Collectability of vintage book/magazine/newspaper clippings?
 

There are a few ebay sellers that have clipped pictures from some of these vintage sources. For me, collecting on a budget that seems a great deal smaller than most of you, it's appealing to have images from the the time period for a fraction of the price of the cards. However, aside from worrying about authenticity, I wanted to get some of your opinions on the collectability of some of these sources. Why are they so much cheaper? Does almost no one want them? Are they overly abundant? Are they easy to fake?

I've thought about buying a few things, but wanted to ask before purchasing something stupid or worthless.

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Buy what you like but most collectors do not consider these valuable or palatable.

Like you say they are alot less than cards. I have a few ruth on minor league teams from reach & spalding guides. Joe jackson too on minor league team. Id never b able to aford the cards so i bought those. Just to have an origional piece from that year of the player. Instead of a reprint

There's this thing called Google and these devices called printers.

The problem is when the books are destroyed. But putting aside that issue, there is nothing wrong with collecting cutouts if that's what you like. Some cataloged and PSA/SGC graded cards are cutouts.

I agree and use both to make some very cool stuff for my collection. I made some cool custom Babe Ruth postcards I sent out to a few friends at Christmas.

Please do not encourage the destruction of books.
 

Assuming books are not being destroyed, apparently they are collectible, however it is unlikely they will be valuable or have a big resale market. For example an old Spalding guide may have a thousand or more images, each year. These whole editions are available for fairly reasonable amounts and are a bargain if you think one image is worth 15 dollars. I would not worry about authenticity but I am sure someone somewhere will be happy to charge you to grade it.

Collectible? Literally, yes. Good for value appreciation and resale at some point? With some exceptions as others have stated, generally, no. But consider yourself lucky if you get a lot of enjoyment out of collecting items that others don't value as highly. Much easier on the wallet.

Well said.


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Some players can only be found this way
 

There are many obsure players that don't have a contemporary card but may have appeared in a guide / magazine / newspaper. I too don't like destroying items but I will collect cutouts under the following personal conditions:

1. An item that was meant to be cutout. There are numerous items that were meant to be clipped and saved for scrapbooks. Many of them say so in the margins. I have no issue collecting those

2. No contemporary card (that I'm aware of) . As a team collector I search high and low for some players for years. If I haven't found a card after a certain period of time I will purchase a clipping of that player to fill the void

3. Damaged goods. I have purchased books / magazines / newspapers that are damaged and literally falling apart but have an image I want or need that is in good shape. In those cases I will clip the pic and not think twice about it.

I have no illusions that these items will have much resale value, but I also believe that there are others who feel as I do and will generally pay what I paid for an item when I am ready to sell.

I also belong to the collect-what-you-like school so I am A-OK collecting items in this way.

What DC said.

Generally speaking, something that is a smaller part of a whole is going to be far less desirable (and in most cases nigh-worthless) compared to the whole, with the exception of those that were intended to be separated (newspaper inserts, cards on the backs of boxes, etc).

People have been cutting out pictures from books, magazines, newspapers, etc, and "collecting" them in scrapbooks for generations and generations. Those cut-outs were collectible because the collectors enjoyed them and enjoyed looking at them, but by and large, the scrapbooks containing them have not appreciated in value (with the exception of the aforementioned meant-to-be-separated items that could be removed from them). I see no reason why a modern-day assemblage of cut-outs would be much different, even if assembled in toploaders rather than scrapbooks.

Plus there's the whole thing where I abhor the idea of cutting up old books, but that's a side-trail that I won't run down today.

Personally (not meaning to be insulting) I think that clippings fit both of those statements.

However, as long as you are not supporting the vultures cutting up books or spalding and reach guides to scam people, please collect what you want and makes you happy. I would suggest the same as others and if these things interest you; the entire guide, magazine or newspaper is usually very inexpensive and a far more interesting piece.

I have scrapbooks I made as a kid documenting things like Pete Rose's hit chase and the 84 tigers that are worthless but sentimental.

Note: items that are meant to be cut out by design and collected are a different animal

clippings
 

Like usual I will be that guy.:) I say if you like it, collect it. As far as those saying don't destroy a book, magazine, ect. too bad, if you don't like it buy them. I had a very good friend and it was the only way he kept his used book store open for the last few years before his passing.

