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Hi Friend,

I recently went to a book signing for my Forbes blog and had the author and Mets GM autograph my book.

http://onforb.es/1bbmWBL

They signed it to me, which, of course, lowers the value. It got me wondering if any of you have their books signed without personalizations?

David

Tags: Alderson, Kettmann, Mets, New, Sandy, Steve, York, books, signed

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At a book signing, you probably generally don't want personalization. I mean I'd still buy a personalized Paul McCartney because it's still a Macca autograph. And with older stuff from say like JFK, almost all of his signed books you'll find were personalized, but that's okay. With a lot of older signed books, you often want to be leery of ones that are not personalized.

Having said all that, no, I don't have a signed copy of the book to which you refer.

Okay, thanks for the advice. It's the same as baseball or a photo.

David 

I don't agree with the other reply, but my reasoning isn't really based upon value.

When I attend a book signing, a big part of the "event" is being able to meet and interact with the author of the book. I don't mind having books personalized (either to myself or a friend), since it's a personal/semi-intimate setting. In the case of a photo/ball/etc, I would be getting the autograph more for display purposes (less sentiment), so I would hope the item wasn't inscribed, since that might detract from the display.

Now, for pure marketability/value, in my (very limited) experience, signed book values don't seem to be affected by personalized notations. I guess a part of this is due to the aforementioned intimacy, and a part due to the display value: since most book signatures are on one of the inside pages (and not usually the outside cover), they're very difficult to display to begin with. As such, signatures in books are treated much like "cut" signatures would be, which means you could always just cut the signature out of the book without the personalized note, in the event you wanted to sell the autograph.

Really, personalization doesn't bother me regarding pretty much any vintage items. However, I do think that for living authors, personalization could hurt resale value. For instance, if I were going to buy a Bill Clinton signed book on eBay, I would probably look first for one that wasn't personalized. But if we're talking about someone deceased, like JFK, I say the more writing the better!

Even with regard to vintage sports items, I like more writing. I have a personalized Babe Ruth baseball, boldly inscribed "To Ray From Babe Ruth". I actually prefer it that way. That's more writing in the hand of Babe Ruth, and in my opinion, should be worth MORE than a ball simply signed "Babe Ruth". That's THREE more words written by the Bambino! Now, I like that!

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