Ask the Standard Catalog . . .

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Posted By: Bob Lemke

Let me address these as best I can.
First and foremost, at this time it is not an option to divide the catalog into separate volumes, whether pre-War, pre-1950 or pre-1981. The sales department is death on that idea. They figure that the book is, considering the decline of the bbc market in the past 10 years, doing amazingly well and they don't want to chance a major change. You might be surprised to learn that (ballpark figures) only about 30% of the SCBC's sales come from the "hobby," the rest are sold in major chain bookstores and on Amazon.com. Naturally, amy who buy at those "public" venues are true collectors, but the sales people feel to break the book into by-date volumes would be a bad gamble.
At this point I don't see any major changes in format from the current four-section approach of Vintage Major, Modern Major, Vintage Minor and Modern Minor.
To specifically answer Jay's queries: We feel our proprietary pricing "system" can accurately break down a unique set such as the 1917 White Sox or the Alleghany issue based on proven demand for cards of the player, team, era and rarity. It is conjectural until such a set is actually broken, but past experience says it is a reasonable exercise. That said, however, it may make sense for us NOT to price that specific set, since it has not been broken and no other examples have surfaced.
As for the ACC indexing, much of that is already in place in the alphabetical index; it's not complete, but it's a good start. I am of the firm belief that the ACC numbers have outlived their utility and are meaningless to the vast majority. We'll continue to pick away at our cross-referencing in this area, though.
To address David's questions: When we say our book values reflect the current "retail" market that is not meant to imply "store," "show" or "ad" prices, rather, as we say, "what the collector can expect to pay for that card." More and more these days, that means taking into account eBay transactions, as that venue has become the real-world market for much of the hobby. I cannot be specific about the proprietary system by which we generate book values. Our company has been in the hobby price guide business for more than 40 years and has been creating unique computerized analysis tools for more than 25 years. Without being too specific, we have created a virtually infinite number of pricing grids which take into account all aspects which affect a card's supply and demand. Every price which the computer generates is given a critical review by myself and/or our modern baseball analyst and the "human" element factored in. Input comes from recorded transactions in major (and minor) hobby auctions, and increasingly, from legitimate eBay sales. We also work with a very select group of specialists on individual sets.
To address Adam's inquiry on how the selection process is accomplished . . . it used to be very easy, we tried to include EVERYTHING. In the last couple of years, with our page count frozen just beneath the 1,800 mark to allow us to keep the cover price under $40, decisions have to be made on what to do to accomodate the 10,000+ new cards being issued each year. In the SCBC, that decision is mine alone. My goal is to maintain the integrity of the Vintage sections for as long as possible, making cuts to non-card items in the modern section as necessary. We had hoped to be able to migrate much of the non-card content to the 3rd edition Standard Catalog of Sports Memorabilia, but that was not possible due to that title's deadlines. I am confident I can squeeze all the new cards into the 2005 book without making any cuts to core content.
If I had my 'druthers, I'd publish a Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards annually and a companion Standard Catalog of Baseball Collectibles every other year, allowing us to fully utizilize our data base.
Keep the inquiries coming and thanks for your concern and interest.