The E-Sylum:  Volume 3, Number 10, March 5, 2000, Article 6

CRIME DOESN'T PAY; NEITHER DOES BINDING 

   In response to Ben Keele's question about binding, 
   George Fuld notes: "When I had my original library which 
   was sold in 1971, I had bound 90% of my auction catalogs 
   and  journals and  found that when they sold, the value was 
   about the same as if they were not bound.  Thus even though 
   binding was much cheaper then, it didn't pay.  However, I 
   bound them for a different reason -- when using them for 
   research, when not bound everything would get out of order 
   and I couldn't find things.  So binding is much more helpful for 
   this -- its effect on value is questionable." 

   Dave Lange writes: "It's been my experience that binding is 
   worthwhile if you intend to keep your periodicals for a 
   number of years and use them frequently. Don't expect 
   to recover the cost of binding when you go to sell these 
   publications. I've noticed that even nice sets of periodicals 
   in matching bindings bring somewhat less than it would 
   cost to replicate such binding. I always try to buy long runs 
   of periodicals already bound. This has proved less expensive 
   than trying to assemble sets piecemeal, with all the resulting 
   duplication." 

   In summary, George Kolbe adds:   "In my experience, the 
   money spent on binding numismatic periodicals (and most 
   books and catalogues) is rarely recovered in full upon their 
   sale, but they're surely a lot easier to consult in that form. 
   As for book storage: cool, dark, dry (but not too dry)." 

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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