A Look at Rare Baseball Books

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Posted By: barrysloate

I think I may be first to post on the new forum! Here goes:

In 1995, when the Vintage and Classic Baseball Collector magazine was in its infancy, I wrote a detailed article on rare and historic baseball books. To this day, of all the articles I have ever written, that one was my favorite. Many collectors told me over the years that it was their primary source of reference. At that time, baseball books were widely collected, and the appearance of a rare book or a large early collection was a major event.

Today, the market for rare books has sadly declined. In fact, many of the volumes that sold for large sums back in the 90's sell for half that amount today. Part of the problem is there are few collectors, and very little known about them. When a rare book comes up for sale, it often garners little attention.

In the REA auction that closed last week, lot #800 was an 1835 edition of The Boys Book of Sports. Not only was it a first edition as was pointed out in the catalog, it is in fact the first chapbook in America to include both rudimentary rules and an illustration of boys playing the game ( a chapbook is a small paperback volume issued solely for children). This book was an extreme rarity. In fact, I thought that the copy I own was the only one in private hands until this second volume appeared. If a baseball card of such rarity was for sale, it would be a major event. But I am willing to bet this lot fell under the radar of most of the Net54 community.

I tell this story only to try to drum up some interest for this neglected area of the market. There are many wonderful and rare books, each which reflects an era of baseball history and would make a fine addition to an advanced baseball memorabilia collection. But most collectors today know very little about them. I would like this thread to be a starting point to discuss many of these great volumes, and I would be happy to field questions about vintage baseball books in general.