Slabbing old paper

[Exhibitman]

The AAA guy was selling them as graded cards in the cards category. A blatant effort to defraud unwitting buyers.

I see nothing wrong with cutting an image out of an old Harpers and having it slabbed accurately labeled as such. If someone enjoys having that, fine. Perhaps they cannot afford a $10,000 N card and find collecting a woodcut to be a nice alternative. I wouldn't criticize a collector for making that decision.

Value is another matter entirely. It may be more valuable as a whole issue of Police Gazette or Harpers stored in a cabinet somewhere, but if the collector who owns it is happier with a cut in a tomb, that's his choice. Sometimes value doesn't matter to a collector who wants to enjoy his collection.

I think we sometimes forget that we aren't curators of a museum in charge of preserving someone else's entrusted materials. We are collectors of paper mass market products and childrens toys. I would not want to have someone tell me how to play with my toys, so I won't criticize someone who wants a 19th century woodcut in a slab.