Hobby Reference Books
 

What hobby reference books does everyone find useful?

I use:

Bats
(i) A Complete Reference Guide Louisville Slugger Professional Player Bats by Vince Malta
(ii) Bats: Professional Hillerich & Bradsby and Adirondack, 1950-1994 by Vince Malta, Ronald Fox, Bill Riddell and Michael Specht
(iii) Mastronet Reference and Price Guide for Collecting Game Used Baseball Bats by Dave Bushing and Dan Knoll, and
Autographs
(iv) Baseball Hall of Fame Autographs: A Reference Guide by Ron Keurajian

Henry Yee's book on baseball photos is excellent and the annual Standard Catalogue of Baseball Cards is tops in that area.

Aside from those already mentioned:

Muchinsky's "Baseball Pinback Buttons"
Egner's "Vintage Pennant Price Guide"
Bushing and Phillips' "Vintage Baseballs"
Murphy's "Unopened Pack, Wrapper & Display Box Guide"
"Baseball By The Numbers" (not so much since baseball-reference.com added uniform numbers to the site, but still useful for the occasional lookup)
2009 Standard Catalog (pdf, included on disc with the hard copy, much easier to do lookups strictly for info)

[Shameless plug]

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The good ol' ACC is very useful to this day.

Where can I find Murphy's "unopened pack, wrapper and display boxes'?

Big, I have the same ones you do.

WHEN THE HECK IS BRANDON'S BOOK COMING OUT??? I tried PM'ing him recently, but didn't get a response.

Ken

Adam Warshaw's "America's Great Boxing Cards" is THE definitive reference work on collectible cardboard from the sweet science. Paul Muchinsky's "Boxing Pinback Buttons" is another must-have, as is R.A. Hartley's "History and Bibliography of Boxing Books."

books
 

my photography favs sitting proudly on the bookshelf beside me:
Fogel,Oser, Yee A Portrait of Baseball Photography;
The Big Show: Charles Conlon's Golden Age Baseball Photographs;
Baseball's Golden Age, The Photographs of Charles Conlon;
Through a Blue Lens (on Stein)
Ozzie Sweet: The Boys of Spring; Legends of the Field
The Game that Was (on Brace)
Old Timers by Jacobellis et al
Classic Baseball, Iooss
and the Taschen tome: Neil Leifer.

all the best,
barry

I honestly can't remember where I picked it up. I thought maybe on Amazon, but I can't find it there if so. It was published in 1996, and the contact info inside the cover (no idea if current) is:

Mark Murphy
8 Flying Cloud Road
Stamford, CT 06902
(203) 348-5050

No e-mail address given.

I have kept every auction catalog I got since 1988.

That is Awesome

Yes, I would buy the moment it is out. would save a lot of time with regard to evaluating autographed and non-autographed balls, and would be very interesting.

Did Michael write a book on sports rings? Is there one out there?

I just wanted to say how flattered I am that some fellow hobbyists found my baseball and boxing books to be useful references that added to their enjoyment of collecting. That is why I wrote them. I only wish there were a cost-efficient way to update them.

Paul

Isn't that what the blog is for...? ;)

Seriously though, even if you never update the book, it is a great foundation for button collectors to expand from. I would be very interested though in seeing something like a slimmer second volume that contains only additions and errata, referring to the original only where necessary (perhaps for pricing updates, if any, but no need to show the same buttons from the first volume all over again). Ted Hake seems to have taken a similar approach to his various "button books" over the years. I've got a set of his three Political Buttons books that follow that format, with a follow-up "updated pricing" guide put out a few years later that refers back to the original 3 volumes but without any pictures. Just something to consider.

Hey Paul, is it still in print and if so how can I get one of the boxing books?