Upcoming New 7th Edition of Cherrypickers’ Guide - Changes!

winesteven

Whitman, the relatively new owner of the Cherrypickers’ Guide, just announced some upcoming changes to that guide, but so far did not indicate anything on timing.

1. A BIG change is this will now be released as a single comprehensive volume. Yes, all denominations in just one volume!
2. Noal White is the new “co-editor”. Apparently, he’ll be the main guy, working with two top Whitman people, including John Feigenbaum.
3. Whitman anticipates continued editions of this book on “a more predictable” schedule. 😉

Here’s a hotlink to their announcement:

https://www.greysheet.com/news/story/whitman-names-noal-white-co-editor-of-the-cherrypickers-guide-work-begins-on-ambitious-reimagined-7th-edition?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=email&_kx=8ydsjwc9k16mHJE3U_Owu5Ron2a0KdWozgd7Rm_RCddfhMhQ1rXsoCzR09-gfTY1.TrdffQ

Steve

johnny9434

Cool, I'd love to see it when ready 🙂

winesteven

I see your Boston Red Sox icon. I’m currently in Boston with some High School friends, and among other activities yesterday, we took the $25 tour of Fenway Park. It was terrific! Each year we pick a city, and then we each fly there to have some fun for three days or so.

(I’m the guy in the center):

Do you want a laugh? You all know I’m a “sticker” guy (CAC and Eagle Eye Photo Seal). I just noticed in this photo I’m wearing a sticker, lol. We had just finished the Boston “Duck” Tour, and when our vehicle went into the Charles River, they allowed me to drive it for about two minutes. As a result, the Guide put that sticker on my chest, indicating I drove it! 😅

Steve

TrickleCharge

@winesteven said:
I’m wearing a sticker, lol.

If you change shirts does the sticker transfer over?

winesteven

@TrickleCharge said:

@winesteven said:
I’m wearing a sticker, lol.

If you change shirts does the sticker transfer over?

No, it’s like getting a new cert # (notice that “cert” rhymes with “shirt”, lol). You have to requalify to get the new sticker! 😉

Steve

davewesen

That is great, I wonder when they expect it to be published. I hope the binding is different than the past, my covers usually break off ring binding.

Steven59

@Dentuck and @JohnF : Has anybody narrowed down the date for release yet? I'm wondering if I can get one for my Cousin's birthday in Mid November or have to wait to make it a Christmas gift.

Desert Moon

@winesteven said:
I see your Boston Red Sox icon. I’m currently in Boston with some High School friends, and among other activities yesterday, we took the $25 tour of Fenway Park. It was terrific! Each year we pick a city, and then we each fly there to have some fun for three days or so.

(I’m the guy in the center):

Do you want a laugh? You all know I’m a “sticker” guy (CAC and Eagle Eye Photo Seal). I just noticed in this photo I’m wearing a sticker, lol. We had just finished the Boston “Duck” Tour, and when our vehicle went into the Charles River, they allowed me to drive it for about two minutes. As a result, the Guide put that sticker on my chest, indicating I drove it! 😅

Steve

$25 to tour with no game played? We used to pay $4 per to sit next to 1rst base to watch the BSox back in the day. Back then the area around Fenway Park (the Fens) was kind of dicey (early ‘90s) at night. After the game in the evening we walked pretty briskly until we got to Comm Ave. Last time I was there the whole area had undergone urban renewal, and the bars on behind Center and Left Fields were actually decent, not ‘risked being mugged’ on the way out……. Thems were the days.

winesteven

And gold was not $4,000+, lol.

Steve

keyman64

I think they would make good money if they turned the CPG into an APP, sell access as a subscription, and then they can update it ANY TIME THEY WANT and any time there is a new addition...no more expensive book production and people would have access to the info they want 100% of the time on their phones, when they are at shows etc. I have talked about this for over 10 years. Producing one massive book seems like crazy work to me...and then how often will that be updated? There was a time where it took about 7-10 years to get an updated version. That's nuts. You just end up with frustrated people and varieties not getting added to the complete variety registry sets since you are waiting 10 years for another book. Why not make more money and possibly have the flow of information travel the same distance in ONE MONTH, opposed to 10 years? Maybe after they do this large 7th edition they can do the app. The app could have links to auction results, pricing...all real time data. Are they really wanting to continue living in the 1800s?

If anyone knows those folks, feel free to pass my thoughts along.

messydesk

@keyman64 said:
I think they would make good money if they turned the CPG into an APP, sell access as a subscription, and then they can update it ANY TIME THEY WANT and any time there is a new addition...no more expensive book production and people would have access to the info they want 100% of the time on their phones, when they are at shows etc.

I imagine that will sort of happen through the Greysheet. There have already been FS numbers created and added to the Greysheet website (e.g., 2014-(S) ASE FS-901) since the last printing.

The app could have links to auction results, pricing...all real time data. Are they really wanting to continue living in the 1800s?

