Got 'Em, Got 'Em, Need 'Em: A Fan's Guide to Collecting the Top 100 Sports Cards of All Time

by Stephen Laroche, Jon Waldman

Days gone by are relived with some of the trading card industry's most well-known experts in this nostalgic look back at one of the most popular hobbies in history. Covering baseball, basketball, football, hockey, boxing, and golf, this unique book offers a countdown of the greatest sports cards ever produced and the players and personalities involved. This multisport collection delightfully counts down the best 100 cards from the business while offering interviews, up-to-date history, and stories about the cards and their depicted players. Collectors and sports fans will especially appreciate the bonus in-depth look at the best innovations in the business, the worst blunders, and the special tribute to the hobby's boom era in the 1990s. For more than 100 years, kids of all ages have enjoyed the thrill of collecting sports cards, making this retrospective look at the hobby a thorough and long-lasting collectible ode to a much-loved pastime.

Genres: Baseball

293 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Jay French · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite books is the “Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book”. It is a snarky walk down memory lane by the author, ruminating on things like whether Sal Maglee always had 5 o’clock shadow, and what makes a real baseball name. It illustrated these discussions with pictures of vintage baseball cards that so you could easily understand what they were talking about. It was very humorous. I was hoping that “Got Em Got Em Need Em” was more of the same, but it didn’t quite match the aplomb of the earlier book. “Got Em” etc. was a different story. It was to show the top 100 sports cards and to describe why they were on the list. It seemed to me on finishing the book that the authors really named the top 100 athletes that had been featured on sports cards, so it was a kind of subjective popularity ranking. This covered all sports that had trading cards, so baseball players accounted for half or so. As this was a Canadian book, hockey was represented (and in my American mind over-represented), but the authors provided a number of explanations behind their choices. It was quite a personal book for the authors. The bulk of the book is the listing of the 100 cards, with writeups on each and a photo. The writeups covered the athlete’s story as well as any unique story about the card. You learn a lot about the trading card industry and its history reading this. The authors included a few interludes describing some card bloopers as well as each author’s favorite cards. I learned a lot and was entertained. While I have collected some sports cards in my day, my collection is small and mostly from the seventies and early eighties. I was disappointed that the only card I had that made this list was Dr. J’s rookie card. And while I have OJ Simpson’s rookie card, that particular OJ card didn’t make the list, but another one did… I enjoyed this quite a bit. You will absolutely receive an education on hockey while reading this, but if you like to know more about trading cards in this kind of format, it works.

[Tim Timberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of cards, numbered not necessarily according to value. (My cheap collection even has one or two of the cards!) The authors did a good job including not just baseball but cards from football, basketball, hockey, golf, and boxing. The book is a little old by now, but it was still a good read.

[Christopher Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun, well illustrated, and easy to read look at the major sports cards in the hobby. Each entry is a history lesson of its own. Longtime collectors or those just starting out in the hobby are sure to find something new in this book.

[Caleb Midkiff]

I have not read yet