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Wanting to sell an autograph book, should I sell it complete or piece it out one autograph at a time?

I recently was given an autograph book by an older family member,  it is full of autographs from the late thirties/early forties.  Bob Hope, Abbott and Costello, Marlene Dietrich, Humphrey Bogart etc ( the list goes on and on) are just a few of the 100+ names in the book.  My question as a possible future seller,  should I try to find a buyer for the complete book, or should I piece it out one at a time?  How can I possibly get the whole book authenticated?  Or should I even try?  Needless to say I have a lot of questions and I am very new to the subject.  Thanks for your time.

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You might get more for it selling them separate. Though will be a shame to split such a collection.

If I did want to sell it complete,  would I even be able to find a buyer these days?  Would selling it separate cost me money in the beginning?

Separate

Im sure you could find a buyer.  Some big names in there.  I would not want to separate it.  That's just me though.

There is merit to separating them, but you would certainly find plenty of buyers as it is.  If I had something like that I was looking to sell and had no designs of separating the pages, I would go through R&R Auction for the most exposure.  And they can take care of the authentication end of things.

You would make alot more separating them and then using those cut signatures for display pieces with a photo of the person and possibly a plaque with their name on it and such. That would bring in by far the most amount for them. It's going to cost a little bit for mattes and frames and such. Photos are cheap to make of any size. Adoramapix.com makes 8x10's for $1.50 and you can pull images from the Internet as long as they are large enough pictures.

Definitely separate it! You will make a lot more money in the long run. People who collect these type of entertainers know their signatures so if you were to list them on ebay (considering they are all real) you will probably not have any trouble finding the right people to bid even if they are not authenticated.

Thanks for the feedback!!!  The owners of the book (myself and my father) have decided to try to sell the book as is, we are having the other 200+ signatures looked at to see if there are any we have overlooked that might significantly effect the value of the book (there are 300+ signatures in all).

The "big three" we have in the book are Bogart, Dimaggio and Disney, we have authenticated Gene Kelly, Bette Davis and two others, most of the autographs are from the 1938-1942 time period.

My dad recognizes about 60+ names in the book with multiple autographs from Bob Hope and Cesar Romero.

What do you think it's worth?  What do you think it could go for in an R&R Auction?

Thanks for the help everyone!!

With those types of names, I think you'll end up having a number of dealers (or hardcore collectors with money) fighting over it.  Disney and Bogart alone are worth quite a lot alone.  I suppose it depends on the complete range of names and how many other rarities (even if they're lesser known stars, they still might be genuinely rare and valuable) are in the mix.

One consideration that would favor it being sold as a set:  Since these are all in one autograph book at the moment, that alone might lend to the authenticity to some extent.  Forging a single autograph is one thing, but the likelihood that anyone could competently forge 100+ is not high.  Dealers will see the set of authentic vintage autographs in one book and possibly feel much better about the overall purchase ((and less hesitant about bidding) than if they bought the signatures on an individual basis.

But also, ultimately whoever buys it will likely break it up, as someone who loves Disney may not be a Bogart fan and will just cherry pick and make a profit on the rest. So I am thinking its a consideration to do this yourself as the original owner? Just a thought, as I feel it may be inevitable anyway.

Chris, I would be interested in buying your old autograph book. I know we had talked about it a year or so ago. Please email me and shoot me a few scans of the names you mentioned, Disney, Bogart, etc....a list of the other names you know of, and your price. if reasonable, I will take the whole thing together. JeffreyRPotter @ gmail.com.

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