1960 American Card Catalog
The 1960 American Card Catalog was my first card collecting book purchase. I bought the book in the mid-1960s from the Card Collector's Co. (Woody Gelman) of Franklin Square, N.Y.
Prior to my purchase I had received CCC's little annual catalog for several years and subscribed off-and-on to "The Card Collector" when it was published by CCC and later Jim Zap (of Chicago), but the ACC was my single largest purchase from that pioneer hobby company. Cost I believe was about $5 with shipping about 50 cents. (It was a pretty big commitment for a mid-teenager who could have picked up 40-50 T206s for the same money.)
Frankly, I was a bit disappointed. Having been familiar with the detail of coin collecting catalogs (specifically the venerable "red book" by Yeoman), the ACC offered little information (and fewer pictures) about a lot of sets. I used it once to attempt to attempt to deal with a local Maine antique dealer but discovered he knew less about how to use the ACC than I did!
For me, Bert Sugar's Sport Collector's Bible (circa 1975) was the first really useful book for general baseball/sports collectors.
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