Thursday, March 12, 2009

Card Sharks


There has been some recent discussion about Card Sharks, the 1995 book by Pete Williams that chronicles the birth of Upper Deck. It sounded interesting to me because it would help fill me in on what was going on with the hobby while I was away from it.

I went to Amazon and found a used hardcover version of the book for $4.98 shipped. The book came today. I plan to spend the evening reading it. I've already gone through the first couple chapters, which cover the Topps and Fleer stories. Very enlightening stuff.

Now I'm getting to the chapters that deal with the era when I started getting away from collecting, when rookie cards became the end all, be all. The Upper Deck story should be coming soon.

Should be an interesting evening.

3 comments:

  1. Dave @ Fielder's Choice sent me this book a week ago in a book swap, I have yet to start it and I really want to get to it. This is making me want to start it...

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  2. i read it last week. there's some good stuff in there. in one chapter, dr. beckett admits that the ultimate value is determined by how much someone is willing to pay for a card.

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  3. I just read this book as well. Put it together with Operation Bullpen and The Card and you cover the three main areas of baseball collecting. Autographs, vintage cards, and new cards. All three area's are filled with coruption and fraud. I'd highly recommend all three books and I think they should be required reading for all collectors.

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