Books about the baseball card hobby

[DynaEtch]

Sorry if I’m repeating a topic,

I just finished “Mint Condition”, and it was a thoroughly great read, and covered the history of cards from their origins to up until like 2010ish.

Others I’ve read and enjoyed were “The Card: Collectors, Con Men…” about the long and convoluted history of the T206 Wagner, and Tanner’s “Confessions of a Baseball Card Addict” about supercollecting Canseco and other baseball card reminesces.

Any other books out there on the history of cards or stories from collectors about the hobby? Not referring to books about baseball, but books about the hobby.

[JMStang]

I really enjoyed Cramer’s Choice. It’s about the life of Mike Cramer and Pacific trading cards. He has had a really interesting life and learned a lot about the behind the scenes part of a card company.

I’ll have to check out the others you mentioned.


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[base set]

[DynaEtch]

Appreciate both suggestions, I will look into them. I’m finding books about card history are somewhat rare.

Pacific was smack dab in my prime collecting years in the 90s, so should be interesting, from a manufacturer’s perspective. The “Mint condition” book had a decent amount of info on the origins of Upper Deck in 1989, it really was such a pivotal moment in the hobby.

[Triple B]

Card Sharks by Pete Williams. By far.

[hermanotarjeta]

Not a book, but old Becketts are entertaining.

[nmh20]

Bubble Gum Card War by Dean Hanley is a fascinating book about the Bowman & Topps cards of the early 50's. The two companies competed to improve card design & to secure rights to the best players in that era which led to some of the most collectible card sets of all time (52-56 Topps, 51,53 Bowman)

[Chris P]

The Wax Pack is fun book. It's a guy's journey of meeting every player from a pack of 1986 Topps he opened.

[HeritageKing]

It’s too bad a lot of the guys responsible for the great sets of the late 90’s and 2000’s have all signed NDA’s and their stories will never reach the light of day. Lloyd Pawlak and Chris Carlin come to mind.

[byronscott4ever]

Originally Posted by Triple B

Card Sharks by Pete Williams. By far.

Second

[Mightymango]

Originally Posted by Chris P

The Wax Pack is fun book. It's a guy's journey of meeting every player from a pack of 1986 Topps he opened.

I just picked that one up as it looked like a cool read.

[akabruno]

"When Baseball Was Still Topps: Portraits of the Game in 1959, Card by Card" by Phil Coffin.

"re: LEAF: THE STORY OF A COLLECTOR, A CANDY COMPANY, A STACK OF BASEBALL CARDS, AND A QUEST FOR ANSWERS" by Brian Kappel

"Baseball Cards at the Edge of War: 1941: The Games, The Gum, and The Glory" by Todd Marcum

[marl1220]

"Mr. Mint's Insider's Guide to Investing in Baseball Cards and Collectibles"

I got my copy signed by Al Rosen at a card show. He acted like it was the greatest thing ever that I actually brought the book for him to sign.

[hairysasquatch]

Originally Posted by marl1220

"Mr. Mint's Insider's Guide to Investing in Baseball Cards and Collectibles"

I got my copy signed by Al Rosen at a card show. He acted like it was the greatest thing ever that I actually brought the book for him to sign.

I knew someone was going to have to get Mr. Mint in here somehow!!

[DynaEtch]

Appreciate all the suggestions- there’s more out there than I thought. I’m a more a modern era guy (not ultra modern, more like junk era through 90s), and so stories of collecting/manufacturing in that era are a little more interesting to me than the old tobacco era, although seems to be the era not as well covered. Going through old Becketts is a good idea as well.

[daverat]

Tuff Stuff

[smapdi]

Cannot recommend The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book one highly enough. Even though the Amazon page says it's from 1991, it originally came out in the 70s. Written by two guys who collected growing up in the 50s and 60s, they highlight their favorite cards and do brief writeups of them or the players on them. Often funny, they inform a current-day reader a little bit about the characters in the game from a couple generations ago. I know I never looked at Earl Torgeson the same again.

[ken161]

Originally Posted by JMStang

I really enjoyed Cramer’s Choice. It’s about the life of Mike Cramer and Pacific trading cards. He has had a really interesting life and learned a lot about the behind the scenes part of a card company.

I’ll have to check out the others you mentioned.


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Just finished reading this book. I have a lot of fond memories of putting together Pacific football and hockey sets in the mid-to-late 1990s so I found the book a very interesting read. Tons of stories about the hobby in general and running a card company in particular. Would highly recommend.

[Twalk1975]

Originally Posted by nmh20

Bubble Gum Card War by Dean Hanley is a fascinating book about the Bowman & Topps cards of the early 50's. The two companies competed to improve card design & to secure rights to the best players in that era which led to some of the most collectible card sets of all time (52-56 Topps, 51,53 Bowman)

I have this book buried in a box at home somewhere. Been a while since I read it, but I'll have to dig it out and read it again since you brought it up. I remember it being a pretty interesting read.

[Big35Hurt]

Originally Posted by daverat

Tuff Stuff

Wasn't that more of a monthly magazine? I know it started off as a newspaper type publication as I have the first issue from 1984, but eventually it turned into a magazine from what I recall.

[tribefan26]

Originally Posted by base set

This is the book that got me hooked 50 years ago - I'll have to get my hard book original edition out and post a pic. It's been 20 years since I last read it - probably need to re-read.

[youseekyoda421]

Originally Posted by tribefan26

This is the book that got me hooked 50 years ago - I'll have to get my hard book original edition out and post a pic. It's been 20 years since I last read it - probably need to re-read.

Great book! I appreciate the book's focus largely on non-star players.

[armyml]

A local customer of mine and generally good dude published a small book about the hobby. Genuinely nice dude. I THINK its on Amazon but im not entirely sure. We've been selling books for him out of our store.

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[lakesidez]

Search for anything by Tom Zappala, I have the T206 and Cracker Jack books.

https://tomzappalamedia.com/

[ThoseBackPages]

Originally Posted by lakesidez

Search for anything by Tom Zappala, I have the T206 and Cracker Jack books.

https://tomzappalamedia.com/

good call. His books were staples of the PSA Luncheon annually back in the day