Travel World guide

This is a remarkable and singular achievement. The author makes reading who makes the business and history of baseball cards much fun as collecting them once was. For fans of baseball and sports collectibles it’s a must — but even those who discarded their shoe boxes of cards long ago will delight in the author’s portrait of an industry’s obsession. As with all manias, it’s magnetic.

This is the book that many of us have been waiting for, if not outright then at least in our imaginations. Jamieson delves mightily into a subject that was so near to the heart of many a childhood (and let’s face it, adulthood as well.)

I am awed by the amount of research performed by the author. He tracks down and interviews dozens of a dying breed, those who were around in the early days of the card explosion. Additionally, he does not leave aside those who were key to the industry/hobby but who are no longer alive. He seems to have gone to great lengths to provide a thorough accounting of the product’s evolution, making many a trek to review various collections of cards and, by extension, other pop culture.

I am further wowed by Jamieson’s ability to translate his research in such a fascinating and vivid way. In fact, the author’s accounts of some of the works he has seen has piqued my curiosity enough to seek these trips out myself. Other than in a travel magazine, how often do you read about a place or thing, and the description is so interesting that you then have to see it for yourself? For me, this is a first, and what makes this idea even more preposterous is that some of the items that Jamieson mentions were merely extensions of his research and had before held little interest to me.

Though I read non-fiction more than fiction, I find myself periodically needing to lay the non-fiction aside for a day or two before picking it up again. Not this book: I could not put it down.

Thanks, Dave, for a great read. Much like pulling my cards out from their closet every few years, I suspect that I will again be pulling your book off the shelf.

If, like me, you are a baseball fan who collected baseball cards as a kid, you will find this account of the history of the baseball card industry to be a good read. It occurrs to me that there are characteristic differences between how a journalist and an academic approach a book like this (I’m assuming from his bio on the flap of the dust jacket that Jamieson is a journalist). With an academic, you are likely to get a rather dry discussion, but one that is thorough. With a journalist, you are likely to get a lively discussion, but one that leaves some holes in the narrative. Jamieson’s discussion is certainly lively. He spends considerable time on some of the oddball characters who have been involved in the baseball card industry over the years. Getting to know something about these people makes the story more interesting, which is why journalists always include the “personal element” in a news story. If you want to write a newspaper article about an increase in foreclosures, you start the article with an account of the Smith family being forced out of their home. Only then do you give the reader the big picture. Jamieson takes this approach.

An academic is more likely to be concerned with nailing down all the facts, and adds color only as an afterthought. In a book like this, the journalistic approach is probably the better way to go. But there were a number of points where I wished Jamieson had taken more trouble with the facts. For example, he spends some time on the boom and crash in baseball card production and in the prices of collectible cards during the late 1980s and early 1990s. But I didn’t feel I was getting the complete story. It would have been nice to have had some more details on how high the prices of particular cards went and how far they crashed. I was also a little unclear about the transition from the collapse in the mid-1990s to the current situation. What I can gather from the book is that since the mid-1990s, only older cards (pre-1960?) in excellent condition have much value. But for these cards, values have soared. I think that is what he is saying happened, but he never quite spells it out, focusing instead on giving accounts of the some of the big dealers in the current market. Similarly, he gives the impression that when Marvin Miller became director of the Major League Players Association, the MLPA had complete authority to negotiate contracts with baseball card companies. Was that really the case? Even though the photographs of the players show them in team uniforms, MLB had no right to receive payments from the card companies? When discussing more recent years, though, he gives the impression that both the MLPA and MLB negotiate (jointly) with the card companies. Seems as if the rules changed somehow. It would have been worthwhile to have straightened out this story. Finally, although he provides a Notes section that gives his sources — somewhat unusual in a book like this — the book does not have an index, which greatly reduces its usefulness as a reference.

Gran Torino left me thirsty for Pabst; this book left me jonesing for gum, smokes and a ’52 Topps Mickey Mantle. Mint Condition wonderfully explains the incredible journey of the baseball card from its early tobacco days to the wax packs of today. It provides a unique education in American history by showing how tobacco, MLB & chewing gum owe a huge debt to baseball cards and the kids who bought (or forced their parents to buy) them. But my favorite thing about reading Mint Condition is that it caused me to pull out my own stash of prized cards from 20yrs ago which evoked so many great memories.

