Price guide

[bigtrain]

I, too, would pay a few bucks more if it were shipped in two volumes. Shrink wrap them together in the stores, if necessary. I end up slicing up the book and binding it with duct tape. It is not pretty.

[shaunsteig]

neophyte question here, but what price guide are you referring to? and aren't most price guides (eg Beckett, SMA, VCP) available online anyway?
Thanks,
--S

[FrankWakefield]

The Standard Catalog.

It is well worth buying one. A fellow would do well if he were armed with The Standard Catalog; Mr. Lipset's Encyclopedias; a later edition of The American Card Catalog; the 3rd or 4th edition of Mr. Sugar's Sports Collectors Bible; Mr. Horne's Zeenuts 1911 - 1938; Mr. Egan's Handbook to U.S. Early Candy and Gum Baseball Issues; Scot Reader's work on T206s; and The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin & Company by Mr. Miller, Mr. Gonsowski, and Mr. Masson. Those eight works would get a fellow a long way down the road of old ballcard knowledge. Then throw in all of the old issues of The Old Judge, for good measure.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by shaunsteig

neophyte question here, but what price guide are you referring to? and aren't most price guides (eg Beckett, SMA, VCP) available online anyway?
Thanks,
--S

It's the "Big Book" as it is commonly referred to. It's the Krause Standard Catalog of Baseball cards that comes out once a year. It has to be the #1 book to have if you are into vintage collecting, imo. There are others but no other one has this breadth of information. Lemke and company have done a great job with it. regards

[fkw]

My SCD BigBook is exactly 1" thick.

Ive been chopping out all the new stuff for at least 6 years now.

I do it the first day I get the book from Amazon.

I cut it along the spine (saving the top layer to overlap), remove the post1980 pages and then reattach the back (Chron Index and vintage minor league section) to the front. Last years book came out perfect, Ive got it down now

[insidethewrapper]

The Standard Catalog could save a lot of weight if it only listed the cards from 1981 + that are above the common price. For example: don't list any commons, just state the common price. If the card is not listed, it's a common. There could be an abridged and non-abridged version.

[Rich Klein]

One year in the Beckett Almanac we missed about 300 cards of the 1993 Topps set; and we got more complaints about THAT than if some obscure vintage set is missing. If you print a checklist, that checklist needs to be complete (or as complete as you know it to be)

Regards
Rich

[toppcat]

The Standard Catalog would be more useful if it listed all the cards by player for the newer issues. Does anyone really collect sets anymore of the post 1980 stuff?

Standard Catalog staff needs to also make sure things are updated. I know there are personnel and cost issues with the book but some cards and sets have had no change in pricing for half a decade. To keep buying the book for vintage material and then not having it updated is maddening.

[FrankWakefield]

Initially, I agree with that "common price" abridgment. But sometimes it is nice to have that list of all of the cards so the particular number of a card can be ascertained, or whether a card is in the series at all. And the "common price" strategy would work for all years, not just 1981 and up. Realistically, there are guys who collect Topps only, and hate all of the old stuff that's in their way in the front of the book. I think 2 or 3 volumes, shrink wrapped together, might be the best strategy for us. For the publisher, they probably maximize sales doing it the way they are doing it...

[steve B]

Splitting it up could work very well for them. Maybe even changing the price point as well.

The Scott stamp catalog is 6 volumes, I'm pretty sure they're over 1000 pages each. Plus they make a "classic" catalog that's in color and only 1840-1940. Classic is over $100 and each of the 6 volumes are around 75. There's also a US specialized at around 75 as well. They seem to do pretty well for sales despite serving a hobby that everyone claims is dying.

Split it up, list more, include more details, and better pictures. Maybe include a detailed article or two like the US specialized. Make it a truly invaluable reference. Raise the price (I know, heresy ) And I think they'd be surprised at the response.

Steve B

[redmansam]

Several years ago, I ran into Bob Lemke at the National and suggested the book be broken into two volumes-early through 1979 and a second from 1980 to present. The only additional cost would be to add a back cover(after 1979) and a front cover (starting with 1980). I asked if the cost would be prohibitive and I seem to recall he answered "No", but his concern seemed to be whether or not people would buy both volumes and total sales might go down.
I replied to just package them together, sell them at one price and let the buyer do whatever he wanted to do with either volume not used. I didn't have the impression this was to be Bob's call, so I dropped the issue.
I know nothing about the publishing business, but you'd think some common sense at Krause might enter in somewhere along the way.

[Fred]

About the only problem (for the publisher) if they provided two separate books is that people that wanted the vintage book would sell the other one and vice versa. My guess is that overall sales would drop because of people selling the book they don't want on the secondary market.

[Rich Klein]

But I'd wager if this book (and/or The Beckett Almanac) was split into 2 parts. The profitable book would be the modern book and the book that would take the loss is the "vintage" section.

It's been pointed out on the board that WE as a group are a very small but influential part of the card hobby.

Let's say that every single member (poster or not) of this board purchases a copy --- that would be about x number of members. The pool to buy a modern book is much larger and thus you need a much smaller percent of modern collectors to purchase a book.

This does not mean this is a bad idea, rather this is just one that is usually not financially feasible for a publisher and since neither F&W or Beckett are owned by "hobby people" any more we can say what we want but this is not going to occur

Rich

[toppcat]

I wonder why these books have not become "print-on-demand" titles? It also seems that a digital edition for Ipad/Kindle someday soon might work as well.

If you read Bob Lemke's comments here over the years, he does not seem to have any sway with the publisher beyond his editorial duties. Whatever financial decisions are being made are definitely not his responsibility.

I wonder how many copes each big book sells?

[shaunsteig]

Originally Posted by FrankWakefield

The Standard Catalog.

It is well worth buying one. A fellow would do well if he were armed with The Standard Catalog; Mr. Lipset's Encyclopedias; a later edition of The American Card Catalog; the 3rd or 4th edition of Mr. Sugar's Sports Collectors Bible; Mr. Horne's Zeenuts 1911 - 1938; Mr. Egan's Handbook to U.S. Early Candy and Gum Baseball Issues; Scot Reader's work on T206s; and The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin & Company by Mr. Miller, Mr. Gonsowski, and Mr. Masson. Those eight works would get a fellow a long way down the road of old ballcard knowledge. Then throw in all of the old issues of The Old Judge, for good measure.

Originally Posted by Leon

It's the "Big Book" as it is commonly referred to. It's the Krause Standard Catalog of Baseball cards that comes out once a year. It has to be the #1 book to have if you are into vintage collecting, imo. There are others but no other one has this breadth of information. Lemke and company have done a great job with it. regards

Thanks both for answering my question, and supplementing it with further advice. When free time permits, will be sure to pursue those references.
--S

[ValKehl]

I have long wished that someone or some group would produce a vintage catalog/price guide that is more comprehensive/thorough than, that has more accurate pricing than, and that has better and more illustrations than the Standard Catalog. I could see this being successfully accomplished via a collaborative effort by OC and VCP with lots of assistance/input from Net54 members, and hopefully, it would be a modest commercial success.
Val

[Rich Klein]

The price for that book for the amount of copies you would end up selling would be at least $69.95 if not more.

get a couple of thousand people to pay for the book up front and you'd have a chance.

Sounds great; but the biggest cost in publishing is turning on the presses. Believe me, I'm all in favor of what you are all suggesting -- the economics don't work


regards
rich

[mintacular]

How about you go to the website, "checkmark" all the years/sets you are interested in receiving, and then SCD sends you your own customized version with only the era/sets you desire. You could be charged per page or whatever. Maybe the user could manipulate the order the pages are organized and create choose their own cover/back