Sender: Rare book and manuscripts <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
I know this has been discussed before in re: books that are split up,
as each page sold separately will garner a much higher profit than an
imperfect book (or even many perfect ones) sold whole. Generally, the
view here is that that is less than desirable.
But what of sets of books? If they are going to be sold, should the
set be kept intact, or should it be split to make more money? How
about incomplete sets -- 28 of 30 of someone's collected works, for
example (not talking about something where the items cannot stand
alone)? Is it worth it to keep the remaining volumes of an incomplete
set together to retain integrity, or is there no reason to do that
rather than seek each volume's individual market price? (Or, should
the missing volumes be sought from another set prior to sale, even if
(inscriptions, bookplates) it will be clear that they did not stem
from the same set?)
Just curious, as this has been nagging me for a while (a used
bookstore recently would not sell part of their extremely incomplete
set, stating that the 6 out of 25 must go as a unit).
--Marguerite Radhakrishnan