Baseball Card Books

[JollyElm]

Are there any books out there that deal with what was going on at Topps during, say, the heyday of the 60's or 70's? Sort of a behind the scenes look at the process of creating the baseball card sets, etc., each year? This would be absolutely fascinating to me.

[horzverti]

In his book, Mint Condition, Dave Jamieson touches on production floor conditions at Topps during the 1950s-60s. He doesn't go into deep detail, but there are some nice tidbits.

Another great resource is The Topps Archives at http://toppsarchives.blogspot.com. I am not sure there is more Topps history in one place anywhere else. Outside of Topps, of course. You will find days, weeks and months of Topps related reading. Given your zeal for our hobby Darren, you may already be familiar with this great site. I often go to the site with one specific issue in mind and get lost through so many off-topic clicks.

There is another, more recently published, booklet which details Topps' early years including the pre-card gum days. It is The Modern Hobby Guide to Topps Chewing Gum 1938 to 1956 by Dave Hornish. It has great info on early 1950s competition with Bowman, production numbers, ownership trees. etc. This one may be a little earlier than your years of interest.

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by horzverti

In his book, Mint Condition, Dave Jamieson touches on production floor conditions at Topps during the 1950s-60s. He doesn't go into deep detail, but there are some nice tidbits.

Another great resource is The Topps Archives at http://toppsarchives.blogspot.com. I am not sure there is more Topps history in one place anywhere else. Outside of Topps, of course. You will find days, weeks and months of Topps related reading. Given your zeal for our hobby Darren, you may already be familiar with this great site. I often go to the site with one specific issue in mind and get lost through so many off-topic clicks.

There is another, more recently published, booklet which details Topps' early years including the pre-card gum days. It is The Modern Hobby Guide to Topps Chewing Gum 1938 to 1956 by Dave Hornish. It has great info on early 1950s competition with Bowman, production numbers, ownership trees. etc. This one may be a little earlier than your years of interest.

Hey thanks, Curt. I've stumbled onto that site here and there over the years, but you made me click on it tonight and I browsed through many, many articles. Great stuff indeed!!!

[ALR-bishop]

Dave Hornish who maintains that blog also posts here on this board. I honestly believes he knows more about the history of Topps than anyone still living at Topps. Plus, he is always completely generous in sharing anything he knows, and always willing to take new input. His blog, that of Bob Lemke and hobby articles by Keith Olberman and George Vrechek, which can usually be pulled up on line, have been a great resource for me on both regular and odd ball Topps issues.

I mentioned in another post that Dean's cards has a great book on the Topps and Bowman bubble gum war covering the Bowman and Topps issues through 1955. Copies can usually be found on Amazon or eBay. For 60s and 70s I would use Dave and Bob Lemke's blogs as a starting point. Both those guys can be contacted through PMs here and both have always been willing to share what they know on any specific question.