This is something that I actually spent a bunch of time trying to figure out last year. I don't mean to hijack a good thread, and hope this post will keep it on track.
FKW, who owned SCD and the Catalog, declared bankruptcy in 2017. Penguin Random House purchased the book publishing assets of FKW, and Active Interests Media purchased the collectibles magazines. Both publish books and guides on a regular basis that seem to have niche audiences just like our hobby. Nobody seems to know where the Standard Catalog fits, and nobody at either company has responded to me.
Meanwhile, I have spoken with the folks at the SABR Baseball Cards Committee, an organization that already exists and is filled with the type of collectors who devoted time to sending Mr. Lemke updates each year, stands ready to take on this project. As a group they are chock full of researchers, and SABR has a publishing arm that produces outstanding books and guides. They could certainly publish an electronic Catalog that gets updated every year, and a periodic printed book for nerds like me that scour the pages year after year. And most importantly, they've said they'd be thrilled to do it.
It seems silly for them to start from scratch when all the checklists already exist in some sort of electric format. What needs to happen is whichever entity owns the Catalog needs to either resume publishing it, or hand the rights over to SABR.
-Al
|