I like this catalog much better than Becketts. It seems to have many more listings, however it still doesn’t go all the way up through 2010.

The item was exactly as stated. Arrived in perfect condition and on the time specified. I was very pleased with my purchase

I started collecting baseball cards in 1968 and I thought I knew pretty much about the hobby. This book quintupled my education in a short, thoroughly enjoyable week. Jamieson delivers the good, the bad, and the ugly — as he promised in his introduction — and left me both hopeful and concerned about the future of cards.

This book should be of interest not only to those who have continued to dabble in the hobby, but also those who just want to re-visit a childhood passion with greater understanding and context to their own experiences. It is also a great set of case studies about business, from product development to marketing to consumer research to collusion to monopoly. Enjoy!

Awesome book. 1848 pages of baseball cards every card you can think of right up to 2010.Great price Half the price of Barnes and noble. Fast delivery.

What a joy this book is. It brought me back to my childhood in the 1970′s and explained a lot about the hobby that I have largely ignored during my adult years.

Recently I asked my two young nephews ages 8 and 6 if they collected cards in the hopes of foisting off a steamer trunk full of mostly worthless common cards and thereby freeing up my spare room closet. I was expecting to see wild excitement but I received a blank look in return. This book tells the story of why kids are no longer interested in the hobby.

It also delves deep into the collector psyche and mindset and there are many basic principles the author reveals which can be applied to other collecting fields. This is a fantastic book and one of these best I have read this year.

My brother recommended this book to me as we both collected cards starting back in 1985, right at the moment of its meteoric rise to financial frenzy and ultimate collapse in the 90′s. I, too, like so many saw the industry fall apart right in front of my eyes and walked away, putting away much of my collection hoping one day it will find a place in the market years to come.

I not only collected, but professed myself as a dealer for about 5 years in that period of time, so I got to meet some interesting people. Never accumulated or collected any of the real rarities of the industry, mostly dealt with the up to date stuff. Also parallel with comic books I was interested in as well, and saw both industries matching each other at equal pace.

MINT CONDITION, which looks at how cards came into being at the end of the 1800′s and why they existed to begin with. It’s interesting that tobacco companies used them to advertise their products and that, while they were fun to collect, they were ultimately used to sell tobacco. Tobacco companies today really cant do anything of that nature. If we remember the Camel dollars which sported Camel Joe and was slapped down for promoting a cartoon that supposedly gave the demographic to kids and was put a halt on using the character. So, yes, its not the product, its what it is paired with. But I digress.

The book MINT CONDITION goes further than any complaints about the matter, but mostly discusses how cards were used as points of advertising. Fleer, Bowman and Leaf, all early bubble gum companies rode the wave to make money. But it was Topps who saw the cards themselves as more valuable than the gum itself. Once Topps secured its place as the only manufacturer of baseball cards, they rode that wave for about 20 more years all the way into the early 80′s.

From this point, new card companies broke into the business and competed, but with success for all companies. It seemed a blessing at first as Fleer and Donruss benefitted Topps, rather than take away business. This grew exponentially every year and as prices increased, notoriety of their value became a public issue. Once this happened, the business exploded in and around 1986. Most notably are the famous cards like the T206 Honus Wagner and the Topps Mickey Mantle. Star cards, rookies and classic cards were looked for at every card shop or convention.

The book itself is a fun read, especially if you have been there. It did explain to me, at least, why I have an unopened case of Topps 1996 sitting in my attic that is worth considerably less than what I paid. This is because Topps and the other companies have printed in excess some 80 million cards each year!! Thats an insane amount when you get down to it. While no numbers of how many were actually printed ever got released officially, that is an assumed amount (from what I read).

Aside from this, the author explores other issues that has tarnished the industry, most of it dealing with taking away the industry from kids and giving it to adults. Higher end cards, chase cards, raising the price per cards, are among some of the issues. That with forgeries, counterfeits, pricing, grading, doctoring and, in general, turning it into an everyman’s wall street. The book tries to explore in a journalistic perspective, but the author being a former card collector has been jaded and so it lies in the attitude that the business is just that – a business. And kids are just a demographic as are adults. More is better.

