Memorabilia Books

The book was very well written, with much research. Very useful for for all Nascar cars collectible's fanatics. Much information on each Nascar driver.A good source to keep track of value of current and older cars .Being able to keep track of your own cars with space provided for each car with driver . It also has a lot of history about Nascar Legends , living and decseaed . The only part that disappionted me was,that ther where only NINE drivers listed,with pictures of there cars. Granted these were the Top ones , I was still not 100% happy with the book .To me ,there are way, way more than NINE great NASCAR drivers that sould have been mentioned .

This books value is in a simplistic version of the Editorial review description: "This book helps fill a . . . gap in understanding a great era of golf, 1919 to 1942..." providing a chance to visually see some of the unique clubs designed during this era. It's nicely done and beautifully photographed, but, that's where it stops.

The book also identifies unique designs, which is where one will gather the best value, though the pictorial representations are not supported by any text other than the simplistic descriptions and approximate values.

Sadly, it lacks any degree of information. It appears to be more of a catalog of someone's collection than a reference work. Although there is a great deal of individually identified (cataloged) clubs, there are far too many instances where it reads more like an auction bulletin, with descriptions such as "Drivers, pyratone shafts 1923 - 1942 approximate value $55.00 each" to describe a page full of images that are all too small to allow the reader to identify any of the single clubs represented on the page. This is also a problem in other areas of the book such as the grips section.

Other then the main chapter headings ("Metal Woods"; "Custom Clubs"; "Wood Heads, Steel, Pyratone, or Wood Shafted Clubs"; "Irons and Full Sets"; "Composite Materials"; "Fancy Face Woods"; "Fancy Face Putters & Irons"; "Utility Irons"; "Practice Clubs"; "Putters"; "Adjustable Clubs") the individual club listings do not appear to follow any order. The listings within each chapter do not follow any date order, and the dates are mixed from within the "era" of the titled subject matter: from the 1920s through the 1940s. On one page the reader can find clubs represented from 1920 and 1930, where the next starts with 1940 ending with1920. It appears that the order was controlled by the graphic designer with no thought given to the usage of the book as a reference source.

Unfortunately, if you were looking to this book as a reference to learn more about any individual clubs you'd have to look through every page listed in the index under the manufacturer's name as the main chapter headings are the sole order. As example: a particular Spaulding wood might be in listed the "Wood Heads, Steel, Pyratone, or Wood Shafted Clubs" chapter because of the type of shaft utilized in its manufacture, whereas a different Spaulding wood could be listed in any one of the "Metal Woods", "Fancy Face Woods", or "Composite Materials" chapters.

In closing if one is expecting this book to compare to The Golfworks series of "The Golf Club Identification and Price Guide" they will be disappointed. If they are looking for a coffee table pictorial of a good deal of the clubs that were manufactured before ones cataloged in The Golfworks price guides.

This books value is in a simplistic version of the Editorial review description: "This book helps fill a . . . gap in understanding a great era of golf, 1919 to 1942..." providing a chance to visually see some of the unique clubs designed during this era. It's nicely done and beautifully photographed, but, that's where it stops.

The book also identifies unique designs, which is where one will gather the best value, though the pictorial representations are not supported by any text other than the simplistic descriptions and approximate values.

Sadly, it lacks any degree of information. It appears to be more of a catalog of someone's collection than a reference work. Although there is a great deal of individually identified (cataloged) clubs, there are far too many instances where it reads more like an auction bulletin, with descriptions such as "Drivers, pyratone shafts 1923 - 1942 approximate value $55.00 each" to describe a page full of images that are all too small to allow the reader to identify any of the single clubs represented on the page. This is also a problem in other areas of the book such as the grips section.

Other than the main chapter headings ("Metal Woods"; "Custom Clubs"; "Wood Heads, Steel, Pyratone, or Wood Shafted Clubs"; "Irons and Full Sets"; "Composite Materials"; "Fancy Face Woods"; "Fancy Face Putters & Irons"; "Utility Irons"; "Practice Clubs"; "Putters"; "Adjustable Clubs") the individual club listings do not appear to follow any order. The listings within each chapter do not follow any date order, and the dates are mixed from within the "era" of the titled subject matter: from the 1920s through the 1940s. On one page the reader can find clubs represented from 1920 and 1930, where the next starts with 1940 ending with1920. It appears that the order was controlled by the graphic designer with no thought given to the usage of the book as a reference source.

Unfortunately, if you were looking to this book as a reference to learn more about any individual clubs you'd have to look through every page listed in the index under the manufacturer's name as the main chapter headings are the sole order. As example: a particular Spaulding wood might be in listed the "Wood Heads, Steel, Pyratone, or Wood Shafted Clubs" chapter because of the type of shaft utilized in its manufacture, whereas a different Spaulding wood could be listed in any one of the "Metal Woods", "Fancy Face Woods", or "Composite Materials" chapters.

In closing if one is expecting this book to compare to The Golfworks series of "The Golf Club Identification and Price Guide" they will be disappointed. If they are looking for a coffee table pictorial of a good deal of the clubs that were manufactured before ones cataloged in The Golfworks price guides.

