4 comments about Victorian Trade Cards: Historical Reference & Value Guide.

1. Vastly illustrated and very informative. Although the majority of this book is pictures (very nice ones at that), there are some very interesting facts and historical information about the victorian card craze. Because there are in excess of 100,000 different cards in existance, don't expect to find every card in here or the current market price. It is just a matter of time before a more extensive guide is published, (I would still recommend because of the great illustrations!) The only problem I have with this book is the layout which can be annoying if you are trying to find info on one of your cards. You have to search through several sections of the book. (e.g. Jackson's chewing tobbaco card in the "Exploration and Travel" chapter instead of the "Tobbaco" chapter). More expensive cards are usually only discussed in the chapter rather than illustrated, which I find kind of strange(Maybe he didn't own any of those to get the photo?).



2. The beautiful 224 page, 8 1/2 x 11" softbound book contains more than 500 full color, sharp, large photos. '98 values. There are 70 topics ranging from angels, baseball, dolls, expositions to Uncle Sam, women, wringers and washing. There's plenty of background information on each topic. A useful glossary of terms is provided. A must for tradecard collectors. Fascinating to read and refer to.



3. This is a great book. It's a definitive reference on the somewhat obscure subject of Victorian Trade Cards, but for those of us who love them, it's a feast. It is crammed with illustrations, broken into categories, and contains history and collecting tips. The pricing information is somewhat out of date, due to the impact that online auctions have had on these collectables (some are more expensive, some less, as auctions make them more available.) If you're at all a fan of this genre, don't hesitate to buy this book!



4. If you find this book lying on someone's coffee table, don't pick it up--you'll be hooked! I am not an aficionado of trade cards, but I found this book to be endlessly fascinating. Cheadle wisely keeps his writing to a minimum, letting the illustrations speak for themselves-- page after page. I know of no book that is more intriguing just to page through. Henry Kort (kort@ainet.com)

1 comments about Playing Cards.

1. Ira Pearlstein writes an engaging introduction in which he recounts buying at a country estate auction in August 1995 two albums of playing cards for $17.50. The cards were displayed on the pages of the albums backside up so that the colorful designs--many of which would be described as "art deco"--might delight the collector's eye. He realized that the cards were probably from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. This book is the result of that fortunate find.
   
   Here the cards are reproduced life size in brilliant color so that four cards fit attractively on a page. The book itself measures an artful twelve by four and seven-eights by three-quarters inches. The first cards displayed have symmetrical patterned backs mostly in reds and blues. Then come some backs that are also patterned but not symmetrical. Here the colors begin to become more garish and ornate with purples, yellows and other colors appearing. Then come many cards with daring asymmetry, little works of art reflecting in some cases ideas from Fauvism and Cubism. There are some cards with commercial logos on the back, one for "ABC Oil Burners," another for "Bert Green, Conservative Clothes." Then come the stylized dogs, often in black and white pairs. Also displayed are cards with cats, bears, deer, birds, etc., on their backs, some geometrically designed.
   
   Designs showing people in their houses, at play, courting in fine costumes, dancing, holding hands, in silhouette by moonlight, pretty girls in pensive moods, etc.; nature scenes, still art, sailboats, gondolas, and clipper ships; "Unorthodox color treatments, oddly matched patterns and figures and perplexing subject matter" adorn more of the cards. Cartoon figures and clowns--all of these designs and more appeared on the backs of pasteboard cards created to augment the experience of the social player at bridge or poker or the lonely hearts at solitaire.
   
   I was disappointed not to see some representative fronts of the cards with the pips and the symmetrical kings, queens and jacks. Although the designs on the front would perforce be more standard, nonetheless there would undoubtedly be subtleties of design that card fanciers would appreciate. However the next to last section of the book shows some of the jokers, which I found most interesting. I had a moment or two of nostalgia while recognizing some of the designs from long ago.
   
   Buzz Poole provides a little history of card manufacture and design in a short essay and some textual comment to grace the display of the cards.

No comments about Coney Island Postcards: The People's Playground.

No comments about Six Old-Time Christmas Children Cards.

1 comments about Six Old-Time New England Lighthouse Postcards (Small-Format Card Books).

1. The small booklet, encloses 6 uniquely charming cards, that can be pulled out easily to be used as post cards or for decoration. The old timey cars, and beautiful sunsets make each card special. A nice gift idea!

5 comments about Standard Catalog of World Paper Money: General Issues to 1960 (Standard Catalog of World Paper Money. Vol 2 : General Issues, 8th ed).

1. This book is very well for inform on bills in a world! Pictures, year, price...Very complete!



2. I use this book only, I don't know better source for basic informations for collectors.



3. It was a pleasure for me to order from you. The catalog is great and I got it delivered in no time. The service was GREAT!!!



4. The new edition of this catalogue is an extremely disappointing effort in terms of keeping up to date with price developments. A majority of the countries covered in this update have not been reviewed at all, resulting in a very misleading guide to collectors. If you have the previous edition, there is little incentive for you to buy this new edition. Editors should really put much much more effort in updating prices, or simply stop printing updates of the catalogue altogether. Changing the cover picture does not justify a new edition.



