Non-Sport Update's Card Talk
Booksmith Cards

This topic can be found at:
https://nonsportupdate.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/274605453/m/6617084496

January 26, 2021, 07:17 PM
Raven
Booksmith Cards
I also saw the scans earlier and now they are just two little blue pages.

This happened to me on another site just recently where I no longer saw some "user posted" images. I attributed it to be blocking from my anti-virus McAfee suite, but I may be way off. If someone knows for sure, I'd like to hear it too.
January 26, 2021, 10:16 PM
Bill Mullins
I took a picture, front and back, of cards #11 and 12 (they are Jim Lewis and The Mad Monks).

I put the pictures in Google Photos, and copied links to post here. They worked immediately after I posted them and now they don't. Apparently Google Photo links are not stable.

I'll find another way to host them, and repost.
January 27, 2021, 12:08 AM
Raven
Google had a massive outage today that effected many of its apps. Second time in a couple of days. Don't know if that has anything to do with it, I don't run these cloud sharing apps, but at least I know its not just my anti-virus blocking certain images all of a sudden. Pain in the neck figuring out some of these glitches.
January 27, 2021, 01:34 AM
Bill Mullins
Maybe these will be visible.




February 11, 2021, 12:00 AM
catskilleagle
Here are the two cards the NSU article listed as #11 and 12 but they are unnumbered. Both celebrate the 25th anniversary of "Whole Earth Review," the quarterly supplement to the "Whole Earth Catalog."





May 28, 2021, 07:11 PM
ThomasG
Hello everyone. I ran the events program at the Booksmith for more then ten years, before being let-go by the new owners in 2009 (the same owners who stopped the cards series and had surplus cards thrown in the trash). I put on more than 1000 events, and during my tenure wrote or copy-wrote the text on the back of the store's author trading cards. I also helped design the images on the front on a few occasions, like the obscured Thomas Pynchon card (#183). Pynchon did not show up for his event, strangely enough!

I am confident that there were 1080 cards in the series. I am in the process of putting my collection in order, and believe I have most every card. (I also have autographed cards of most every card, except for those authors who didn't show, cancelled at the last minute, etc....) I can't recall any author who refused to sign a small number of their cards.

Though a few cards were (mistakenly) not numbered, each card has a number assigned to it in the series of author events. I have a numbered list of all 1080 cards. Most all cards were printed in a run of 200. None were sold; they were given out free at the front counter as a promotional device. Customers, and even a few authors, collected them.

Certainly, the rarest card was for musician NEIL YOUNG. The store was offered a world exclusive book signing event with NY on two weeks notice for his "Greendale" book. We pulled it off, sold thousands of books, and got national press including the NYT. To mark the occasion, we printed an out-of-series card in an edition of 50. Neil got some, the store got some, and a very few were given to the public. Neil even signed some!

Neil Young was one of a number of celebrities (rock stars, actors, politicians, etc...) who did events at the store. A few big names not already mentioned in previous posts include George R.R. Martin, Wes Craven, Alan Lee (LOTR), Patti Smith, Eric Burdon (The Animals), Grace Slick, Annie Leibovitz, Ralph Steadman, George McGovern, Art Spiegelman, Sen. Gary Hart, acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace, Nobel Prize winners Czelsaw Milosz and Kazuo Ishiguro, and a number of Pulitzer and Booker Prize winners. There were also Beat poets (Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, McClure) and two members of the Grateful Dead. Check out this page for a little history of my life as a bookseller and short lists of other authors who I put on events with = https://www.thomasgladysz.com/bookseller/

I will let everyone know once I have organized my collections, which is taking more time then I thought it would.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ThomasG,
May 28, 2021, 09:43 PM
catskilleagle
ThomasG,

Welcome to Card Talk and thanks for all the background info. When I first started this thread, I found very little on the cards and don't recall seeing them or hearing about them locally during the 90's and 2000's. It appears most people who picked them up are still hanging onto them. The Booksmith cards offer an interesting sample of the literary world and feature a number of people who might not otherwise be on a trading card so I started collecting them a couple of years ago. I have 30-40 of them so there's a long way to go.

I worked at Coles the Book People at the Sunnyvale Town Center (mall in Sunnyvale) before Waldenbooks (Kmart) bought all the Coles stores in the U.S. and then worked for Waldenbooks as an assistant manager. We didn't do any cool promotions like you did as the corporate world was less creative then but I worked with some great people and I bought a lot of books with my employee discount. These days, I try to buy something at every independent bookstore I visit.

I look forward to reading about what you can add after you organize your stuff.

Jess
May 29, 2021, 05:44 AM
wolfie
Welcome to cardtalk ThomasG, hope you enjoy your stay here. Wavey

Thank you for the info, very intresting.

____________________
Come, it is time for you to keep your appointment with The Wicker Man.
May 29, 2021, 04:23 PM
catskilleagle
Of course, none of us here liked hearing that some of the cards were thrown in the trash. They could have just kept giving them out or could've given them to any employee who wanted them. The problem with any company that takes over another one is that they immediately want to change any procedure that was already working smoothly and dump any reminder of the way things used to be. The new owner wants the old employees to train others so they can get rid of the old employees (the "brain drain") but I have seen that backfire when the new people have questions/problems later and there's no one left to ask.

In just the cards in my collection, I can see some design changes across the series. The fronts started with a photo/illustration and the author's name below, and then at some point, the company logo was added and later it was changed. Towards the end of the series it was back to just the photo/illustration and the name. I also noticed the year was printed for a time around 2006 but not provided later.

Some of the photos seem like odd choices but if that's what the author approves, what are you going to do?

