Best book or source to learn about pre war cards

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Hey Dave,

You really need to buy the 3 volumes of Mr. Lipset's Encyclopedia. One is on 20th century tobacco cards, one on early 20th century candy cards, and the other on 19th century tobacco. The old perfect bound paperback books are out there individually. They are reprinted in one big book.

The Encyclopedia has several mistakes, but they seem insignificant compared to the wealth of knowledge. You really need to see these if you're going to collect T206s, T207s, T205s, the E caramel cards, Cracker Jack cards, and the like.

Next, you would benefit from the Standard Baseball Card Catalog edited by Mr. Lemke. A link to get it from Amazon is above.

After that, look for old issues of The Old Judge, a newsletter Mr. Lipset did about 15 years ago. If you are going to collect old odd stuff, from the 10s, 20s and 30s, I'd suggest looking for an old copy of The Sports Collectors Bible, by Bert Sugar. It has lists and descriptions that are helpful today, even though the 1970s prices are out of date. And I occasionally look at my American Card Catalog, by Jefferson Burdick. The briefest of descriptions, and only a few pages on baseball cards, but a true classic. Mr. Burdick is practically the "father" of the hobby. If you are going to collect ZeeNut cards, there was a publication by a fellow, I think his name was Horne. I can't recall at the moment, and don't see it handy. It is a nice resource for ZeeNut collectors. And there used to be a magazine called Vintage and Classic Baseball Cards, or something near that. It had some helpful articles. You might find old copies on eBay.

Finally, while not a book, it would benefit you to be careful about not buying reprints or doctored cards. It is helpful to study the reprints, so you can recognize them, and not buy them!

This Forum is a wonderful resource. Seems to me that most of these guys know what they're talking about (although a few are across the left field fence on knowing who should be in the Hall of Fame, and some other issues that I'm highly opinionated on...). If/when you have questions about stuff, ask this bunch. These guys have areas of expertice that exceed what you'll find in the books and catalogs. Truly, they do.

Frank.