5. An excellent catalogue. The only disturbing problem is that there are several mismatchs between pictures and descriptions. Unfortunately more frequent than in earlier issues.

2 comments about Classic Muscle Car Advertising: The Art of Selling Horsepower.

1. I have Mitch Frumkin's first two books, and I must admit this one is better, picture wise. His first two contained just b&w photos and not much text. This book is wall to wall color, which really brings the ads to life; some ads are even reproduced in their original size. Very cool - A+ on that account. However, this book contains much more text, which should have been a nice compliment to the ads, but unfortunately, there are a number of errors. Yes, I realize that one person cannot possibly know every little detail, and we are constantly finding out new facts about muscle cars, but if you have the ads in front of you, and hopefully the magazines they came out of, you should know the correct years of the cars and the dates the ads ran. In other words, model year 1971 cars were not advertised in late 1969.
   
   Also, I feel a number of historic ads were left out in this publication that should have been included. For example, there were several ads that were pulled by the manufacturers almost immediately after they ran, because they were considered too contraversial. None of these are here. Maybe Mitch wanted to offer the public some fresh material. The problem here is, his first two books are out of print. Quality used copies are going for good money and are becoming hard to find.
   
   Aside from those two nick-picky points, overall, it is a cool book. Would make a great gift. Buy a really nice used copy, you won't be disappointed.



2. I was impressed by Muscle Car Mania and Son of Muscle Car Mania but Mitch came up trumps this time as we benefit from colour print - the best way to see the psycadelic Plymouth ads of the 60's. If you like muscle cars buy this book.

3 comments about Miller's: Postcards: A Collector's Guide (Miller's Collector's Guides).

1. This short book does a fair job of picturing the breadth of post cards: from an Austrian 1897 card to a 1990's Barbie card. There are many categories introduced, with some great pictures, but I would have appreciated more information, such as how to buy cards on EBay, or how to send cards. The "Where to buy" section has no dealers in the United States. The US post card history is sparse, particularly in dating cards; for example it doesn't include dates for divided backs (1907). Some basic definitions such as "linen" aren't presented.



2. I personally found this book sketchy and superficial.Unless you are for example a general dealer who just wanted a few basic guidelines about a subject you previously knew nothing about then please avoid like the plague...



3. For someone considering getting into postcard collecting and hasn't decided on a specialty yet, this guide is a great overview
   of what postcard collecting is all about. The guide also has limited information on postcard values. These days you can
   find out most of this information on the web. Certainly the experienced collector will need to look elsewhere.

1 comments about Old-Fashioned Valentine Postcards: 24 Full-Color Ready-to-Mail Cards from the Collections of Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village.

1. These were pretty and authentic looking and easy to mail. I found some of them to be a little too romantic to send to friends but overall thought this set was a wonderful value and loved the pictures.

4 comments about Standard Catalog of Stocks & Bonds (Standard Catalog of Stocks and Bonds).

1. This book contains many stocks and bonds that no one would collect. I sold many of these to the author for $1.00. There are many good references out there. Try George LaBarre's Books. They're out of Print but can be found on here and Ebay. The Author should stick with his other subject matter we writes about and Shame on Krause Publishers. They should have used a established dealer or the IBSS.



2. This is the most complete catalog of scripophily items I have found. (It is the only one I have been able to locate.) The book is organized well, and is fairly complete. I find at least two thirds of the issues I have been looking for in it. As for the listed pricing, the prices seem to be fair compared with what I have encounterd in the market. There are plenty of photographs, though most are blabk and white.

   The book would be improved if they added details on how to adjust pricing for the condition of the document. In addition, if they added more general information on the field it would be helpful. Of course for later additions, I hope that they will add more items to it.

   In general though, it is a good book.




3. This is a nice try but the prices are way off the mark. They are for the most part way too low and not in touch with reality. The book provides a good basic overview of the Scripophily hobby, but the reader should totally disregard the prices. A search of Scripophily websites on the Internet will give someone a much more realistic view of pricing and availability. I have heard a lot of complaints about this book from dealers and collectors alike.



4. This book provides a decent overview of inexpensive stocks and bonds from around the world. About 60%-70% of the items listed are from the United States. A large number of photos are provided and the type is very large. The authors clearly focused on the low end of the hobby. That's not bad, just not very helpful for mid level or high-end collectors. The quality of the photos is mediocre at best. They are black and white except for the covers and an eight-page insert. Even in this section, common material dominates, with only 9 of the 61 color photos shown being valued at more than ten dollars. Of those, only two are valued more than one hundred dollars. Many of the photos are fuzzy, taken at angles, or trimmed, giving the appearance that they've been lifted from online auctions. The values given seemed way off in my opinion. The authors note that the values were generally derived by reviewing online auctions and not by reviewing dealer price lists. I have to wonder if this approach makes sense since it doesn't consider shipping charges and the discount the buyers apply for the additional risk of buying an item in an online auction. Comparing my collection with the listed items left me with a feeling of incompleteness. Less than 10% of my collection was listed. In general, the book may provide a good overview of material available to the novice collector but advanced collectors should avoid it.