Several years ago, I had the opportunity to bid on the rarest American autograph - a document signed by one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Button Gwinnett. Button Gwinnett was an American entrepreneur born at Down Hatherley, England. He was not a very successful businessman and picked up considerable debt during his short life. This was a blessing to future autograph collectors, as the few documents of his found in collections today often relate to those debts, including the one on which I was bidding. Documents signed by Button Gwinnett are so rare that most are known pieces, and provenance can be established. You can often trace the item's ownership back for many generations and auction sales.

In any case, having double-checked the provenance of this piece, I felt comfortable with its authenticity, but I still had to do a physical inspection of the item itself, as no provenance can replace your own authenticity check, and condition should also always be checked. Condition is unfortunately often a subjective matter, and many auction catalogues have different descriptions that may be misleading to the layman. Some describe as "very good" what you and I think of as very good condition, but most often that is not the case and they use a different yard stick. Condition descriptions are usually explained in the beginning of catalogues. The various ratings range from "fair," as the lowest, then "good," "very good," "fine," "very fine," "excellent," and finally, "mint."

Now you have to be very careful because sometimes "very good" only truly means about average condition, and an average condition may not be acceptable to some collectors who expect very good condition. You will always have fewer surprises by examining the item yourself. In the case of the Button Gwinnett document, described as "with a slight separation at the fold," I found upon physical examination that the document was actually totally split in two pieces at the fold. Of course this was a new fact that could affect the price drastically - but the document itself, other than the separation, was very clean and the signature was bold and dark.

I must also say that condition is secondary in the case of extremely rare documents or extremely important documents. For example, if you find a Lincoln letter on slavery or an Einstein letter on the theory of relativity, condition, as long as it is not very bad, should not be of great importance to you because content is the key. This is one of the points that makes autographs different from many other collectibles, like coins or stamps, where condition is everything. In general, condition is more important when you deal with items for which you can find many of the same, such as coins, where tens of thousands were made and circulated. The few coins that were saved and were not circulated are considered rarer; their mint condition differentiates them from all the other coins from the same run.

In autographs, you may sometimes have a similar case. For example, Presidential documents are certainly more expensive when they are in mint condition with a dark signature than when they are yellowed or have a lighter signature. But most autographs, if in acceptable condition, should be priced according to their content. The Content of the letter is what will make it important and unique, and the content is what will give it value. At Max Rambod Autographs, we once sold a letter of Lincoln with great content; however, the buyer, upon receiving the letter, sent it back because the fold of the letter went through the signature. As I had five other orders for this same letter, I was happy to take it back and, in fact, I would gladly buy it myself for even more money today. Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying condition is not important; I am saying that some condition factors take a second place if the content of the letter or document is important. Do not pass up a great opportunity because you are stuck on an irrelevant problem. Indeed, there are condition problems that are going to seriously reduce the value of your letter, even if it has great content, such as light ink in the text or signature, water damage, offensive tape stains, or paper loss on the text of the letter. Laminated or permaplex documents or photos are also worth significantly less. The worst condition problem of all is tracing over the signature itself, which would almost make the document worthless.

Rarity is an important factor in value but only if accompanied by strong demand (e.g., had Button Gwinnett not signed the Declaration of Independence, he would have been a small player in the American Revolution; his autograph would still be rare, but demand would not be so high). A Newton signed document we offered in our catalogue several years ago had no significant content and had repairs due to paper loss, yet it sold for over $10,000 since Newton is very rare overall. I have since seen Newton documents offered for twice that price. Another case where rarity is an important factor in value is when someone's autograph is available, but not in a specific format: recent Presidents such as Nixon, Ford, or Carter are readily available in letter format and accordingly reasonably priced. You can buy a simple letter from each for under $400; however, all three are rare in Presidential signed documents since most modern Presidents do not sign appointments and other official Presidential documents anymore. If you found a signed official Presidential document from Nixon, Ford, or Carter, it would be priced in the thousands rather than the hundreds.

One more example that we should discuss here are signed photos. Some famous people signed many photos in a smaller format like the comedy team Laurel & Hardy, who signed many photos for fans, but almost always in the 3" x 5" or 5" x 7" size. The prices of these photos, if they have bold signatures from both comedians, are about $850. Today, however, if you find a signed photo of Laurel & Hardy which is 8" x 10" in size, the price would double to $1,500-$2,200. I have seen one 11"x14" in size priced at $5,000. The reason is that for every few hundred photos sized at 5" x 7", you cannot even find one of the largest, or 11" x 14", signed photos for this famous comedy duo. As a rule, larger photos are more expensive than smaller ones; but in the case of Laurel & Hardy, large signed photos are substantially more expensive since they are far more rare.

For signed photos, condition is more important than for letters - a tear or serious crease can detract from the beauty of the photo - and here, the beauty of the photo is often what makes it exceptional. As we saw with the letter format, the content makes it exceptional. Therefore, detracting from that beauty would reduce the value of the photo. The more offensive the problem, the lower the price should be. If a condition issue is hardly noticeable, it should hardly affect the price. This is very different from stamps or coins where small condition problems result in big differences in price.

Demand: Ultimately, demand may be the most important factor in assigning value. George Washington and Napoleon each wrote about 100,000 letters, many of which are still in the marketplace today. Yet, they are expensive, and they have never seriously dropped in price due to their availability. Because both men are such important figures in history, there is always demand for their letters. This demand makes prices stay high at all times: a Washington signature alone is about $5,000. Seven years ago, a Revolutionary War autograph letter, signed by Washington, was offered in our catalogue for over $20,000. The most important factors in assessing the value of most documents are Demand and Content. That is why I always tell my friends and clients (many are both) to concentrate on the "big names," as there will always be demand for them in any field. I also encourage them to buy the best content letter they can afford from this "big name," because content will make that letter unique and desirable.

Now, regarding the Button Gwinnett document: upon seeing that it was in two pieces, I actually raised my maximum bid, because in all other ways the condition was actually much better than expected and the signature was very dark. In fact, other than the separation at the fold, it was very clean. As the bidding started there were six bidders, and it soon came down to me and another buyer. As I lifted my hand - so did he - and finally, he outbid me. We cannot win them all. But perhaps, in this instance more than anywhere else, you cannot win unless you play the game.