Autographs from Goodspeed's, June 1932
At a price to fit any purse... When you thumb through this little catalog from Goodspeed's Boston bookshop, you'll want to load your purse or wallet with wads of cash (no credit cards) and jump in a time machine for a bargain basement shopping spree. Rare and collectible autographs found in letters and other paper items are for sale at prices that seem ridiculously low even for 1932. For example, right on the front cover of this booklet, no less an American icon than George Washington is represented by two signed letters (below) for the measly sum of $200 and $150, respectively. How many zeros would be added to the asking price for the same letters offered for sale today? If the above prices are too rich for your blood, how about 85 bucks for a one-page document signed by Washington... and countersigned by Thomas Jefferson. Eighty-five dollars??? Letters from Presidents Madison and Monroe were evidently not as popular with collectors, as their signatures commande...