Collecting the Sox: How do You Display Autographed Books?

This year, Santa brought me a couple autographed books. None of them happened to be Red Sox books (although, Scribe by Bob Ryan might be close). But, it brought up an interesting dilemma. What do I do with these books? How should I display them?

I do have a couple autographed Red Sox books. One is Jerry Remy's Watching Baseball. This one I had signed during a Remy Appearance as Red Sox Nation president. It wasn't a book signing, it just happened to be the best Remy item I had for an autograph. So, I was just thrusting the book in front of him as he moved down the crowd. He hesitated just a bit before he went ahead and just signed the cover of the book. That book displays nicely, just like an autographed picture of Remy would. But, that hesitation is what causes the display problems with other books. They're all signed inside the book.

That's the case with the other Red Sox autographed book I have. When I received a copy of Fenway Fever to review, the author was kind enough to sign it. But, it's on the inside, like all other book autographs. You don't know it's any different until you open it. So, sitting on my shelf, it could be any book. The only way to see the signature is to display it propped open to the title page. Not only is this a little hard to do, but it makes the item less attractive to look at. A black and white title page is much less visually appealing that a colorful binding or dust jacket.

My newest additions may have some assistance along those lines. They weren't signed at a book signing. They were purchased pre-signed. As I assume many bookstores do, my local Books-a-Million has several such titles pre-signed by the author. In these cases a sticker is placed on the front of the book signifying it as an "Autographed Copy." So, I could display the books with the front cover showing, and you could tell it was something special by the presence of the sticker. It's not quite the same as displaying an autograph, though. It's sort of like displaying an autographed baseball in its box, but just writing who signed it on the box. Sure, you know it;s something different, but there's still not the great display. I like my collectibles to have great display value.

But, that might be the best I can do. I don't want a bunch of propped-open books on my shelf. But, I do want it to look different than other books in my collection. So, at the moment displaying the front cover will be the way I go.

Unless you have another idea...