The Card
Collectors, Con Men, and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · June 17, 2008
Only a few dozen T206 Wagners are known to still exist, having been released in limited numbers just after the turn of the twentieth century.
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- Who it’s for
- One storied baseball card brings collecting’s fortunes, fraud, and questions of authenticity into sharp focus.
- Themes
- Baseball-card collecting, Counterfeiting and con men, Controversy over a card's origins
- Genres
- Baseball Cards, Baseball History, Business of Sports
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Only a few dozen T206 Wagners are known to still exist, having been released in limited numbers just after the turn of the twentieth century. Most, with their creases and stains, look like they've been around for nearly one hundred years. But one—The Card—appears to have defied the travails of time. Its sharp corners and still-crisp portrait make it the single-most famous—and most desired—baseball card on the planet, valued today at more than two million dollars.
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It has transformed a simple hobby into a billion-dollar industry that is at times as lawless as the Wild West. Everything about The Card, which has made men wealthy as well as poisoned lifelong relationships, is fraught with controversy—from its uncertain origins to the nagging possibility that it might not be exactly as it seems. In this intriguing, eye-opening, and groundbreaking look at a uniquely American obsession, award-winning investigative reporters Michael O'Keeffe and Teri Thompson follow The Card's trail from a Florida flea market to the hands of the world's most prominent collectors. The Card sheds a fascinating new light on a world of counterfeiters, con men, and the people who profit from what used to be a pastime for kids.
Cards and Consequences
One storied baseball card brings collecting’s fortunes, fraud, and questions of authenticity into sharp focus.
Come here for
- The uneasy overlap of childhood collecting and big-money business
- A famous card with disputed origins and a possibly altered identity
Expect
- Investigative reporting on collectors, counterfeiters, and con men
- A trail from a Florida flea market to prominent collectors
Where it sits
| Baseball Cards | 71% |
|---|---|
| Baseball History | 56% |
| Business of Sports | 18% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Collecting Art
- Collecting Books
- Restoring Antiques
- Sports Cards
Show all 8 publisher categories
- Baseball Cards
- Vintage Toys
- Social History
- Baseball Coaching
- Authors
- Michael O'Keeffe, Teri Thompson
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- June 17, 2008
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Baseball-card collecting · Counterfeiting and con men · Controversy over a card's origins
- Reading lane
- Collecting Art