Autograph Albums keep together or Separate

[perezfan]

Would be a true crime to break that up.

But if you are in it only for the money, then piecing it out would probably yield the best results.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Would be a true crime to break that up.
But if you are in it only for the money, then piecing it out would probably yield the best results.

I don't get your passion for keeping this book together, Mark. There's no theme or cohesion here that I can see that would make the whole greater than the sum of its parts, just a random collection of really nice autographs. Breaking them up would allow collectors of these players to create wonderful displays with photos or other memorabilia. What am I missing that would make it such an imperative to keep this thing together?

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

I don't get your passion for keeping this book together, Mark. There's no theme or cohesion here that I can see that would make the whole greater than the sum of its parts, just a random collection of really nice autographs. Breaking them up would allow collectors of these players to create wonderful displays with photos or other memorabilia. What am I missing that would make it such an imperative to keep this thing together?

Just because it was someone's labor of love for many years, and undoubtedly took a long time to acquire the sigs of all those star players. Imagine the time and effort expended just to be in an advantageous position to get close enough to all of those great players, in order to obtain their sigs.

Plus, it serves as a perfect snapshot in time of Baseball's Golden Age... including the biggest mid-century stars during a very important era for baseball (when baseball was the undisputed "king" of American sports).

There's no right or wrong... I just tend to view these things with sentimentality vs. objectivity. Perhaps because I identify more with the person who amassed the collection vs. the person who's selling it off.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Perhaps because I identify more with the person who amassed the collection vs. the person who's selling it off.

What about the many collectors who would be the beneficiaries of breaking it up?

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

What about the many collectors who would be the beneficiaries of breaking it up?

All good.... Hope they don't end up in bar-coded slabs (but know they will).

To me, the Autograph Book itself has great charm and intrinsic value, but realize I'm in the minority in this day and age of the almighty dollar.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by perezfan

To me, the Autograph Book itself has great charm and intrinsic value, but realize I'm in the minority in this day and age of the almighty dollar.

Kiss me I'm a liberal, but it's pretty undeniable that the dollar, and other currencies--Adam Smith's "invisible hand"--have worked better than any other system to allocate the production and distribution of resources for maximum wealth of the society at large. How many times have you taken less than something was worth to achieve a goal other than getting the best return on your investment? If this book was yours, and you knew you would get half by keeping it together than from breaking it up, would you still do it? And anyway, I still postulate that by allowing multiple collectors to create great pieces out of it, you would still be doing a social goal, what would you say to that? I'm just not getting the warm and fuzzies from the idea of this book sitting on a shelf somewhere; to me, once it leaves the original owner's hands, it's pretty much just a random collection of nice autographs that need to go where the market wants them to.

[Topnotchsy]

My $.02.

• It is likely you would get the most value breaking them up.
• I do not believe the auction houses would necessarily guide you right on this. For them, breaking it up means additional auction listings, and the value might not be there to really warrant that in their eyes. (Consider that an extra $1000 in your pocket is worth maybe an extra $200 in their pocket and so the incentives don't perfectly align)
• To some degree it depends who is on a page together to determine the value and how easy the signatures are to separate.
• The bigger names (Mantle, Maris, Ott Speaker and possibly Stengel andDean) are most likely worth the money to authenticate. Many of the names, (Larry Doby, Minnie Miñoso, Early Wynn, Brooks Robinson, Phil Rizzuto, George Kell, Rocky Colavito x2, Bob Lemon, Jim Bunning, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra) despite being great players, don't carry enormous value. So those may be worth selling in a lot/collection without spending on authentication
• There are differing views (as this thread shows) about cutting up items. I'm in the camp that does not see an issue cutting up an arbitrary item like this, but would not do so to items that have more historical significance as a whole. I have a Jackie Robinson college yearbook signed 4x which I could likely make way more money on separate than together if I chose to sell, but can't see myself separating the pages... so my line is somewhere between what you have and what I have.

Cool item, good luck with it!

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Would be a true crime to break that up.

But if you are in it only for the money, then piecing it out would probably yield the best results.

I agree