Destroying mega key books for profit. What do you think?

[MatterEaterLad]

This happens once in a while in the antiquarian book collecting world.

 

There have been several 1st editions of some VERY famous 200+ year old books that have been sliced and diced and sold as individual pages. Book collectors are ready to lynch these people, but if the owner has a 600 page book worth $20k and can sell the pages for $100 each, the math makes sense, even if the collectors ethic doesn't.

[Rip]

This happens once in a while in the antiquarian book collecting world.

 

There have been several 1st editions of some VERY famous 200+ year old books that have been sliced and diced and sold as individual pages. Book collectors are ready to lynch these people, but if the owner has a 600 page book worth $20k and can sell the pages for $100 each, the math makes sense, even if the collectors ethic doesn't.

 

Birds of America I believe for starters.

[yoddler]

This happens once in a while in the antiquarian book collecting world.

 

There have been several 1st editions of some VERY famous 200+ year old books that have been sliced and diced and sold as individual pages. Book collectors are ready to lynch these people, but if the owner has a 600 page book worth $20k and can sell the pages for $100 each, the math makes sense, even if the collectors ethic doesn't.

 

At least with a comic there's visual artistic merit to an individual page... So long as CGC will slab these, and in a sense certify them, there will be a market for them.

[otherworldsj33]

If the book is complete, cover or not, leave it be.

[HouseofComics.Com]

In his example, Rip already said that a complete coverless Batman 1 sells for less than its pages separated out. So it's not just incomplete books, it goes for all coverless copies.

 

The market partly corrects for this because you have up to 32 slabbing fees, no?

 

 

[jerome34]

In the 1950's I was at a bookstore in New York City that had medieval

manuscripts of religious songs. Each page had a price; you bought the

page and they cut it out. This was for unique items. I found it appalling.

 

They did not even take pictures of the entire manuscript to preserve

the data. (I had no camera so could not even ask for permission to

capture the data before it was dispersed forever.)

 

This problem has existed in the book field for a long time. When Henry

the Eight dissolved the monasteries, the manuscripts were converted to

glue. This resulted in a glut of extra glue which, I have been informed,

lasted for over 200 years.

 

A bit off topic, but well worth knowing.

[Rip]

CGC classifies trimming as destruction and collectors generally abhor it. How is cutting up a book to sell pieces off separately, that much better?

Because the beginning product is already a turd. Plus, it's not being trimmed to remove a superfluous defect. It's taken apart and sold individually; therefor, giving people who ordinarily wouldn't have an opportunity to even smell a mega key the chance to own a piece of one.

 

Why rent someone a single room? Make them rent the whole damn house.

 

This is sort of the direction where this topic starts to get more interesting for me. If a desirable purple label book is worth 1/4 of the blue label value, one might see a way to achieve a better ratio of return by tearing up the pages and selling them individually.

 

 

 

Also, if the book got the purple label because it was trimmed, it's also worth considering that I doubt CGC would flag a torn out page as being "restored" although I wonder how they might handle a cover with CT or other restoration if its graded individually. Apart from the destructive sentiment, my feeling is that the market might not really be bothered all that much because the higher percentage of people buying this stuff will probably need it to piece together their own incomplete Frankenbook.

Sorry just caught this.

CGC does flag them as purple trimmed if they are cut out of the book. There is an example in the mktplace right now.

[rjpb]

I'd think centerfolds would be more valuable intact than cut in two, as they are the thing most likely to be missing from incomplete copies. I suppose if a book is already missing the cover and a wrap or two, it's already potentially a "parts" book, so dicing it up further isn't much of a crime, but I'd hate to see it become routine with lesser but complete copies.

 

To each their own, but buying single pages for anything other than completing another copy seems bizarre to me. Owning a single page from a book like Action #1 would give me no satisfaction, and I'm even more perplexed why anyone would want a non-Superman page. The whole reason the book is valued such as it is, is due to Superman's appearance, it would be like owning a first day cover with the stamp removed.

[adamstrange]

In his example, Rip already said that a complete coverless Batman 1 sells for less than its pages separated out. So it's not just incomplete books, it goes for all coverless copies.

As a high grade collector I find this unacceptable. I would only want individual pages if they originally came from a copy grading 9.4 or higher.

[Dark Knight]

I'd think centerfolds would be more valuable intact than cut in two, as they are the thing most likely to be missing from incomplete copies. I suppose if a book is already missing the cover and a wrap or two, it's already potentially a "parts" book, so dicing it up further isn't much of a crime, but I'd hate to see it become routine with lesser but complete copies.

 

To each their own, but buying single pages for anything other than completing another copy seems bizarre to me. Owning a single page from a book like Action #1 would give me no satisfaction, and I'm even more perplexed why anyone would want a non-Superman page. The whole reason the book is valued such as it is, is due to Superman's appearance, it would be like owning a first day cover with the stamp removed.

 

My thoughts as well