Mike,
I'm very pleased you have enjoyed my book. That is why I wrote it.
There are two interpretations to your question. The pinback in question is 3.5" with two ribbons with printing on them in reference to the 1968 World Series (it is a Tigers pin, for those in question). I valued that pin at $75. If that pinback had no ribbons, just the pinback itself, the value would be less than $75, perhaps 50% less in this case. A second interpretation of your question is, if I didn't own that particular pinback with ribbons, but a fellow collector sent me a picture of it for inclusion in my book, then I would value it the same, $75.
Over the years I have been asked why I did not include pins in my book that I did not personally own. It was a matter of cost and logistics. I did not want anyone to mail me their pins for photographic depiction, for fear they might get lost or damaged in transit. Second, I did not have the budget to travel around the country to photograph the pins of other collectors (although several offered, being in North Carolina I just never "happened" to be in the neighborhood of Colorado, California, etc.). Third, I was told there were various electronic technologies for submitting individual images by computer, but it involved integrating a lot of technology to have the final product be a bound book. The cost would have exceeded my budget. As I said in the book, that was my first fling at digital photography, and the poor quality of some pages speak for itself. The stunning clarity of, for example, the Smithsonian book was achieved with photographic equipment (and skill) that far exceeded mine.
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