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

[JimStinson]

Absolutely 100% agreed, sell the EVENT not the signatures

[bender07]

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!

[cjedmonton]

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.

[yanks12025]

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

[bender07]

Originally Posted by yanks12025

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

This

[Gary Dunaier]

Originally Posted by yanks12025

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

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.

[prewarsports]

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.