Boston Base Ball Club: 1871-1897

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Posted By: Behrod Hosseinzadeh

I know this is a vintage card board, but I recall reading some posts here regarding vintage baseball books. I saw this on ebay today.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6919023023&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

A similar copy was sold for over $3000 on mastronet. This copy is missing 10 pages. I e-mailed the seller asking to describe the missing pages, here is the response:

"i have the book sealed and im running short on gloves,
from what i have seen, looks like most are team pics, not single shots..
thanks for looking."

I was considering bidding on this but probably not anymore because of the missing pages. How rare is this book? Does it pop up enough to wait for one in better condition? Or is this a bargain?

Behrod

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Posted By: hankron

Obviously, missing pages is an issue, especially if it's the last 5 pages of a murder mystery.

In general, 19th century baseball books and similar publications are scarce, and have a corresponding healthy financial value. Offhand, $100 for about any 1800s baseball book or magazine would seem a deal.

[Archive]

Posted By: hankron

Whether it's books or posters or baseball bats or tickets or toys, the rule of thumb for baseball memorabilia is that 19th century material is substantially rarer than 20th century material. Further, the earlier you go in into the 19th century, the rarer the material.

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Posted By: Max Weder

I have been trying to secure a copy of this book (including in Mastro). $100 is about my limit for a copy missing ten pages. It's sort of like buying a card with the top corner clipped off, but worse because the missing ten pages import more than an aesthetic value. It's not that uncommon a book (for example, compared to The Garry or Roff's Baseball and Baseball Players)as well, as two or three show up yearly on ebay.

Max

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Posted By: Behrod Hosseinzadeh

I looked up the book on the WorldCat database and found that only ten libraries in the world own the book:

DC SMITHSONIAN INST SMI
MA BOSTON PUB LIBR BRL
MA HARVARD UNIV, HARVARD COL LIBR TECH SERV HLS
MI DETROIT PUB LIBR EYP
NH DARTMOUTH COL DRB
NY NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME YSK
OH OHIO HIST SOC OHT
PA SLIPPERY ROCK UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA SRS
RI PROVIDENCE COL, PHILLIPS MEM LIBR PRC
VA COLLEGE OF WILLIAM & MARY

[Archive]

Posted By: Max Weder

Most libraries purge their books over a period of time, and many libraries in the early 20th century wouldn't have the foresight to keep such a wonderful book.

I have seen about 20 copies of this book for auction/sale at Mastro, REA, ebay and others in the last 10 years. I have also seen it for sale in the rare book world, which rarely intersects with the memorabilia world.

While it is a much tougher book to locate than Spink, Spalding, Palmer's Athletic Tour 1889 or others, it is not a scarce book.

I continually see such the use of the number of library holdings in the book world to promote rarity of the title. When even I have handled more copies than listed in library holdings (as has happened on occasion [not with this book, though]), such listings mean little to the collector. I'm sure Barry Sloate or others can provide more detail on the number of Thouey's around.

Max