Sports Card Publications

[ALR-bishop]

I told Bartsch that I thought it would a great item for SCD to publish, and a big aid to the grading companies. Don't give up on him. When Carlton was trying to get his Milton Bradley article published by SCD it seemed to take forever to get it scheduled

[DaClyde]

Start a blog. The sports card publications are all dead or dying. Don't waste the effort on a publisher trying to edit and control your work only for a couple dozen people to get to read it. That's my $0.02.

[toppcat]

Publish it yourself via lulu or Amazon. .Or maybe Lyman would want it for Old Cardboard if it's article length?

[brian1961]

Hey JollyElm,

My advice to you is to give Tom Bartsch a buzz at his office. His platter is awful full these days and your email may have accidentally dropped from his memory. He's a very nice family man and truly cares about the hobby.

Moreover, the print publications are not all dead. I don't consider a subscriber number just shy of ten thousand dead. True, it was once over twice that. By the same token, the amount of good threads here and the number of avid, serious respondents has dived a bit over the last few years. In no way is that Leon's fault; it is very much up to us to help the hobby continue to thrive.

That said, Tom Bartsch may be reached at 1-800-726-9966, extention 13815. I sincerely hope it goes well for you, bro.

How well I remember the spring of '62. Upon peeling open my first few second series Topps wax packs, the Babe Ruth Special cards were so cool, but I was hot about those green tints--"What's this ugly green? Hey, somebody messed up here. I don't like these cards." Make sure you put a loud, bratty whine in your voice when you say the first and last sentence of my brief vignette. Just as Curly remarked to Moe's insistence that he eat his spinach in the 1941 3 Stooges classic, "All the World's A Stooge".

---Brian Powell

[Rich Klein]

Moreover, the print publications are not all dead. I don't consider a subscriber number just shy of ten thousand dead. True, it was once over twice that. By the same token, the amount of good threads here and the number of avid, serious respondents has dived a bit over the last few years. In no way is that Leon's fault; it is very much up to us to help the hobby continue to thrive.

Actually SCD's subs base was nearly 40K at it's peak. Just an FYI

[DaClyde]

Despite a 10k and falling subscriber base, once that particular issue has come and gone, the story is lost somewhere on paper )or buried behind a paywall for the electronic copy), and anyone who missed the issue is basically out of luck. Or maybe do both. I guess it depends on the restrictions placed on you when/if they accept your work for publishing. Shocking though the thought is to me, there is still a significant portion of old school collectors who haven't found the Internet. I'm not anti-print, I just think it is a fast way for a story to disappear after the monthly issue has passed.

[brian1961]

OK, so I was off more than "a bit" regarding the high point of SCD's subscriber base. The entire landscape of the print media has been changing, mightily, since I don't know, Y2K.

I recognize that I am a 60-year-old dinosaur. I am very glad that I subscribed to SCD when I did, particularly when I consider some of the interesting articles I might have missed. At this point, I am no longer a subscriber. When I way laid off from my job years ago, I chose not to renew my subscription.

Fortunately, freelance contributor George Vrechek has put some of his best stuff on the Net. His feature articles on pioneers Buck Barker, Lionel Carter, and Bruce Yeko should not be missed by anyone who is a serious student of this hobby.

A striking attitude among people immersed in the wired world is that they expect and insist that others, no matter how gray, come up to their wired world to meet them, lest they be ignored, ridiculed, and downright despised. I was very slow at adapting, and by no means have completed the transition. My point however is that us dinosaurs have much hobby knowledge, and some wonderful collections. We work with people who will treat us with dignity, respect, and show some good manners. Treat us with smug contempt and we tend to shut up tight as an oyster, and you'll get nothing from us.

I recently read a Yahoo News segment (we don't subscribe to the major area newspaper, either) that New York City human resource personnel are at their wit's end because so few of their job applicants are able to carry on an intelligent conversation. Nor do they seem capable of articulating their thoughts well on a job application, be it written or on-line.

Returning to the atmosphere of our little hobby, I'm rather certain your prepared article on the 1962 Topps "Green Tints" would find an eager audience among the several thousand subscribers of SCD. I'm sure they'd be delighted with it. Moreover, since you're free-lancing anyway, you are most free to publish via Lulu and Amazon as well. It might be so good that one of the SCD subscribers may just decide to get their grandchild to help them get on Amazon, set up an account, and purchase your work! Now wouldn't that be something.

Of course, you'll have to very carefully express to your SCD readers exactly how they may obtain the breadth of your work, but if you can somehow keep in mind the discussed fact that many of us gray-haired do not normally use the Net, you'll do fine. It's all about good communication and thoughtfulness.

Have a great week, guys. ----Brian Powell