The selective history of skateboarding thrown into a blender and set for puree. While there's some good historical action photos, and neat collectible skateboards, this book is so full of misinformation and jumbled facts that I don't know what to take for the truth. For example it says that Danny Way was an early pioneer of the air in the 70's. Danny was instrumental to taking vert skating to the next level, but not until the late 80's. The book is also merely a tool for the author to promote his own obscure line of skateboards, and for a small group of collectors to inflate the values of their private collections. As proof that the author has not done his homework, mixed in with the "glossary of skateboarding terms" are rollerblading terms! The book best covers the 60's, but after that it just falls apart. I could site more examples, and rant about how bad it is, but you get the point.

Skateboard Retrospective by rhyn noll is filled with lots of wonderful pictures showing skateboard decks/completes. The antique, vintage, & old school skateboard pictures are simply fantastic! I was able to formulate a plan, then execute a vintage skateboard purchase strategy using this book. My hardcore sidewalk surfer days were 1973-87, on the hills of Univ Calif Berkeley, and flatlands of Palo Alto, Ca. Obviously the vintage section of the book was my favorite!!. I actively buy and use collector books as a guide due to an ebay addiction :-)I have a pretty good idea as to what is a good collector guide book and what is not. Thus, I recommend Skateboard Retrospective for skateboard collectors or anyone interested in skateboarding history. Oh, this book got me back into sidewalk surfing again! Yep, in my suit/tie, bald and fat. Started, 2001 & am going strong as long as I don't fall!! Can be seen on Sand Hill Rd, the venture capital location of the world... Guess a skateboarder never really grows up!

I am not being critical when I say, in retrospect I would not have purchased this book. The general info listed above doesn't really tell what you what you're buying, so I'll try to give you a bit more info here. Don't expect to learn a price estimate for your John Wayne photo here. There are about 500 Hollywood celebrity names and price estimates, but they are all living performers. The baseball section is better. There's an active player section as well as a lengthy retired section, including deceased players -- with price estimates. NO signature samples of the celebrities are included. About 150 baseball players (past and present) signature samples are included. There are football, basketball hockey boxing and other sports sections which are similar to the baseball section. There's also a lot about trading cards, but I'm no expert on how good that is. I'm not saying how good or bad this book is. I just want to help you know what you're buying.

I purchased this book expecting to get a complete listing of values for autographs of celebrities and athletes. What I got was nothing more than a reproduction of the listings that Beckett includes in its monthly publications. With the exception of about 200 prices for celebrity autographs (which is a far cry from the thousands you would find in other publications), this book has nothing that you can't get in a monthly issue of Beckett. It may have a few nice pictures, but that does not make up for its lack of content. And the prices are obscene! Is a Dean Cain sig worth more than Willie Mays? Or for that matter is Dean Cain worth more than Jack Nicholson? Where do they get their information? They spend way too much time listing prices for autograph inserts manufactured by card companies, and not enough time listing prices for REAL autographs obtained by collecters. Can I get my twenty-five bucks back?

This book has some nice photos of newer Beatle items,but is very weak in its coverage of 1960`s memorabilia.Many of the values listed are wildly high,with newspapers relating to John Lennons death priced at over 100 times their actual $5. value.The items depicted in the book seem to be randomly selected,anyone trying to value their collection will be unable to find numerous licensed items produced in the 70`s,80`s and 90`s,the era this book covers.

While it's hard to knock anyone who clearly has a passion for the Beatles, the fact remains that this book is only worth it (IMHO) as a reference for its photos of Beatles memorabilia. The pricing is wildly off in many instances. And there are many items that you may argue do not deserve any mention due to their lack of collectibility (would you pay ANYTHING for a Mid-West newspaper announcing John's death? - much less hundreds of dollars! ) It feels like one fan's personal photo tribute to their own Beatles collection. A little more research and checking with other collectors could have significantly increased the value of this effort. Having said that, you may find this book still worth it for the photos.

I wonder how the author decides on an items worth. Could it be how many of that particular item he owns, or is looking to purchase? Otherwise somewhat informative.

This is a very disappointing "catalogue" of no-so-recent aucton house catalogue photos and descriptions (some makers incorrectly identified) and a few batches of collections contributed from here and there. Anyone interested in St. Clair Flats, Ontario, Ohio and Michigan area decoys should definely save their money. Worse than Lucky's guides.

Unfortunately WW II Collectibles tries to cover it all but in eighty pages can only scratch the surface. This is not a book for serious collectors, maybe a introductory glimpse at the variety of items. Very limited detail on the depth of these items various models, date changes variations. Little is said about the vast flood of reproduction material out there especially for a book written in the 1990's. While it purports information on conservation of memorabilia little guidance is provided on storage preservation or display.

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A GUIDE TO HELP DETERMOINE THE VALUE OF YOUR COLLECTOR BICYCLES, FORGET IT!
THIS BOOK HAS VERY LITTLE PRICING AND NOT MUCH IN THE WAY OF WHAT ONE WOULD CONSIDER A PRICING GUIDE.
SAVE YOUR $$