[toppcat]

I was going to post this in the other Standard Catalog thread but it became long-ish.

I wish F+W would:

1) Use realistic grade points for pre-war pricing. F, VG and EX would make much more sense than what's in my '09 book, especially for the cards issued prior to World War 1. Each set could have a "kicker" shown for NM etc cards instead.

2) Offer a pre-1981 version with larger print and expanded writeups, etc. I would pay the same for this or possibly even more if issued along with #10 below.

3) Make some deference to graded cards in the pricing. Not sure this is do-able in terms of pricing the cards individually but most top graded older cards are more likely in slabs than not these days. If you have, say a true NM T206 common, their NM price is not accurate and is off by a considerable factor.

4) Perhaps condition rarities could be identified better.

5) More illustrations of certain key variations would be great. Also, all sets should have at least a picture of the card front in the book.

6) Add pack or at least wrapper pricing for the R card sets like Playball, Goudey, Topps.

7) Add more oddball listings; a number of well known ones are missing.

8) Offer a free download of the catalog with purchase.

9) Bring the minor league listings to the front of the book again and alphabetize them with all the other pre-1981 listings. Pre war collectors do not seem to differentiate as much as modern collectors when it comes to minor league issues IMO.

10) Issue a companion guide, or include in a pre-1981 package, of alphabetical (at least for major sets and players) and team (major sets) checklists. That would reflect how many people collect older cards, i.e. not by set but rather by player or team. Preferably every player would be identified by team eventually.

I get a big book every other year but it is definitely due for an overhaul. Maybe that process will start this year; not sure if any of the above were incorporated last year or will be this year.

Have at it!