No comments about Collecting Vintage Children's Greeting Cards: Identification & Values (Identification & Values (Collector Books)).

4 comments about The Ultimate Fruit Label Book.

1. Hard to fathom why "The Ultimate Fruit Label Book" would have ZERO orange crate labels.
   What is the author's rationale for this HUGE omission?
   He was obviously aware of it, so how could he have okay'd such a title?
   It's a wonderful APPLE LABEL book -- which makes the title all the more unfortunate
   Jim



2. I went through a phase where I collected fruit box labels. I enjoyed the imagery and the sense of nostalgia. These labels harken back to a simpler, more rural and natural time. You can just feel yourself relaxing as your eyes gaze over the images from our largely bygone agricultural America. I've since moved on to collecting rock concert posters, but it was from fruit box labels that I learned my love for beautiful, idyllic imagery. This book will have you immediately yearning for eating a juicy apple in a grassy, flower-saturated meadow alongside a frolicking maiden, so stock up on those. The apples, that is.
   
   As someone else has mentioned, this book is primarily about produce from Washington state. I'd say it is about 90% dedicated to apples, and there are some pears as well. There are about six pictures per page, so they are small images, but they are still large enough that you can enjoy the image and feeling. I do wish there were a few full-page images, just to shake things up visually a little. This almost feels like a catalog in certain respects. And, there is actually quite a bit of image redundancy, due to the fact that the same image was used on several labels with minor derivations in peripheral details. For a collector this might be extremely valuable so you can identify diffferent versions of a given label image.
   
   You definitely don't have any citrus portrayed here, and I don't think there is anything from California or Florida. So "Ultimate" is clearly hyperbole. The book is lacking in a type of dimension I had hoped it would have. This is basically a book with a lot of beautiful pictures of apples. To me, that's still a good thing, as far as it goes.
   
   The print quality here is first rate, just splendid. Paper quality is first rate.
   
   So far, I'd still give the book five stars. My gripe?? The absolutely cheap and disgraceful shiny cardboard cover they put on the book. This is the kind of cover which you find on a child's Dr. Suess book, not a label collector's book which itself should become a collectible. Really, such a major mistake: someone's head should roll at Schiffer Publishing. And, look at the price: for this price you should get a book which will last for generations. Instead, they sell you a book which almost certainly will be in tatters in a few years if it get any regular use at all. Given the low quality cover and binding, this book should be priced at about one-third its current asking price.
   
   The art of bookbinding and book-making seems to be going the way of the American automobile. This book represents the Ford Pinto-fication of the American book publishing industry. Huge, horrible corners cut, with some scheming conniver just hoping we won't notice the down-grading of quality. You will. At this price, I suspect you wouldn't buy this book if you were to see it at a bookstore. The compromise in cover quality is grossly conspicuous.
   
   I think of books as investments. I'm willing to pay more for quality, and I think of it as a nice, simple heirloom for my children, from which they may learn to share some of my interests. But here, you get a cheaply manufactured product, where some concession was made which ruined the whole, wonderful concept that someone (the author,namely) probably poured years into developing. Regardless, for this price, I want a first-rate book. And, quite frankly, I don't want any cheaply made books in my personal library. Books should be--and always have been, until recently--objects of art. Cheaps bindings destroy that concept.
   
   I'm a huge fan of Amazon, but I'm recommending to them that they have binding designations to indicate "cloth" so we can distinguish the hardbacks between quality and junk. This book begs for a cloth binding, and I'm saddened that it--and we--did not get that.



3. This book should have an expanded title: "...from Washington's Yakima Valley". Shoppers beware! There are no citrus fruit labels displayed within the book. It seems odd that the title would claim to be the "ultimate" without including citrus fruit, hence the need for a different title. Othwerwise, the book is a treasure of wonderful works of art beautifully displayed with lots of historic information.



4. John A. Baule's The Ultimate Fruit Label Book is a gorgeous representation of fruit labels from the late 1800s to the early 1960s: the heyday of millions of bright, colorful paper labels used by fruit growers to catch the eye and advertise their produce. This isn't just a value guide, though: over 1,700 color images are listed alphabetically and including stock and private labels from grows and associations alike, along with histories of major fruit companies and collecting hints. The result is a gorgeous presentation and a 'must' for any with more than a casual interest in fruit labels.

No comments about Old Magazine Advertisements 1890-1950: Identification & Value Guide.

5 comments about Huxfords Old Book Value Guide (Huxford's Old Book Value Guide, 13th ed).

1. This guide is for the in-between books. It is for books that are not so old that they would be very hard to find. It contains 25,000 listings of old books with current values. It also lists a directory of over 200 dealers and collectors who are willing to buy the types of old books listed in the guide.
   
   Here are a few examples:
   
   John F Kennedy, Profiles In Courage, 1956 1st ed. F/NF $150.00
   Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962 1st ed. F/NF $150.00
   Woody Guthrie, Bound For Glory, 1943 1st ed. G/dj $65.00



2. When I purchased Huxford's Old Book Value Guide, I imagined that the books that were covered might be older than those written by Len Deighton and Marian Zimmer Bradley. There's lots of stuff from 1970 on, but coverage of genuinely old books is very sparse. The title of this guide is extremely misleading, but if late 20th Century books are your area of interest, you might find this useful. I didn't.



