Baseball History Through Photography - Dags. to Wire Service Photos 1858-1958, Rucker

[Leon]

This is a paid advertisement. Thanks to Mark for allowing Net54baseball to help spread the word about what looks to be a really nice set of books. Mark might come back and answer questions if there are any or his contact info is below.
thanks

My name is Mark Rucker, and I have spent the last 30 years hunting for the earliest, the most obscure, and the rarest of baseball images. I have specialized in photography, since it provides a window into the past unlike anything else. In amassing a database of tens of thousands of baseball images I have gained a view of the continuity and complexity of baseball history. I was in the forefront of finding and researching 19th Century baseball images, CdVs, cabinet cards, tintypes, etc, exploring new territory in the game’s history. Later, needing more frontiers to explore, I ventured to Cuba, gathering images to create the first pictorial history of the Island game. The coincidence of the development of baseball and the birth of photography is too fabulous to ignore. I have tried for more than a decade to convince publishers that there should be a book to document the parallel histories. Since no one has been willing to take on the project, I was forced to wait for technology to allow the creation of on-demand color pictorial hardcover books.

Using a publishing machine in New York City I am capable of producing hard cover books that are photographically loaded from start to finish. I decided to produce a volume to cover each genre of photographic baseball history. Cartes-de-visites, cabinet cards, stereo views, tintypes and hard images, real photo postcards, and news bureau photography each has its own volume. These books are expensive. They cannot be ordered in quantity at a discount. They are printed one at a time, each copy costing me over 160.00. My only hope of selling copies is to adopt the Limited Edition model - keeping the number of each book to nine copies. I am essentially doubling the price to me, in offering the books to collectors. After nine copies of each book is sold, no more will ever be printed. There is a discount offered if the entire series is purchased.

[barrysloate]

I have Volume One on Baseball CdV's and the quality is extraordinary. There are many new images of early baseball photography I've never seen before. Really exceptional..and I admit I'm biased as Mark is a very dear friend.

[oldjudge]

Can you post a sample page and list how many pages there are in each book? What images in the carte book are different than in your soft cover book?

[clydepepper]

I'd certainly be interested in a set if I could get a 'taste' first..

[ramram]

Best of luck to Mark. Mark’s little auction many years ago is still my favorite and it’s also the one that got me started collecting vintage baseball material.

Rob M

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[Leon]

I can't speak for Mark but I have a feeling he isn't around a computer almost every second of the year as many of us are. So please be a tiny bit patient and I would be surprised if ya'll don't get some answers tomorrow.

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Can you post a sample page and list how many pages there are in each book? What images in the carte book are different than in your soft cover book?

Laying the book flat on the computer may hurt the spine. It contains all the pictures from the first book with a few dozen or so new images Mark has uncovered over the ensuing years. Some are nice generic images, others are quite significant. And the paper quality is far superior, with every page a thick glossy stock.

According to Leon's last post, it sounds like Mark will be on this thread at some point. He and his wife are running a farm in British Columbia. There are animals to feed and peaches to be picked. So he is indeed busy with non-baseball matters.

[Leon]

He sent me an email about 12am, this morning, saying he would respond today. He is not familiar with forums though so I have my work cut out for me . I think our s/w has an easy learning curve. I already set him up an account so we shall see.

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Laying the book flat on the computer may hurt the spine. It contains all the pictures from the first book with a few dozen or so new images Mark has uncovered over the ensuing years. Some are nice generic images, others are quite significant. And the paper quality is far superior, with every page a thick glossy stock.

According to Leon's last post, it sounds like Mark will be on this thread at some point. He and his wife are running a farm in British Columbia. There are animals to feed and peaches to be picked. So he is indeed busy with non-baseball matters.

[barrysloate]

I hope Mark posts. He has a wealth of knowledge and a lot of great hobby stories to tell.

[1880nonsports]

in the wrong thread and felt Mark deserved to hear how much I enjoyed my copy of the Tintype images reference. Easier than collecting the images themselves. It's a beautiful book...…….