Cramer's Choice by Mike Cramer (Pacific Card Company) - Autobiography

Tabe

Thanks to a mention on this forum, I picked up the book "Cramer's Choice" by the founder of Pacific Trading Cards, Mike Cramer.

And it's fantastic.

It's written in a fast-paced, engaging style as if Cramer sat down in front of you and started telling his life story. From his early days as a collector, doing whatever he could to scrounge up pennies to buy packs of cards, to buying collections even as a kid, to buying cases from Topps on closeout, he amassed a gigantic collection even as a young kid in the 1960s. Became a crab fisherman in Alaska, used that money to buy more cards, and setup a mail order business. And then transitioned into making cards.

Cramer tells the whole story of Pacific and covers pretty much every product they ever made - candy bars, special sets for the 1998 home run race, packs of cards for Advil, and on and on. And, of course, cards for MLB, NFL, and NHL.

The whole time it's very, very clear that Cramer loves sports cards and he tells his story with excitement and joy. There's behind-the-scenes details on the actual creation of cards, pictures of some of the machinery, stories of licensing, and more.

All in all, an excellent book that I ripped through in no time. Highly recommended.

mrmopar

I met up with him the other day to get mine signed. He was nice enough to sign a few other items for me at the same time. A few shown here. I have not read the book yet, but it's on deck.

Tabe

Very cool!

Estil

In the 90s he was the "Sixth Man" among the then "Power Five" (Donruss/Fleer/Pinnacle/Topps/Upper Deck)

PatriotTrading

Awesome, I bought a few items from his son a few years ago. At that time, he said his father was happily retired and enjoying time with his grandchildren.