Signed Book in Shrink-Wrapping… Would You Open?
 

Question for the group. I was fortunate to snag one of the Springsteen and Obama signed books on Amazon for 50% off. The book comes in a shrink wrapped slip case that denotes it’s the signed edition.

I plan to keep the book for now, but could see selling it down the road. Accordingly, would you nevertheless open the shrink wrapping to inspect the signature, or leave it sealed? Do you think opening affects the resell-ability later (ie, would there be more value in keep the book sealed in its original shrink wrapping)?

Thanks.

Interesting question.

Has your research indicated that these signed editions have been free of issues? There have been so many problems with signed editions purchased online over the past few years.

You might want to open it just to ensure it was signed. Take a video while doing so, just in case there is an issue and you need proof that it wasn't you who tampered with anything or switched out a signed version with an unsigned. Then again, this should have been done right when you received the shipment from Amazon in order to film yourself opening their packaging.

Hopefully, you still have a window of opportunity to return the book through Amazon if need be.

It would be terrible if you hung onto this for several years and its future owner opened it up to reveal nothing.

It's not a pack of cards; I don't think it's the worst thing in the world to make certain it's actually signed.

Edited to add the obvious, but with two extremely high profile individuals, especially a former President, has there been any talk about any of these being signed with an autopen? Is this a signed and numbered edition?

Wow, I missed the sale of these originally so congrats on the deal. Huge Bruce and BO fan......I guess, to answer your question, if you are holding as an "investment" I'd not open. If you want to enjoy the book and are less concerned about long-term value, I'd open it.

Congrats again, how'd did you get 50% off?

Honestly, for what they charge for such an item, it's infuriating that it wouldn't have been shrink wrapped to have the signed page displayable. What would that have cost them, an extra three cents per book?

The way they have done it is more like Let's Make A Deal:

"You can have this box which may or may not contain a million dollars. If you open the box, you'll either receive $750,000 due to depreciation or nothing!"

In this case, there will be enough potential buyers who would demand to see the signatures prior to pulling the trigger that opening it isn't such a big deal. Your audience is full of crossover appeal and not entirely comprised of a bunch of Comic Book Guys. Therefore, the depreciation reflected in the above parody may be a moot point. If opened, you may run the risk of some buyers not willing to pay as much, while simultaneously opening the door to others who will actually be more interested at the same price level because they are seeing something tangible.

Thanks guys!!! This is exactly my struggle! Open to verify and view, or keep sealed to preserve original condition.

To be honest, out of all the ones opened and posted so far, the signatures are beautiful and huge. I haven’t heard any stories of someone opening to find that there’s wasn’t signed, but that’s my fear obviously. It was purchased through Amazon, so there absolutely would be a return window if that happened to be the case. Also, no chance these are autopen. It was a very publicly promoted signing (I think 300 copies?).

I think you're safe to open, but if you're going to do so, do it now while that return window is still in effect.

Have you done some legwork to see what opened copies are currently fetching vs. unopened? You can always keep monitoring this until your return window really starts narrowing in an effort to come to your wisest decision.

I opened mine at Barnes and Noble in front of the sales person only because I had read on facebook of one guy getting the book with no signatures inside.

edited to add: someone else on facebook opened theirs and the book contained two pages of signatures. So he doubled up. I also don't think opening this book devalues it one bit because the signatures cut out and sold separately are selling for more than the book itself which is weird to me, but that's what is happening.

Thanks all. I bit them bullet and opened it. 2 large and perfect signatures inside!

You couldn't open that thing fast enough once you read there might be two in there!

I don't think you made the wrong decision. It looks incredible!