- 25 -
have to be destroyed, and all the issues would have to be removed
in order to prepare individual issues for sale. Mr. Verb
testified that when he owned his store, he had to employ a person
part-time just to cut comic strips out of newspapers. Finally,
the evidence in the record reflects that individual issues sold
to retail customers are usually packaged in some form of
presentation folder.
The value petitioners attribute to the newspapers fails to
account for relevant time and expense factors involved in selling
the newspapers in the retail market. Petitioners rely on Mr.
Verb’s valuation which was simply based on determining the
average retail price for an individual newspaper and multiplying
this price by the number of issues contained in the collection,
without consideration of other factors which would affect the
value of the newspapers. Neither petitioners nor Mr. Verb
expressed an opinion as to what the value of the newspapers and
comic sections would be if they were not sold to individual
purchasers interested in specific issues or comic strips.
Respondent relied on the valuation determination of Mr.
Hughes. Mr. Hughes’ appraisal was thorough, detailed, provided
explanations, and was supported by accompanying exhibits. His
testimony was consistent with the analysis in his appraisal, and
he demonstrated considerable knowledge in the area of early and
rare newspapers. Mr. Hughes is a well-known newspaper collector
Page: Previous 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 NextLast modified: May 25, 2011