The very troubling theme to me in this thread is nobody is an actual collector anymore. If you are a collector collect what you like and who cares about resale value. Just my always weird opinion. :)

I actually have a section on one of my boxing websites where I sell old boxing clippings. They are all from really off grade publications I have culled over the years from the thousands of boxing publications I've handled. I don't chop it up unless it's beat up already.

I price them pretty cheap (though some might disagree on what "cheap" means) based on the work and the labor I've put into the project, and it mostly serves genealogy collectors.

I often question whether it's worth my time and expense of putting a project like this together, but I really get a kick out of it when somebody contacts me who found a clipping of some long lost relative that they never knew existed.

Especially cool are the WWII era clippings from Ring Magazine that pictured soldiers who fought for their camp or units boxing teams. Had several people pick these up who had a father or grandfather who regaled them with stories of boxing during the War, but had no evidence other then this clipping they just found on my website through a search engine.

Something they would have never found looking just for full issues, because nobody is going to go through the trouble of going that deep into a magazine description.

No, they don't have "collectible" value, but they do have "collector" value, and definite "sentimental" value.

Why not just purchase an entire magazine that has players you like in the issue. Look for older baseball or sports magazines or publications, there are many and most are relatively inexpensive.

I'm generally not in favor of cutting stuff up.

But it's fairly easy to find stuff like books that are in bad condition and would be considered recycling if not for a few interesting pictures or ads. Like prewar national geographics without covers or with other major damage. Those I'd say are a good source of cutout pictures. The pics are almost always worth more than the really beat magazine. And if the condition is that bad on a common inexpensive magazine I don't see any problem cutting those. The exception would be less common titles or books like a Spaulding guide that would have value even in lesser condition. People still cut them up because the price of all the pictures in for example a Spaulding guide is a lot more than a complete but really damaged copy.

Another thing to look for that often has player photos and is from their playing days are the rotogravure sections of old newspapers. Usually printed in brown they're also usually loaded with really great images and are also usually quite inexpensive.

A couple examples, one I think just a page, the other the whole section.(Neither one is mine, I just did a couple searches and picked a typical example)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1923-Rotogra...EAAOSwuwRYLTGo

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-BABE-RU...EAAOSwOtdYUV0W

I prefer entire sections, but they're pretty large, and unless you frame individual pages they're difficult to display. I'm also into the history stuff, so the rest is things I find interesting.


Steve B

Thanks for all the opinions both good and bad. It's really given me a lot more to research before making a purchase.

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This is just a temporary frame job, and the photo does not do it justice, but I think old newspapers are really cool, and they look great framed on a wall, especially if you come from a family of newspaper people like I do. This is from a newspaper in Pennsylvania, but the entire page is dedicated to the 1907 champion Tigers. It's 110 years old, has some great photos, and may be the only one in existence. What could be cooler than that? And it was about the same price as a t206 common. Not to mention, I've gotten more "oohs" and "aahs" from this than any silly baseball card. :p In short, I collect what I like. Who cares what anybody else thinks!

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...psc5hpgoaf.jpg

I collect clippings about my relatives' boxing careers. Often it is all I can find about specific bouts or events.

IMO it is a bit snobby to denigrate what people collect because you don't like it. There is a thriving market for clippings, scraps and publication images, especially 19th century wood cuts and book plates. My boxing HOF collection has quite a few representing pioneers with no career contemporary cards or photos. I way prefer an old print to a modern tribute card

Clippings
 

While I don't really actively collect cutouts I have picked up some over the years that I liked. I also did plenty of cutting out myself when I was young and just wanted a picture of my favorite player for a scrapbook. I'm a collector and as such I don't really concern myself with weather I'll be able to sell it in the future. Also, relatively recent I cut out some pictures out of a couple of newspapers that were pretty torn up; they look nice and neat now.

I think others have said collect what you like and can afford. I think cutouts are an relatively inexpensive alternative.

A Long Time Ago...
 

... on the "Old Board" we discussed a guy that actively sought out Spalding Guides and then cut out the images. So...that is the line we are discussing here. But this seller, in my opinion, crossed another line. He ran his own grading company, with a name that I do not remember, and then graded his own cut out pages without calling them pages. They all turned out to be very high grade!! The seller placed them in those 2 piece, 4 screw down, hard plastic holders. He actually used pop rivets to "Seal" the graded items. His items were somewhat prolific for a while on eBay. He was spoken about here on several occasions. Leon may remember these conversations. He destroyed a lot of guides to feed his grading company. But as has been stated in this thread...maybe he satisfied a lot of collecting needs by making the pages available.