Real time data curated from where? Varieties are rather thinly traded, and many don't come up for sale often. There are three sources for data that would need to be used to compile pricing information, and they all serve a different purpose: reputable auctions, reputable dealers, and eBay. Of the three, the reputable auctions (Heritage, GC, SB) are probably the easiest to get data from, as they probably have or could license an API for getting information. EBay might be harvestable, but every sale that alleges a specific variety would need to be manually verified. Finally, sales from reputable variety dealers. Getting information from them will be like herding cats. They all have their own way of keeping track of stuff and probably don't want to have to spend more time feeding retail sale information into a database, especially if they're not tech-inclined, even though it would substantiate values. Then comes the challenge of fitting whatever sparse data that can be gathered into a price guide, and that's after the data has been filtered for salience.

As for books, people still like them and many prefer them over non-printed references. Supplement the online attribution information with a periodic book as a snapshot.

keyman64

@messydesk said:

@keyman64 said:
I think they would make good money if they turned the CPG into an APP, sell access as a subscription, and then they can update it ANY TIME THEY WANT and any time there is a new addition...no more expensive book production and people would have access to the info they want 100% of the time on their phones, when they are at shows etc.

I imagine that will sort of happen through the Greysheet. There have already been FS numbers created and added to the Greysheet website (e.g., 2014-(S) ASE FS-901) since the last printing.

The app could have links to auction results, pricing...all real time data. Are they really wanting to continue living in the 1800s?

Real time data curated from where? Varieties are rather thinly traded, and many don't come up for sale often. There are three sources for data that would need to be used to compile pricing information, and they all serve a different purpose: reputable auctions, reputable dealers, and eBay. Of the three, the reputable auctions (Heritage, GC, SB) are probably the easiest to get data from, as they probably have or could license an API for getting information. EBay might be harvestable, but every sale that alleges a specific variety would need to be manually verified. Finally, sales from reputable variety dealers. Getting information from them will be like herding cats. They all have their own way of keeping track of stuff and probably don't want to have to spend more time feeding retail sale information into a database, especially if they're not tech-inclined, even though it would substantiate values. Then comes the challenge of fitting whatever sparse data that can be gathered into a price guide, and that's after the data has been filtered for salience.

As for books, people still like them and many prefer them over non-printed references. Supplement the online attribution information with a periodic book as a snapshot.

As a person that has done A LOT with Mercury Dime varieties, I disagree. There's a lot of information and varieties are getting sold frequently enough, especially at GC, especially over a 7-10 year time frame!!! Also, GC will not release their data because data is king and GC wants all traffic to hit their website. Easy enough. If you are viewing a particular variety in the app, the app can provide a link that takes you to the website for GC Auction Sales of that variety, HA Auction Sales for that variety, SB Auction Sales for that variety, etc....everyone keeps their data, everyone gets their desired web traffic, links are easily made and those links can reside in the app. I'm not gonna go into the mess that is eBay. I would not touch variety sales from dealers with a 10' pole. Too much to manage, why is this dealer included, why is this dealer not included, blah blah blah...unless there happens to be a major dealer that wants to volunteer their data/sales info but that could just get messy.

And yes, beyond the normal maintenance of apps, it will cost money to pay someone to update the app for new varieties, features, price guide adjustments...BUT that should be more than covered with the subscription and be plenty profitable.

tincup

Glad to hear the 7th edition is being worked on. I do have one thought though on the one volume concept.... I thought the reason they went to the 3 volume was because there were so many varieties to be included... one volume would be too cumbersome. So, I have to ask... are many varieties being dropped so a single volume will be manageable? Or.. is it going to be a larger book now, and not one that can be easily taken with to coin shows etc.? Just curious....

messydesk

@tincup said:
Glad to hear the 7th edition is being worked on. I do have one thought though on the one volume concept.... I thought the reason they went to the 3 volume was because there were so many varieties to be included... one volume would be too cumbersome. So, I have to ask... are many varieties being dropped so a single volume will be manageable? Or.. is it going to be a larger book now, and not one that can be easily taken with to coin shows etc.? Just curious....

How to reduce the size of the book and need for multiple volumes:

• More efficient layout with 3 varieties per page instead of 2.
• There's no reason to include most (or any) VAMs, since nobody uses CPG for those.
• Font size could arguably be reduced a little, since this is a book used by people who always have a magnifying glass with them.
• Glossy paper so that smaller pictures are more crisp.

That should reduce the size by half.

winesteven

I asked John if he had a rough, estimated date of publication. His honest answer was "sometime in 2026". Separately, i asked him the same for Mega Red. He indicated it's at the printer now, and they hope to have it by January FUN, and if not, then shortly thereafter.

Steve

oih82w8

Will it be spiral or hard bound?

messydesk

@oih82w8 said:
Will it be spiral or hard bound?

The current binding seems popular, so I'd guess the answer would be both.

Dentuck

@Steven59 said:
@Dentuck and @JohnF : Has anybody narrowed down the date for release yet? I'm wondering if I can get one for my Cousin's birthday in Mid November or have to wait to make it a Christmas gift.

Steven, I retired from Whitman Publishing last year. John would be the guy to ask!

Die varieties are always popular and the plans for the 7th edition of CPG are exciting. I hope your cousin enjoys the new book.

johnny9434

a long happy and healthy retirement yo him