i.d.'ing/dating Old Pennants
 

I picked up 7 pennants the other day and could only find images on the internet for three of them. They all came from the same family and one could be i.d.'d to the late '50s, but I couldn't find much on the others. Is there a source you all use for id'ing pennants?

Here are two that I especially liked:

Mike Egner's "Vintage Pennant Price Guide" pictures both and dates the Bears pennant to the 1940's and the Cubs pennant to the 1950's.

I believe Mike has said he has an update for the guide in the works which ads a great many pennants absent from the first one, but I would still recommend picking it up in the meantime. It has a simple, straightforward layout: pennants are arranged by team and each one pictured (b/w photo) with date (or date range), size, rarity, and value range given for each. Pretty quick and easy to look up most any baseball or football pennant you run across just by flipping to the team and scanning through the photos.

Thanks Lance - sounds like it's worth adding to the personal reference library.

That Cubbie is a nice example. 90% of that particular style have white-only graphics. The multi-colored version is far more attractive, and should command at least a 25% premium.

I am currently working on a revised edition but it is quite time consuming and will be a while before completion. Mike

Mike, thanks for the update. Any chance the revised edition will feature color photographs (presumably at a higher price point), or am I just being greedy now? :D

Thanks all. I'll order a guide.

I wish it could be color, just haven't figured out how that could be possible and yet still affordable. Mike

Mike,
Assuming you ran to print and sold the same number of Ed. 2 that you did of #1, how much more would a color version have to cost?

Jeff

For printed books, color is multiple times more expensive than black and white. Though an ebook version could be in color for cheap.

In printing, the paper is cheap. It's the ink that's expensive.

Why not do a website in color and charge subscription? I admit I like books, but a website would allow continual updates, in color.

I am still doing some checking, so nothing is ruled out regarding doing color. I prefer a hard copy of that type of thing but I might be in the minority. Anyway I think the next one should top 300 pages. Mike

I'd love to see an ebook version - it would be wonderful to have a fantastic reference at my fingertips on my iphone when I'm at flea markets/antique shows.

How about the possibility of a b/w print hardcopy with a downloadable color e-book/pdf version?

If I had it my way, all of my reference books would come that way. Hard copy for browsing and keeping on the bookshelf in my office and digital version to have available when I'm on the go. There are a couple of instances where I've even purchased one of each (at full price) just to be able to do that. The problem usually is that the publishers are so afraid of getting ripped off that they opt not to produce the e-book version at all, which I find to be a lamentable solution to the piracy problem.

Great points. I will do some checking on it when the time gets closer. Thanks

Just a thought, have you ever priced Production digital printing? The actual printing cost is aprox $.04 vs. $.01 on 12x18 paper, but printing 2-up for letter size cuts that in half and gives some more wiggle room for negotiation. Also, no plate setup costs so runs can be short and as needed.

Ex: 300 pages (75 double sided 2-up) at a 250% markup ($.10 per side) would be about $15 per book.

Hopefully this may help with any negotiation.

More and more people are reading books in eBook version. My 75 year old retired Cathlolic school teacher neighbor reads books on her ipad. Also, an illustrated reference book is different than a novel-- a 'look up a 1930 pennant' picture reference guide is more palatable in ebook or online format than Don Quixote would be. There is a guy who publishes and sells a lengthy and heavily illustrated guide to MLB baseball uniforms and he publishes it as an pdf file on a CD. He was asked why he doesn't do it in printed form and he replied that it would be too expensive.

I'm working on a guide to identifying the materials in antiques and vintage items (type of wood, plastic, porcelain, metal, marble, amber, leather, etc etc). As I plan on including tons of color photos-- a requirement for such a guide, really- it will have to be in some sort of ebook format.

All my other books are published in both print and ebook formats-- buyer chooses type--, and I'd say 20 percent are sold as eBook for nook or whatever. Not a majority, but a noticeable percentage.

And, for the record, I still read a novel in paper form.

I think an ebook would be a great idea. Whoever thought of that, kudos.

One thing is is color isn't always really necessary. Sure it would be nice if Lipset's Encyclopedia or the Standard Catalog almanac or the old encyclopedia were in color-- but it's not necessary. We all find them useful guides in their black and white. When SCD says a card has red borders, most of us here can figure out what that means-- we don't require a color chart.

A black and white picture with description of colors may not be ideal, but it's certainly serviceable for identification and reference purposes.