Cutting up a multi-signed HOF item for individual resale: sinful or savvy?
 

In general, would you recommend cutting up a multi-signed vintage HOF item for individual resale (pre-1960)?

Although I deeply appreciate the significance of vintage baseball autographs, I would have no intention of keeping the item whether it is intact or split up.

I'm still negotiating the sale, so I cannot offer any scans or names at this point. However, it includes nearly a dozen A-list HOF inductees from this era (no Ruth or Gehrig).

Thanks for the general feedback. I think there's a strong investment potential in the item, but only if the individual names were culled.

Thanks for holding your fire until I find my blindfold and last smoke!

I think it decides on the name of the players of the condition they are in. How is it signed, pen or pencil?

All are in pen, with most probably in the 7-8 range. I know it's hard to give an opinion without the list of names, but again, all are pre-1960 inductees. I hope to finalize a sale in the next day or two, which would shed a lot more light on my dilemma.

Okay, the deal's done.

1951 Baseball Writers Banquet Program w/ 12 HOFers:

1. Charlie Gehringer
2. Ed Walsh
3. Fred Clarke
4. George Sisler
5. Hugh Duffy
6. Jimmie Foxx
7. Kid Nichols
8. Mel Ott
9. Mickey Cochrane
10. Pie Traynor
11. Rogers Hornsby
12. Tris Speaker

Full PSA/DNA. $1,750 delivered.

Scans to follow. Preserve or hack?

If the signatures are so close that it has to be hacked up to the point that the resultant "cuts" aren't able to be matted and framed attractively then it's a loser to cut IMO. Would have to see a scan.

Agreed, would love to see a scan of it.

I'd leave it be.

easier to sell piece signatures, if its not baseball's equivalent of declaration of independence, it's not a sin. it's yours to do with what you want. it'snot like cutting up a jersey or a bat , which was meant to be intact. signatures get cut up all the time. i would take a picture of them all together though, and when you sell, include that picture of the full item in case someone asks to show it wasn't a "cut" made to order so to speak.

Depends. I've purchased multiple-signed sheets from various events just for one or two signatures on them with a plan to eventually cut them out and have them mounted with nice images.

+1!

Here it is:

http://www.bccg10.com/STs03244.jpg

http://www.bccg10.com/STs03244a.jpg

I don't mind doing the extra leg work to separate them (most can stand well on their own), but I obviously don't want to take on the extra cost for re-submitting/slabbing them.

Thoughts?

separating multiple signatures
 

typically I would be fine with separating signatures so long as they did not overlap, or were on a medium that could be displayed tastefully as individuals... In this case I would say leave it be as many of the signatures on this program would not display nicely as individuals...

congrats on your purchase!
-Dave

Agreed.

I know it has to do with money, but I dont think items like that should be cut up. It is a nice historical item from baseballs past and can be dated base on the material it is on. If you cut it all up, and put them onto other diplays I think you lose the reference of where and when it came from. Just my two cents.

I agree that it would be difficult to extract one "clean" cut out of this... I would definitely leave it alone.

+1

I don't see a clean cut on there and although it isn't akin to Baseball's Declaration of Independence - I wouldn't cut it up. Neat piece but just a tough sell either way.

I recognize sage advice when I read it. I'm starting to lean toward leaving it as is. I have a few items in the queue for Huggins & Scott's December auction. I'll get their $.02 as well before deciding.

Thanks, everyone.

JimStinson
 

Whats the value cut up ? $1,500.00 , It should sell for that intact. I once sold an important major league contract years ago Johnny Grabowski's LAST Yankees contract ! And then found out the buyer was going to cut the signature out and discard the contract. Myself and another collector had to come to the rescue. If I had known what he planned for it I never would have sold it. Money ain;t everything

I was thinking exactly what Jim said, I dont think you get close to the value of the entire piece if its cut up. Most of those cuts would be really ugly no matter how skillfully you executed the "surgery" and from my experience, ugly cuts sell for ugly money. $1500 would be about all you could hope for on a good day cut up, but as a full piece I think you get that easy without ruining the integrity of the piece. I am all for cutting up album pages and team sheets as long as the signatures end up being attractive in the process (you see some REALLY bad ones all the time where people cut around a Mel Ott signature really ugly so not interfere with a Doc Cramer for example, which is just stupid). Leave it be!

JimStinson
 

Absolutely 100% agreed, sell the EVENT not the signatures

Like most things in life, it depends. In this case I would leave as is since the cuts wouldnt be clean and none of the autographs are scarce. Based on the purchase price you may be in danger of losing money. Cool piece and you should keep intact IMO!

All's well that ends well. The item has been sold as is to a fellow board member (just awaiting transfer). We're both happy with the figure. In other words, I broke even and then some.

A few parting comments though:

1. Despite the near unanimous sentiment to leave the item as is, the poll suggests otherwise! Almost 2:1 in favor of cutting it up.

2. From what I have seen, I think it could've brought more than $1,500 for 10-12 separate items.

Even if each brought a very conservative $200 on average (save for Gehringer & Sisler), that's $2k minimum. Foxx/Hornsby/Ott would drive that average up considerably.

It's a moot point now, but I would be curious what it would've brought in an auction house setting.

Thanks again for the insight.

I think people were voting just in general to whether it's good to cut a item or not.

This

Yes, the poll was asking about the idea, the concept, in general... and now you're asking about a specific item.

If you want to display the signatures individually, make a scan of the piece, crop the individual signatures from the scan, and mat the cropped scans around the original item. That way you have the best of both worlds.

If you changed the poll to read, "Should I cut up THIS ITEM" I bet you get 100 people saying leave it alone and probably a handful of people who go against the obvious just to be funny, but I cant think of anyone who has any sort of appreciation for the history of the game who would cut that thing up.