Book review - The Card: Collectors, Con Men and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card

(Just so you don't think Matt's uber ambitious, this review and the last one are for books he actually finished weeks ago. But now we should be all caught up.)

Book: The Card: Collectors, Con Men and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card by Michael O'keeffe and Teri Thompson

Like every other 12-year-old who ever bought 500 packs of utterly worthless baseball cards, Matt dreamed of somehow, some way getting his hands on the Holy Grail of baseball cards: the T206 Honus Wagner. It is the most valuable baseball card, not because it's the most rare (there's less than 100, but there are scarcer cards), or that it pictures the most famous player (Wagner was great, but the casual fan's probably never heard of him). It is the most valuable because it is the most desired. And why it's the most desired is at the center of The Card.

The best versions of the T206 Wagner - which is less than three inches tall - have sold for millions.
Now, if after reading that, you said: 'A million bucks for a piece of cardboard?', then this book is not for you.
But if, like me, you dreamed of finding the T206 Wagner stuck in a tin can that you dug up in the your garden, or tucked in a book you found at a flea market, The Card is a must read.

The Card is the best book ever written about collecting cards. It has neither blinders on, nor is it cynical. But it explains the phenomenom in a compelling narrative.

The story opens with super collector Bill Mastro in a Long Island collectibles store buying what will become the ultimate baseball card, The Gretzky T206 (so-called because it was once owned by hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky). The Gretzky T206 is considered the most valuable card in history because it is the best example (in other words, in the best condition) of the most desired card.

What Mastro does in that store is much debated in the hobby world and is the central mystery in this book. It's also quite literally the turning point for card collecting and the sports collectible industry. This single deal would usher in the era of big money collectibles, which of course attracted all sorts of people ready, willing and able to take advantage.

I've always wondered about these "authenticating" services that charge big bucks to "grade" a baseball card (tell you how good it is). I can see the appeal, but this book exposes some of my worst fears, such as when they sold two gloves as the glove that Al Gionfriddo used to make a great catch in the 1947 World Series.

The Card is a fast read, which I consider a high compliment. It's written in the style of great narrative journalism and has a perfect mix of research and intrigue. Collectors will not feel as though they're being dismissed. For people who don't collect, the fascination is probably in the way the book explains how artificial markets can be created and how demand can be summoned out of thin air.

Of course, at some level, we collectors know our hobby is literally a house of cards, propped up on speculation more than real value (ask the people who paid $200 for Mark Prior's signature). But The Card is not a slam on collecting. The authors consider the romance and the attraction to collecting by introducing readers to the characters within the hobby. But they don't swoon at the sight of a Mickey Mantle bat.

Just thinking about this book has made me want to take more look up in the attic. You never know where that T206 is hiding.

Good book for: Anyone who has ever collected baseball cards. Anyone who has bought a collectible on eBay. Anyone who ever paid more than $10 for one baseball card. (I have!)

Skip it: If you think the idea of collecting baseball cards is ludicrous...or you'd never pay $10 for a baseball card, you won't understand the premise of the book.