3. This book does list values of 25,000 books as it claims, but it is incomplete in some very frustrating ways that have to do with how it was put together. The authors apparently contacted a number of book dealers and collected their 'inventories' into a database. These were then consolidated into the listing(s) of this book.

   But what that means is that you find an extremely unsystematic selection of titles. You may find a $500 title that someone has been trying to sell for years right above a run-of-the-mill used-bookstore title selling for $15. You could find an author's second book listed, but not the first or third. As a lookup/reference tool is is hardly useful.

   I once thought this book would be a nice supplement to the other collecting books that focus on more high-end titles... something to take along to yard sales and the like to see if the $0.25 book was 'worth' $50 or $0.50. Well, even with 25,000 titles you can imagine that many more books are not listed here. Far too often I would not find a listing but COULD NOT KNOW if the book was valuable or not... its non-existence in this book just means one of the selected sellers did not have it in stock. I also kept finding entries in the $25/$30 range - right at the point where it might be a collectable underlisted by that one store or just their overpriced junk. With only a single such listing to consider, I just couldn't know.

   The overlarge physical size of the book also seemed unwieldy to me. Combined with the sense of slap-together technique and a look at the number of other "Huxfords" listings, I frankly feel that it is just an attempt to grab a piece of the growing 'collectibles' market.




4. I am sure this book is excellent for antiquarian/rare book lovers, but I like popular authors with books 20-30 years old too, and those seem to be lacking in this guide a bit. Unless you are a professional book dealer, you will not fetch these prices on the internet, it is flooded with booksellers and the worth of a fine book seems to be waning. But all-in-all it is a good guide to go by when looking up older hardbacks.



5. If you know your books fairly well to begin with, then this book will be at times, helpful. If you are looking for a way to bone up on collectibles, you may just be discouraged. A lot of very noteworthy books are left out, which leaves the reader to wonder if a little favoritism may be going on with the Author. Overall, I still had to rate a solid 4 for good effort in organizing a generally helpful refference guide to the new and seasoned book hound. For the money, it's a go.

4 comments about Old-Fashioned Christmas Cards: 24 Cards.

1. I knew these were postcards when I bought them a few years ago and that's exactly what I needed for my hand-made cards. The back page describes them as so, as does an excerpt. I used black photo corners on them and attached them to dark red card stock. Then I wrapped a gold metallic pipe cleaner around the fold and twisted both ends. I rubber stamped and embossed a Merry Christmas greeting inside it. They turned out beautifully and no two were alike. I received many compliments on my Victorian Christmas cards.



2. I wanted to order Christmas cards early because you never know how long it will take mail to go through when you are overseas. I like the idea of "old Fashioned Christmas Cards" and these were listed as Christmas Cards, not Post-cards which is in fact what they are. I like cards you put in envelopes, not cards where everyone reads what you write. Post-cards are much to impersonal for Christmas.Old-Fashioned Christmas Cards: 24 Cards



3. Although darling, these cards are not what I expected when I ordered Christmas cards. They're postcards that you have to tear apart yourself. For me, sending a postcard for Christmas seems tacky. Adding to the potential tackiness are the perforated edges. They don't tear apart easily and end up looking rather hideous. What a disappointment.
   
   Also, the cards are by their nature rather culturally insensitive, owing to the fact that they're from the early 1900s and only show white people, breezily ignoring all others. (Of course, this is something you would probably expect before ordering, whereas the fact that they're postcards was totally unexpected.)



4. This book is a series of vintage postcards, four postcards per page. It's great for looking through, but also a great for sending out Christmas cards at a lower cost (postcard stamps). The book easy easy to break apart - just take out the staples holding it together and tear away at the perforated edges! I have gotten more compliments this year than any other on how wonderful my Christmas cards were. The old-fashioned charm and warm sentiments in the cards were perfect.

No comments about Books On The Move: Tracking Copies Through Collections and the Book Trade (Publishing Pathways).

2 comments about Six Old-Time Valentine Cards.

1. I have a shoebox of my great grandmother's keepsakes and these cards almost belong in there with the old time treasures. These cards are in fact postcards, exactly what one would desire if you want to recreate the flavor of our past.



2. These are postcards, not cards. They are cute and would be nice if you are looking for Valentine postcards.

No comments about The Golden Age of Postcards: Early 1900s Identification & Values (Identification & Values (Collector Books)).

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.

3 comments about Old-Fashioned Santa Claus Cards: 24 Cards.

1. Nice Clipart...some good old classic generic clipart.
   I scan it in...wish it was already scanned in.
   
   Great price...
   You should be happy.



2. This is a very beautiful way to share Christmas with others. The old fashioned pictures in a high gloss finish are so bright and cheerful and very Christmasy. Everyone who received one of these cards really appreciated them.



3. I was under the impression that these cards were regular Christmas cards and not postcards. Hence the 3 stars, otherwise I like them alot.