LAMINATED AUTOGRAPHED GOV. from early 1940,s;WHAT IF ANY VALUE?
 

Curious if there would be any value for govn. postcards of names such as foxx,ott, and other noteworthy stars that have been laminated..I can,t imagine anyone doing this.I have heard of someone laminating a picture which is crazy in itself.I,m guessing that they might have a value of perhaps 20-25% at the most.Just wondering if anyone has an opinion. Thanks

As a rule of thumb, as a dealer, I never buy laminated items.
If you are very lucky you might find someone to buy them at 15-20% of the market value for unlaminated pieces, but the trick is to find someone who will buy them.
I don't know anyone who will buy them.

Dumb question...
 

can something that has been laminated be, uh, de-laminated or will that destroy the piece...

probably not if richard says you can't even find people to buy at 15-20% of actual value.

I have asked a few people and as far as I know you cannot un-laminate a piece.

Most collectors would rather spend the going rate on a piece not laminated.

The exceptions being an extremely rare autograph or a popular expensive autograph like Ruth that someone might pay a lesser amount so they can own one, if the going rate of 2500 or 3000 would have been way out of their price range. They can grab an affordable (laminated) one for 500 bucks and have a Ruth in their collection when they otherwise would have not been able to afford one.

What is the theory behind the price differential, assuming the laminated example is of unquestionable authenticity?

Collectors just don't like lamination, kinda like how they would hate scotch tape over an autograph.

maybe i'm a noob and my thinking is flawed...but i think i would rather pay 15-20% for a laminated piece than a full price one. it's not like i will touch and feel the signatures often, plus the lamination offers a bit of protection. it's almost on par with a sig inside a PSA/DNA or JSA case.

i don't like scotch tape over sigs...

I wouldn't want a laminated piece. But I am surprised more people didn't do this. There are tons of index card collectors. With all the people shellacking their baseballs I'm surprised more people didn't laminate their cards.

I think part of the reason is anybody could go to the hardware store and buy a can of shellac, but not everybody had access to a laminating machine.

Scotch Tape = Poor Man's Laminating

I think that laminating is a procedure that requires some equipment. Shellacking a baseball is easy. Putting scotch tape over an autograph is easier still. I have had a number of collections offered to me with scotch tape over all or many of the signatures. Makes me wanna cry. Scotch tape can be removed with a hair dryer but leaves an ugly stain.
I was just offered a Cy Young B&W plak with tape stains vertically running down the right and left sides of the card, virtually from top to bottom. Ugh.

Scotch Tape vs Laminate???...How about both together!!!:D I bought a large collection a few years ago that was from around 1947. Each sheet was laminated and some had tape over them also. I paid very little for them and I know they aren't worth much but I will say the laminate preserves the autographs well:) My personal opinion is that I would much rather have a laminated auto than one that has been traced over! But yet LOA's are issued with traced over auto's? I had heard that there was a big boom during the 80's where a bunch of people laminated valuable items such as autographs etc. Was also told that the laminate could be removed by a professional but would be costly and not entirely effective...probably not worth it. I mean, what's the difference between having something in a plastic tomb or having it in a plastic permanent sheet:D

Looks like that first page has some shellacking too. The trifecta!

Ha! Yeah this guy went all out to try and preserve the auto's...it's unfortunate but hey they still make for great displays and probably don't have to worry about fading!

What's the difference?
 

Brandon,
In answer to your question:

"I mean, what's the difference between having something in a plastic tomb or having it in a plastic permanent sheet?"

There is one obvious big difference to note. A PSA holder can easily be cracked open by a collector like me that doesn't want to look at the holder, not the signature. If you entomb signatures in a permanent sheet such as the trifecta that you showed, you will never ever get the original signature out of there without all the nasty remnants of the collector's OCD moment.

Yes, I totally agree with you Scott...I was just hoping that if I could convince some of you to start laminating your autographs maybe mine would go up in value!:D Just Kidding. Seriously, I think I paid $50 for the entire lot which included 15 sheets like this all auto'd and laminated. So, although not worth much they are cool and I like 'em and for me that's good enough. When it comes to me paying full price for an auto I would never buy a taped over, traced or laminated or probably even shellacked for that matter.