Posted By:
Bob LemkeHere's what I can tell you about the concerns raised . . .
As far as I can see into the future, the Standard Catalog will never be broken up into more than one volume. The VAST majority of these books are purchased at chain book retailers and on Amazon. Surveys show those buyers demand full coverage right up to the current year and that most would rather see vintage pages deleted than the shiny stuff. Anecdotal evidence says many of these sales are to gift-buyers who are far more likely to recognize Barry Bonds than Grover Alexander. Our book salespeople in the field says the big chain buyers believe the baseball card hobby to be dead or dying and thus they are unwilling to take a chance on shelf space for a new title that would be a subset of what is in the Standard Catalog. As much as I love all y'all on this forum, even if we were to each buy five copies every year, we'd still be a small minority of the market for the Standard Catalog.
What pre-war sets have been eliminated for 2006? I can't think of any general category, or even many specific sets. We did down-size the 1921-1930 Major League Die-Cuts and J.D. McCarthy postcards and Jay Publishing picture packs by eliminating the checklists.
On the positive side, it has become apparent that the book's page count is not an overwhelming factor in printing costs; thus we can afford to add pages each year for a while, especially now that some of the current card companies have ceased production or cut back the number of new sets.
Updated memorabilia guide? Not on the schedule. Sales don't fit the parameters of our new ownership.
CD Rom, on-line or PDA format in works? No. Although our new president has a strong history of multi-media adaptations and I'm sure this is being studied closely across all our titles.
Why no Peck & Snyders? Last edition we made the decision to eliminate most "team" cards. Exceptions were made for those with strong association to other issues, such as T200 Fatimas and Kalamazoo Bats and for the Joseph Hall cabinets. Peck & Snyders could easily be returned to the pages and I'll make a strong effort to do so next year.
Wrong backs vs. variations? These are judgement calls, based partially as suggested on the number of examples in the marketplace and the hobby's acceptance. We've added many vintage variations in the new book and will continue to do so, though I am at a loss to identify how or why a particular card makes the cut.
Why not bunch "commons" to shorten checklists? Again, this is contraindicated by buyer surveys as it pertains to current and recent cards.
The bottom line is that if the Standard Catalog is to survive, it must appeal to an audience that is decidedly different than the composition of this forum. If the markets (book and card) change, I expect the catalog will, too.
Thanks, all, for your questions, comments and concerns. Keep them coming.
Oh, yeah, almost forgot . . . we "found" the correct chronological index and I'm looking into getting it posted on our website for reference or downloading.