1939 American Card Catalog By Jefferson R. Burdick Historic & RARE

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1939 American Card Catalog by Jefferson R. Burdick Historic & RARE.<br>Offered is an extraordinarily rare 1939 first edition of the American Card Catalog by legendary card-collecting pioneer Jefferson R. Burdick.<br>As noted on the title page of the American Card Catalog, it was published precisely on June 1, 1939. Only 500 copies of the 1939 American Card Catalog were published (and were sold to collectors for 60 cents each). This first edition differs substantially in design and format from later editions. Even the catalog numbers identifying sets are different. In many ways this volume represents the birth of organized card collecting in America. Burdick is universally recognized as the "Father of Card Collecting." His American Card Catalog was the first serious attempt to document and categorize cards for collectors. It was the (post 1939) American Card Catalog that assigned to such sets as T206 and R319 the catalog reference numbers still in use today. In addition to the primary catalog section, it is fascinating to see the advertising section in the back of the 1939 ACC , with ads from legendary collecting pioneers such as Charles Bray, Lionel Carter, and even Jefferson Burdick himself.<br>Burdick spent the last twenty years of his life organizing and mounting his vast collection in albums for permanent display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He died in 1963, just months after completing this lifelong project, and his collection is among the most famous ones at the Met.<br>Condition: As seen in photos, the fragile cover has general wear and various imperfections including edge fraying. The paper used for the cover is particularly susceptible to damage but the cover (as well as binding) is still fully intact. On the lower portion of the reverse cover there is some folding as seen in photo which we have left alone (it is possible it can just be folded back down but there doesn’t seem to be any need to do so and we don’t want to accidentally cause any damage). The interior pages have survived beautifully, in overall very good to excellent condition, with some period card-collecting/pricing notations here and there. Though it is in far from perfect condition, the same could probably be said of virtually every surviving copy. We personally don’t grade a 1939 American Card Catalog in exactly the same way we grade a baseball card. This is a very desirable copy of this extremely rare and important book, and would be a worthy centerpiece to any early hobby history library/collection.<br>By coincidence, there was a very recent discussion about the 1939 American Card Catalog and how many have survived on the famous Net54 message board that specializes in all things related to vintage baseball card collecting. While eBay may not allow a live link, the address of this thread appears below and can be copied to quickly find:<br>https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=264167