Hobby history: More on the hobby in 1979
 

As a followup to my recent post of a Baseball Hobby News editorial looking back at the hobby in 1979 (here: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=241548), I thought I would post some more articles from that year, also from Baseball Hobby News, which provide an interesting snapshot into what the hobby was like then.

First is a two-part series by Frank Barning, from the March and May 1979 issues of BHN, about investing in baseball cards. This was a relatively new phenomenon, and not nearly as popular as it became in the following decade, especially in the junk era of the late 80s and early 90s. It's interesting to see Barning's advice from the perspective of 38 years later, especially his predictions on who would be the superstars of the future. He was 1-for-2 in his picks of Jason Thompson and George Brett, which is not too bad; I doubt I could have done any better in 1979 as a rabid 13-year old baseball fan. In the second column, it's also interesting to see him discuss the then-new rookie card phenomenon. Following this is Barning's column from the August 1979 BHN, about the booming prices in the hobby, especially for 1950s superstar cards, with some more card investment advice thrown in.

Next, from the April 1979 BHN, is a review by Vivian Barning (Frank's wife, and publisher of BHN) of the new Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide, aka the Beckett-Eckes guide, the first guide to give prices for individual cards. This was revolutionary but also controversial, as shown by the next two articles, both from the July 1979 BHN. The first discusses the phenomenon of that year's rapidly rising prices for superstar cards, including the 1952 Topps Mantle, and the role of the Price Guide and dealers. The debate over whether a given card "should" be worth a given price is as old as the organized hobby, as shown by some of the stuff I've posted about rising card prices during World War II. The last article is more straighforwardly opinionated, as shown by its title, "Price Guide has hypnotized mindless hobbyists". This is one of the earliest versions of a complaint that has been heard many times since.

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Truly amazing how little knowledge, concern or consideration was given to the more esoteric, vintage, pre-war cards. From personal experience, I know this continued into the early '90's. Armloads of books were written about investing in cards from the '50's to the present, but insofar as pre-war was concerned, they might have mentioned T206's, '33 and '34 Goudeys, but not much else. One author in particular--who was familiar enough with the hobby that he should have known better--even stated that there were no baseball cards in the 1920's! As I recall, the Ruth M-101 rookie booked at $1800 in near mint as late as 1990. Then there came light!!!

Nice post,

Larry