Is Anyone Updating the SCD Card Catalog?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

And we all need an attention to detail. This is an example of detail from something I did at work a few minutes ago.

I was doing some work on 1967 Coke Caps and saw we had Coke Caps which say Coca-Cola and...

There are also caps which say

Coca-Cola King Size

Yep those are distinct variations of the same item.

But who thinks of looking for something like that?

1967 Coke Cap collectors!

I vividly remember a guy, some might know him, whom I met when I set up at the Philly Show. All he collected is 1967 and 1968 Coke Caps....
.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by Leon

1967 Coke Cap collectors!

I vividly remember a guy, some might know him, whom I met when I set up at the Philly Show. All he collected is 1967 and 1968 Coke Caps....
.

That collector needs to edit/price/verify that part of any catalog

[Exhibitman]

I don't think we need pricing any more. It is a giant time-suck to do prices. There are myriad tools that scrape and aggregate price data in real time, and for cards that do not transact regularly, pricing is just a SWAG anyway. What we need is an encyclopedia of vintage cards with checklists and write-ups explaining the nuances of issues, updated as things emerge. Sort of a wikipedia.

[steve B]

For a while, I've considered doing a catalog, but in looseleaf form.

But very detailed.
So if someone wanted to collect one set, they wouldn't need the full catalog with thousands of pages, just the pages for that one set.

Having been through collecting a couple sets in extreme detail, It's a massive task, one that would probably never be truly finished for any year.

One of the catalogs I use in a different hobby has basically three sections.
Here's the set you can pretty much see from a short distance.
Here's the specialized listings, shades, papers, etc. Stuff a specialist would work on.
Then a section for most of the major plate varieties.

And occasionally a note that if you're completely nuts there's a book with still more detail

Something like that, with listings and pictures for the set with all the major variations, and additional listings for the minor and trivial ones.

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I don't think we need pricing any more. It is a giant time-suck to do prices. There are myriad tools that scrape and aggregate price data in real time, and for cards that do not transact regularly, pricing is just a SWAG anyway. What we need is an encyclopedia of vintage cards with checklists and write-ups explaining the nuances of issues, updated as things emerge. Sort of a wikipedia.

I respectfully disagree with this. For the members of this board who are well attuned to card values and are active, yes you can probably do this without pricing. However, the majority of the people who would be interested in such a tome would want some pricing information. It would be understood that not all pricing would be the final word and we understand things do change. But the pricing is what would make you a profit

[Leon]

I politely disagree about needing pricing.

I agree with what Adam said (hey Adam). We have enough pricing tools already. Prices can change quickly so anything printed will be out of date when it leaves the printer.
How are you going to price a card like this one below, which needs to be added if this project ever gets started? What we need is to add things to the catalog, imo. Burdick did it with his Card Collectors Bulletins and always considered his ACC as a work in progress. Full speed ahead!! (who's driving?) And of course, Burdick never liked the value aspect of cards, which is why he listed them low. He didn't want to see the hobby become what it has .

That being said, who said this has to be a for-profit project?

Originally Posted by Rich Klein

I respectfully disagree with this. For the members of this board who are well attuned to card values and are active, yes you can probably do this without pricing. However, the majority of the people who would be interested in such a tome would want some pricing information. It would be understood that not all pricing would be the final word and we understand things do change. But the pricing is what would make you a profit

[G1911]

If one doesn't do pricing and doesn't do a physical book, then this work becomes pretty easy as a group. The infrastructure is already set up, the more modern side of the hobby has seen to that. There are online databases already, the coverage of the old stuff is just limited because from this side of the hobby don't really contribute to them and hasn't organized. TCDB, BaseballCardPedia, etc. are out there and set up with nothing stopping expansion into the older stuff to serve as a primary reference database like the old Standard Catalog.

I love physical books, but it just doesn't make a lot of sense at this scale. I doubt I will get to buy a new standard catalog to use anytime soon.

[butchie_t]

Originally Posted by G1911

I love physical books, but it just doesn't make a lot of sense at this scale. I doubt I will get to buy a new standard catalog to use anytime soon.

This is a fear of mine, if it gets built, who would come?

Butch T.

BTW: Excellent conversations gentleman. I truly like the idea sharing and collaboration with this conversation. Gives me a bit of hope.....

[brianp-beme]

I envision it as something like Lew Lipset's Encyclopedia of Baseball cards, which involved an extensive writeup of each set involving background information, date of release theories, relations to other sets, etc. It was a shame that only 3 volumes were created - 19th century (N), tobacco (T), and early gum and candy (E). There was a basic pricing section, but that was not a focus, and in my opinion definitely not something necessary.

Online the Old Cardboard site (which you can access with the tab on upper right of this page) and prewarcards.com site do a pretty good job with vintage card info, with Old Cardboard providing great images and checklists for many sets, and Anson with his prewarcards site approaching each set in a more thorough Lipset-ian fashion, with of course updated info and research since Lew's books were published around 40 years ago. Perhaps using Anson's output, combined with input from experts in particular sets, could create a great physical hobby resource....

Just a thought.

Brian

[Rich Klein]

Originally Posted by Leon

I politely disagree about needing pricing.

I agree with what Adam said (hey Adam). We have enough pricing tools already. Prices can change quickly so anything printed will be out of date when it leaves the printer.
How are you going to price a card like this one below, which needs to be added if this project ever gets started? What we need is to add things to the catalog, imo. Burdick did it with his Card Collectors Bulletins and always considered his ACC as a work in progress. Full speed ahead!! (who's driving?) And of course, Burdick never liked the value aspect of cards, which is why he listed them low. He didn't want to see the hobby become what it has .

That being said, who said this has to be a for-profit project?

Leon, if this is not done as a for profit project, eventually there will be less people involved. And yes I get this board is good for not needing prices but I'm thinking of, ahem, a wider audience.

If you want to do a project for people of this board it's fine to think of updating a catalog this way. If you want a greater reach, you got to have prices at least as a baseline. Having actually, you know, worked for such an outfit, trust me when I say, pricing is what makes things go better. And that's why it's called a catalog. I guarantee you the #1 question you will get from anyone not active on this board will be: "What is this worth" and to have a baseline is a great start.

[Shankweather]

Y'all need to crowdfund this thing. If Leon, Al, and Rich are on board it'll get support.