Slabbing old paper

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

I for one can attest to the fact that a complete item, newspaper, guide, etc. is much more valuable and, more importantly, much more collectible if it is intact rather than having an individual piece removed from it. It took me a while but I have learned the hard way when atempting to sell these types of things. Typically, the larger woodcuts, like half-page to full-page do not sufer too much in value but smaller pieces are especially hurt. One exception might be the New York Clipper woodcuts from 1879-80 which Lew Lipset had catalogued years ago and are very rare to find intact with the player bios still attached under the image. IMHO these are very much undervalued and represent the earliest catalogued collectibles for several players including a half-dozen HOF'ers.

Unfortunatley, for display purposes, this often does not work out and that's probably why newspaper collectibles in general do not have a major collector base as compared to cards, photos, etc.

Did you read yesterday where a Tuna (one fish) sold for $763,000? There used to be plenty of large tuna, but they were overfished. Even though they can be replenished (won't be, but could be), the price is now outrageous.

These woodcuts cannot be replenished. There are plenty now, but every time one gets chopped up, there's one less. Some day after we're long gone, there will only be a few that aren't in private collections. Those will be worth a fortune. That's just the way it works - inevitable. We're basically destroying the past for the present, screwing the future. But we'll be dead then, so who cares? <=== irresponsible attitude.

[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.

[slidekellyslide]

There is a guy selling cutouts of the team photos from the Reach and Spalding guides, but he is not misrepresenting them like the guy from Hawaii was doing by encapsulating and grading them. I've bought a handful of them over the past few years just because I'd like a period item from every year of the early Lincoln clubs. I was also able to pick up three Nebraska Indians cutouts that had the names of the players listed which has been very helpful to me in identifying some players in other photos I have.