T206 Marquard Armpit 8 Variation

[Al C.risafulli]

This was a really frustrating revelation for me, and further evidence that THE HOBBY NEEDS A STANDARD CATALOG, and whichever entity currently owns it and is not publishing it should hand the assets over to the SABR Baseball Card committee so that they can take ownership and resume publishing it. There is currently nowhere to report discoveries like this.

A T206 collector who participates on this board brought this card to LOTG back in 2017, with a number of scans of other examples, and asked if we could help him get the card catalogued, and then sell it for him.

We did a little more research on our own, read Mr. Lemke's writing about it, and then presented all our findings to the Standard Catalog. The Standard Catalog publishers (SCD, at the time) agreed that it was a legit variation and advised me of their plan to begin including it with the 2018 edition of the catalog.

Based on this, PSA agreed to begin recognizing the variation and slabbed the example that we sold (which is linked in one of the posts above).

Of course, the Standard Catalog has not published since 2017, no 2018 version was ever produced, and in the seven years that have elapsed, PSA has not been consistent about slabbing this variation (I know of two examples that were submitted and the variation was not noted, because it was not catalogued).

I wrote about this on our blog one year ago here: https://loveofthegameauctions.com/th...ndard-catalog/

In the meantime, we are about to post about yet another discovery that changes the information in the Standard Catalog. There's nowhere to report these discoveries that dozens of collectors make each year - new errors, variations, new additions to checklists, discoveries about the origins of various sets. There is no longer a single hobby "Bible" that serves as the clearing house for this knowledge, and the hobby is much worse off for it.

Anyway, the "Red 8" is a legit variation.

-Al

[FrankWakefield]

Al is right about an updated Standard Catalog.

I'd like to see an effort somewhere, maybe here, where we could demonstrate some pledge, eventually prepayment, to demonstrate a market exists for a revival of the Standard Catalog.

Obstacles:

is there sufficient demand for a new SC?

who owns rights to the last SC (which would be a starting cornerstone)?

has the cost of printing and distribution of such a voluminous risen to such an extent that the cost of production would be prohibitive?



I'm sure there are more obstacles than these... I want a paper publication, not something online nor on a CD. Some 21st century folk wouldn't want the heavy paper catalog.

Maybe we financially underwrite whoever now "owns" the Standard Catalog to produce a new SC if they are interested. That would be better than buying the rights and then we still don't update and publish because we learn of what obstacles are out there.

Mr. Lemke was a unique gentleman. He and the 21st century were not exactly in step with one another. He had a great ability to focus on details as well as a vast undertaking. And he was a really good guy. We need to find another Bob Lemke. Anyone know someone in the upper echelons of Krause Publishing?

If one is published in the next few years, I'd guess they'll cost between $90 and $120 each...

[Al C.risafulli]

This is something that I actually spent a bunch of time trying to figure out last year. I don't mean to hijack a good thread, and hope this post will keep it on track.

FKW, who owned SCD and the Catalog, declared bankruptcy in 2017. Penguin Random House purchased the book publishing assets of FKW, and Active Interests Media purchased the collectibles magazines. Both publish books and guides on a regular basis that seem to have niche audiences just like our hobby. Nobody seems to know where the Standard Catalog fits, and nobody at either company has responded to me.

Meanwhile, I have spoken with the folks at the SABR Baseball Cards Committee, an organization that already exists and is filled with the type of collectors who devoted time to sending Mr. Lemke updates each year, stands ready to take on this project. As a group they are chock full of researchers, and SABR has a publishing arm that produces outstanding books and guides. They could certainly publish an electronic Catalog that gets updated every year, and a periodic printed book for nerds like me that scour the pages year after year. And most importantly, they've said they'd be thrilled to do it.

It seems silly for them to start from scratch when all the checklists already exist in some sort of electric format. What needs to happen is whichever entity owns the Catalog needs to either resume publishing it, or hand the rights over to SABR.

-Al