Companies that produce collectibles never learn to maintain rarity. But its a double edged sword. A company cannot grow without more sales or more product. If you cut production to maintain rarity, you need to create more products. Or you are forced to increase production on the one thing you sell. So, I leave the business as it is. Its fun to revisit and buy a few packs here and there, but I am not interested in “chasing” the hot cards. I like to see the new designs that come out more than anything.

Some of the new stuff are very nice looking, but I dont find them personally valuable to me like I did when I was younger. So this book was a nice walk down my own personal past and discover what really happened to an industry that I was fascinated with as a kid.

You don’t have to like baseball cards to love this book. Hell, you don’t even have to like baseball. I collected Star Wars and Charlie’s Angels cards myself. “Mint Condition” comes highly recommended to anyone who cares about popular culture, printed ephemera, and the history, psychology, and business of collecting. Also to obsessives, crooks, monopolists, fakers, vigilantes, and the good folk who enjoy reading about them.

Great books for all types of baseball collectors. Easy to understand has everything you can think of and then more. Just great

Mint Condition is a great summer read. I love sports in general, and baseball, but was never a huge card collector as a kid. It was fun to learn the history starting with the old 1800′s tobacco cards up through the boom times when people risked a fortune on cardboard. Thumbs up for Mint Condition!!

A excellent an LENGTHY guide and listing of baseball cards. The pricing has to be taken with a grain of salt sometimes, but the checklist and set descriptions are grad A.

Unique book…one of a kind, and an excellent read. Full of great stories about the history of collecting baseball cards and their ascent to popularity in our country.

you could hurt yourself lifting it or dropping it on a pet. Might be time to break it into 2 volumes. What I found difficult at times was to find the actual card in this reference as Topps/UD would have it listed on the card as to what set it was from but the reference would have it listed as something else. They need a good cross-reference. This seems very typical on key insert and relic cards. Otherwise, plan on getting dizzy when you go thru this book as once again it is a tremendous reference.

As a kid growing up during the last height of baseball cards (late 80′s early 90′s) this book was a real insight into what was really going in the industry at that time. Not only did the book cover this period, it also did a great job of describing how and why baseball cards got huge during the early 20th Century and the 1950′s – 60′s. I thought I knew a lot about the hobby growing up, but this book really was fascinating and a great read. I encourage anyone that ever collected, bought, sold and traded cards to pick this book up!

This is a pretty solid history of baseball cards, and it does make a reader appreciate the design elements and choices that card manufacturers made, especially in the 1950s era of high competition.

I had no idea how cutthroat the business was, and especially how the card companies took advantage of the union-less ballplayers (a lesson for a modern age).

What this book lacks is enough attention to the modern age. Obviously baseball card collecting doesn’t have the same influence or impact in 2011 that it used too, and Jamieson does explore that. But I was really interested in seeing more about how the ‘economy’ of baseball cards fell apart. He does a little with that – probably enough for most readers – and it just something I wanted to see more about. I never collected baseball cards, but I saw the same market crash with comics, which I did collect…and it happened at pretty much the same time. Since he opens the book with his discovery that his recently re-discovered card collection was worthless, I think he owed this subject a little more attention.

However, it’s written engagingly and presents a pretty wide and colorful cast of characters. It’s a fun read, because nothing’s really at stake. A reader can appreciate the nostalgia without feeling too bad for anyone involved.

This book should be read alongside “The Card,” by Michael O’Keefe, which explores one specific example of card collecting (a famous Honus Wagner card), but Jamieson had access to some subjects that O’Keefe interviewed much less – because his reporting was uncovering shady dealings and they stopped talking to him!

Neither book is perfect, but taken together I think they present about as comphrehensive a history as you can get without doing all the research yourself!

Well researched and well written history of baseball cards. As a child of the 1980s, this history brought me back down memory lane. I wish it had more pictures though!

A comprehensive look into the history of baseball cards, cigarettes, bubble gum, and every nerdy kid (or adult) to ever collect sports memorabilia. I could easily pass this book onto my son (if I had one), father and grandfather to read. Plenty to chew on for everyone! (get it? waggity waggity). Can’t praise this enough and I’m guessing this will be the first of many 5-star reviews to come. Excellent work Mr. Jamieson.

