Autograph Albums keep together or Separate

[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!

[Smanzari]

Rip out the pages with the big names, maybe leave a dupe in there to keep some liquidity (I'd leave a Maris since there's 2).

I'd rip out/authenticate/sell the following individually as cuts or full pages (if the only one on there):

1. Mickey Mantle
2. Roger Maris
3. Tris Speaker
4. Mel Ott
5. Casey Stengel
6. Dizzy Dean

Then sell the remainder of the book and let them worry about it

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by Smanzari

Rip out the pages with the big names, maybe leave a dupe in there to keep some liquidity (I'd leave a Maris since there's 2).
I'd rip out/authenticate/sell the following individually as cuts or full pages (if the only one on there):
1. Mickey Mantle
2. Roger Maris
3. Tris Speaker
4. Mel Ott
5. Casey Stengel
6. Dizzy Dean
Then sell the remainder of the book and let them worry about it

That makes sense to me.

[mebu22]

Thanks everyone… yeah, it makes sense to break out the big names... That’s where all the value is. Still trying to figure out more autos, hoping there are a few more hidden gems, hiding in plain sight.

[mebu22]

Here are the links to the albums, if I’m missing any real big names let me know. Again appreciate all the insight from the group.



https://share.icloud.com/photos/09fE...rD3K32rS1ut64A




https://share.icloud.com/photos/0f0k...6brpb8F0F4U7SQ




https://share.icloud.com/photos/0330...LP3UPC-7nd-IHw






I have talked to four of the major auction houses and their consensus is to cut out the larger names to maximize value.