This is the most comprehensive and respected vintage baseball card price guide on the market--considered to be the "bible" of the hobby. The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards (2012), 21st Edition, contains thousands of card values covering cards from approximately 5,000 sets released between 1863-1981. In the 21st Edition, you'll find more than 5,000 photos, explanations for each set, unique features, size, and many additional details. Detailed pricing information and values are included. The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards has been, and continues to be, a core title produced by Krause Publication…going on 21 years! If you collect baseball cards, this is a must-have annually!

Provides information on thousands of items and their prices for collecting sports memorabilia.

The "Bible" for information and values on vintage baseball cards! The Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards, now in its second edition of covering baseball card sets produced from 1863-1980, carries on the more than 20-year history of excellence in the Standard Catalog series in the baseball card market. Own the book that is used as THE reference guide by hobby experts, grading companies, dealers and the everyday collector. With thousands of sets listed, and the corresponding hundreds of thousands of player listings and values, the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards is the No. 1 choice for its information and easy-to-use format. Inside you will find descriptions introducing the various sets; full, updated checklists; and values for three condition grades for sets produced over a 120-year period. Easy-to-read listings make for quick searches of cards you are looking for. Prices are provided for tobacco, bubble gum, regionals and specialty issues, along with vintage Minor League listings. Get informed before making buying and selling decisions regarding your baseball card collection--the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards is the only guide you need.

“An entertaining history of baseball cards . . . An engaging book on a narrow but fascinating topic.” —The Washington Post When award-winning journalist Dave Jamieson’s parents sold his childhood home a few years ago, he rediscovered a prized boyhood possession: his baseball card collection. Now was the time to cash in on the “investments” of his youth. But all the card shops had closed, and cards were selling for next to nothing online. What had happened? In Mint Condition, his fascinating, eye-opening, endlessly entertaining book, Jamieson finds the answer by tracing the complete story of this beloved piece of American childhood. Picture cards had long been used for advertising, but after the Civil War, tobacco companies started slipping them into cigarette packs as collector’s items. Before long, the cards were wagging the cigarettes. In the 1930s, cards helped gum and candy makers survive the Great Depression. In the 1960s, royalties from cards helped transform the baseball players association into one of the country’s most powerful unions, dramatically altering the game. In the eighties and nineties, cards went through a spectacular bubble, becoming a billion-dollar-a-year industry before all but disappearing, surviving today as the rarified preserve of adult collectors. Mint Condition is charming, original history brimming with colorful characters, sure to delight baseball fans and collectors. “Jamieson explores the history of card collecting through an entertaining cast of characters . . . For anyone who can recall being excited to rip open their newest pack of cards, Mint Condition is a treat.” —Forbes

Reproduction of baseball cards produced for Bowman Gum in 1953.