This is the best baseball card price guide I’ve ever seen and it’s worth every penny. The book has every piece of information you could possibly ever ask for. At 1,848 pages, there’s so many listings that the chronological and alphabetical indexes in the back are a huge help in quickly find the exact card you’re looking for.

I recently faced the same challenges that Jamieson did in having to relocate a few boxes of cards from the early 90s. The book took me back and offered a lot of history that even as an avid collector I was unfamiliar with. It even made me buy a couple more cards!

This book is a fantastic read. It gives you an in depth and colorful history of baseball cards from the beginning to the present. The history of the baseball cards and card collecting laid out in this book brings back a nostalgia that makes you want to be a kid again looking for that perfect card. It made me look at my old collection and remember how much fun it was collecting, organizing and trading cards as a kid. The history on cards from the 1800-early 1900 is fantastic. Laying out how the old Tobacco and Gum companies started putting cards in their products as a selling point. How Other cards such as Horrors of War and the Mars Attacks cards were put out. You will learn about the famous Wagner card and the history of the card as it moved from owner to owner and eventually sold for a record $ amount. The book even touches on cards that are altered and counterfeit.

Again, a great read for collector and non-collectors alike. I loan this book out to whomever is willing to give it a try.

What can I say, this book is simply amazing. Very quick read, tons of insight and interviews, it is not your high school history book. It made me think why I got into baseball cards and out of it. Towards the end of the book he has an angle (pretty much why he thinks bseball cards started to tank).

Goes from very first baseball cards (and collectable cards) to the exclusive deal Topps made in 2009.

Some of the problems I came across were that there was no index (would help with important names), no timeline (for a quick reference), and his notes section was frustrating.

Bob Lemke and the SCD crew are the best at what they do. This book is the Holy Bible for baseball card collectors everywhere. [...]

Not going to go into great detail, but 6 of the first 20 cards I looked up weren’t in the book. I don’t collect obscure cards, yet I consistently run into cards that are not listed. I would say this is an average attempt at compiling card information.

ive been collecting since i was young and thought this was a must read. i wanted to like it, and i agree with Jamieson, but it just wasn`t as exciting as i wanted it to be.

As a kid growing up in the ’50s & ’60s, collecting baseball cards was a natural part of our existence. Abusing our prized possessions was also a part of the process; a ’56 Yogi Berra made my Schwinn sound like a Harley (not really). At the time, I didn’t realize that was a very costly sound effect; who knew that shoebox full of Musials, Williams, and Mantles could someday pay for junior’s college education, if the owner of those gems had sense enough to keep them in “mint condition”? Needless to say, I didn’t catch on until twenty some odd years later; and like everything that has a “market value”, baseball card portfolios have been whacked in recent years; just like everything else.

Dave Jamieson has compiled a wonderfully researched history of the baseball card phenomenon, which brought back many memories for me; not only of my innocent youth, but of my not so innocent adulthood, when I tried to grab the hottest cards at the best possible prices. I used to buy ‘em by the set, and horde them like a miser, hoping they’d increase in value. Naturally, I now keep my collection in mint condition, and I’ll spend hours gazing at baseball’s not so distant past, and wonder why Roger Maris isn’t in the Hall of Fame.

If you’re a baseball fan, regardless of your obsession with collecting cards, you’ll certainly enjoy this book. It’s a home run.

I never collected baseball cards as a kid (I spent my allowance money in the 1960s on comic books). i did start collecting as an adult, getting into the hobby just before the ‘baseball card as an investment’ craze took off. I never believed that any of those cards I bought in the 1980s was ever going to be worth any money. I collected because I liked baseball, and, as long-time Topps card designer, Woody Gelman, is quoted in the book because I had the “collecting disease”. 25 years later and I’m still collecting, for much the same reason. This book is a pretty good summation of 100 or so yearsof baseball card collecting. Some of the material is duplicative of material found in “The Card” by Michael O’Keefee and Teri Thompson. But “The Card” is mostly about the 1909 Honus Wagner card while Jamieson’s book is more broadly focused. This book will interest anyone involved in the hobby.

The product was received in 2-3 days in perfect condition even though it was used. My husband was extremely pleased with the price and condition. Will definitely be purchasing more items from this domain.