Yeah, some of the authors are gone now. Elizabeth Wurtzel and Roger Kahn died just early last year.

Jess


quote:
Originally posted by ThomasG:
Hello everyone. I ran the events program at the Booksmith for more then ten years, before being de-accessioned by the new owners in 2009 (the same owners who stopped the cards series and had surplus cards thrown in the trash). I put on more than 1000 events, and during my tenure wrote or copy-wrote the text on the back of the store's author trading cards. I also helped design the images on the front on a few occasions, like the obscured Thomas Pynchon card (#183). Pynchon did not show up for his event, strangely enough!

I am confident that there were 1080 cards in the series. I am in the process of putting my collection in order, and believe I have most every card. (I also have autographed cards of most every card, except for those authors who didn't show, cancelled at the last minute, etc....) I can't recall any author who refused to sign a small number of their cards.

Though a few cards were (mistakenly) not numbered, each card has a number assigned to it in the series of author events. I have a numbered list of all 1080 cards. Most all cards were printed in a run of 200. None were sold; they were given out free at the front counter as a promotional device. Customers, and even a few authors, collected them.

Certainly, the rarest card was for musician NEIL YOUNG. The store was offered a world exclusive book signing event with NY on two weeks notice for his "Greendale" book. We pulled it off, sold thousands of books, and got national press including the NYT. To mark the occasion, we printed an out-of-series card in an edition of 50. Neil got some, the store got some, and a very few were given to the public. Neil even signed some!

Neil Young was one of a number of celebrities (rock stars, actors, politicians, etc...) who did events at the store. A few big names not already mentioned in previous posts include George R.R. Martin, Wes Craven, Alan Lee (LOTR), Patti Smith, Eric Burdon (The Animals), Grace Slick, Annie Leibovitz, Ralph Steadman, George McGovern, Art Spiegelman, Sen. Gary Hart, acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace, Nobel Prize winners Czelsaw Milosz and Kazuo Ishiguro, and a number of Pulitzer and Booker Prize winners. There were also Beat poets (Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, McClure) and two members of the Grateful Dead. Check out this page for a little history of my life as a bookseller and short lists of other authors who I put on events with = https://www.thomasgladysz.com/bookseller/

I will let everyone know once I have organized my collections, which is taking more time then I thought it would.

May 31, 2021, 07:52 PM
catskilleagle
Here's the Allen Ginsburg card ThomasG noted:



May 31, 2021, 08:45 PM
cardaddict
I'd love to get the Harlan Ellison Booksmith Card.
June 01, 2021, 01:15 AM
catskilleagle
Yeah, I'd like to get that one too. I keep hoping I'll see some of these cards at a flea market or garage sale at some point.


quote:
Originally posted by cardaddict:
I'd love to get the Harlan Ellison Booksmith Card.

June 01, 2021, 01:17 AM
catskilleagle
Here's card #1 from the set featuring Shann Nix, the face that launched 1080 cards.



June 17, 2021, 02:13 PM
cardaddict
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
You know who you are!


June 17, 2021, 02:35 PM
catskilleagle
Wow, great pick-up, Cardaddict! And an autographed one!

Jess
July 14, 2021, 11:02 AM
ThomasG
As long promised, I have finally put together a list of all the Booksmith cards from #1 to #1080, when I believe the series ended. This list is based on the cards themselves, so I know it is accurate.

I have also written a 2000 word history of the cards - it is more interesting than it sounds, as there were unnumbered cards, a limited edition card, a few unissued cards, a few cards out of series, etc... and there were lots and lots of celebrity cards.

DOES ANYONE HAVE A CONTACT AT NON-SPORT UPDATE, OR ITS BLOG, SO THAT THEY MIGHT CONSIDER THIS PIECE ON BOOKSMITH CARDS?
July 14, 2021, 11:22 AM
ThomasG
quote:
Originally posted by catskilleagle:
Here's the Allen Ginsburg card ThomasG noted:




Because of my interest in the Beat writers, the store hosted events with a number of individuals associated with the literary group. They include Allen Ginsberg #169, Lawrence Ferlinghetti #953, Michael McClure #292, Diane DiPrima #258, #447, Joyce Johnson #456, #689 and Anne Waldman #634, #719 - as well as Beat scholars / biographers Ann Charters #567 Bill Morgan #1063 and Barry Miles (no card, sadly). There was also a William Burroughs event #286, Richard Brautigan celebration #328, and Ken Kesey event #646 which featured individuals associated with those authors.
July 14, 2021, 04:40 PM
catskilleagle
Welcome back. Various people from the magazine read the forums here but you could start a thread in the General Non-Sport Update Magazine Discussion forum to more directly inform editors that you have an article to submit. It sounds great already.

Jess


quote:
Originally posted by ThomasG:
As long promised, I have finally put together a list of all the Booksmith cards from #1 to #1080, when I believe the series ended. This list is based on the cards themselves, so I know it is accurate.

I have also written a 2000 word history of the cards - it is more interesting than it sounds, as there were unnumbered cards, a limited edition card, a few unissued cards, a few cards out of series, etc... and there were lots and lots of celebrity cards.

DOES ANYONE HAVE A CONTACT AT NON-SPORT UPDATE, OR ITS BLOG, SO THAT THEY MIGHT CONSIDER THIS PIECE ON BOOKSMITH CARDS?

July 20, 2021, 02:33 PM
cardaddict
More Harlan Ellison Booksmith cards!
These are NOT the same cards as in my previous post!
Front and back of same set of cards, showing the signed ones. The turned around cards are not signed.


July 21, 2021, 06:41 PM
catskilleagle
Steve,

A month ago, you were looking for Ellison cards, and now, you have a full house.

Jess