Today I had a chance to do that. Not with a card, but with a book. I've had Gene Florence's Standard Baseball Card Price Guide (4th Edition) for about five years now. I don't go to it often but it is handy for the alphabetized by player feature.
Today, at the Friends of the Knox County Public Library's annual book sale, I was able to upgrade. Behold the 6th Edition. This was published in 1994. Am I on the cutting edge or what?
Since it was one of the last days of the sale they reduced their prices. It was now a $5 bag day. Whatever you could stuff in a Kroger bag was yours for five bucks. Here are the other baseball books I came up with.
Judge Landis was written by J. G. Taylor Spink and published in 1974 by The Sporting News. There are some great photos in here.
When Baseball Was Young, by Gerard S. Petrone was published in 1994 by Musty Attic Archives. It contains transcriptions from newspapers and has many reproductions of pictures and drawings.
Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings is by Deborah Hopkinson with pictures by Terry Widener. It is a children's book inspired on the story of Alta Weiss.
I also picked up five books for Caroline, two copies of Biblical Archaeology Review magazine, an audio CD, Alan G. Thomas's Fine Books, Peter J. Schakel's The Way Into Narnia, an old copy of ShopNotes magazine (for my father-in-law), and a very fine copy of American Heritage magazine (October, 1966). This issue has a great article on the Battle at Valcour Island: Benedict Arnold as Hero.
What item in your collection do you want to upgrade?
If I had the opportunity to do it reasonably I'd like to upgrade my '59 Topps Bob Gibson. The copy I have in as part of my set is very rough, probably the worst conditioned card in the set. But since it is the only '59 to survive from my childhood (and a 'good' one would be so costly) I've been content to let it slide.
ReplyDeleteBut one of these days, if I found some extra cash(!), that would be my choice.
btw... I don't think I've ever seen that Florence Guide. It's kind of fun to look at the old prices.
Nice books !
ReplyDeleteI have the 7th edition of Beckett's Baseball Card Alphabetical Checklist, 1997. It is very handy at times.
I need to upgrade my check and want lists !!!
Hmmm... great question. Off the top of my head, I'd probably say my 1971 Topps Thurman Munson. I picked up a very affordable copy in an eBay lot a while back. But one of these days I'd like to get a nice copy for my collection.
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