Hobby history: Preston D. Orem

[1880nonsports]

were the copies signed? While a bit out of my wheelhouse I bought one off eBay a few years ago as the price seemed right. Always curious about the number of signed copies......

[ullmandds]

what's #321 t212 series 150?

[trdcrdkid]

Originally Posted by 1880nonsports

were the copies signed? While a bit out of my wheelhouse I bought one off eBay a few years ago as the price seemed right. Always curious about the number of signed copies......

I'm not sure what you're asking. What's "bgar"?

Originally Posted by ullmandds

what's #321 t212 series 150?

Are you talking about the article where Orem wrote that he had "350 of T212, ten of no. 321, and about 130 Zeenut cards"? "No. 321" here means N321, the color S. F. Hess California League cards. Those 10 N321s that Orem had would probably be worth well over $10,000 today, depending on condition.

[bgar3]

None of the very large group of Orem's was signed. I have only seen a couple in 40 years.

[1880nonsports]

thanks.....

[trdcrdkid]

I found another hobby article by Preston Orem that I missed when I originally wrote this post, and so I thought I would add it here for the record. It appeared in the August 30, 1961 issue of The Card Collector, published by Woody Gelman of the Card Collector's Company and then edited by Jim Zak (who is still around, and whose son is a member of this board). Zak wrote to Orem asking about his collecting history, and most of the article consists of Orem's response. Some of this is similar to what Orem wrote about in some of the other articles I posted above, but there's some interesting stuff that's new, including Orem's discussion of the rise in baseball card prices over the previous five years during which he had been collecting. Also, the beginning of the article has a picture of Orem that's different from the one (posted above) that appeared in The Sport Hobbyist in 1956. It's very tiny in the original, so I've blown it up at the end.

[oldjudge]

Thanks for posting this David. I love Preston Orem's passion for Old Judges, the most interesting card set ever.

[barrysloate]

Orem's first book, Baseball 1845-1881, and the supplements that follow, are indispensable reference tools.

[JMEnglish27]

Orem's work is truly priceless. I do wish the supplements could be made available via a library or other sharing network somewhere, as tracking them down is quite difficult and cost prohibitive (I've managed to get one of the years, in addition to the original book).

The work is tremendous. Perhaps a second volume should be published somehow...surely the work is public domain.

[that T206 Guy]

Baseball Card Hall of Fame.

Huh.

Never Knew Such a Thing Existed.

I am going to look that up now

[that T206 Guy]

Looks like the Baseball Card Hall of Fame was only done for two years.

1970
1971

Would be cool if they did it every year like the Regular Baseball Hall of Fame.

[JMEnglish27]

I just noticed that my copy of the 1883 volume is #1. I wonder if that adds any premium to the value, or if these are so niche andrare that it doesn’t matter. Thoughts?

[Piratedogcardshows]

Great look at Mr Orems collecting and writing career. I wonder if he had a Revelle in the group of 7 SL'ers