince in 1993. Early pamphlet on unopened material and wrappers addresses a number of obscure issues.
BASEBALL CARDS MAGAZINE
Early volumes of this magazine were filled with great stories and full color “collector porn”. The following articles were of particular relevance:
Baseball Cards Magazine Aug. 1984 – “ ’53 Topps Sheet Rarities” by Lew Lipset.
Baseball Cards Magazine Aug. 1984 – “Two Cards for the Price of One” by Bill Bossert.

[toppcat]

Kawika gave me a thought, so I took pix. I have a few more titles to post, will do so in a following post. I note Made in the 20th Century (last pic) is not a hobby book and the tan spine with no info is the 1989 Topps Auction Catalog (Guernsey's).

[toppcat]

Obscured or missing titles, many had multiple editions:

Japanese Baseball Card Checklist and Price Guide - Gary Engel

19th Century U.S.A. Tobacco Issues Index & Handbook - The Cartophilic Society of Great Britain Ltd.

Glossary Drawn Up For The Special Use of Collectors of Cigarette and Other Trade Cards - The Cartophilic Society of Great Britain Ltd. (reprinted by The London Cigarette Card Company)

The Mistake Manual - Ralph Nozaki

The American Collector Series Presents Bread End Labels Illustrated Price Guide - Christopher Benjamin & Don Shelley

Zeenuts 1911-1938 - Jim Horne

Sports Cards Presents The Comprehensive Guide to Fleer (Magazine March 1995)

T206 The Monster - Bill Heitman

Baseball & Tobacco - Jon Canfield

Stirling Sports Card Catalog - John C Stirling Jr. (1977)

Guide to Starting Lineup Figurines & Other Figures (SCD Supplement 5/30/97)

Baseball Card Variation Book: The Post War Years 1948-89 - Dick Gilkeson (many editions and updates)

Handbook to U.S. Early Candy & Gum Baseball Issues - Richard S. Egan

Don Mabey published a host of Post/Jello Guides in the 80's, maybe into the early 90's but I don't have them all, maybe someone can post a full list of those.

[toppcat]

Almost for got John Neuner: