Handwritten Ronald Reagan letters available for sale online

DIXON – History buffs and fans of former President Ronald Reagan have an opportunity to own a piece of American history.

The Raab Collection, a firm specializing in buying, selling and authenticating historical documents, autographs and items, is selling a collection of nine handwritten documents from Ronald Reagan on its website.

Raab Collection President Nathan Raab said every document goes through its own journey.

“Some relate to Reagan’s faith, while there are a handful that relate to the crisis he faced with the Challenger,” Raab said, referring to the Space Shuttle explosion in 1986. “Then there are some that show his sort of fighting personality within the context of politics. As a whole, they give you a multifaceted glimpse into Reagan’s life, faith and job.”

The documents were acquired from a handful of sellers representing the estates or heirs of the documents’ owners, and are available for sale for the first time. Items from the entire collection, which the firm values at $80,000, will be sold individually. Raab said pricing a historical document is “an art, not a science,” with rarity and historical importance being two of the most significant factors driving a document’s market value.

“In a sense, everything we have is rare, although to varying degrees,” Raab said. “Reagan wrote a lot of letters, but the letters that tell you something evocative or revelatory, something that really show you the behind the scenes, those are the things that people are most attracted to and drive the value up higher.”

The Raab Collection uses 35 years of experience to authenticate every item that comes to them, he said. At one point, the firm even had a letter from former President Theodore Roosevelt first coining his iconic phrase, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

“Our experience brings knowledge of signing habits, signatures, letterhead and types of ink,” Raab said. “There’s no one thing that you look for when looking at these documents. When you’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of these things, you get a sense of what to look for and what to be wary of.”

The firm was founded by Nathan’s father, Steve Raab, as an outlet for his love of history. Nathan was in middle school when Steve started the company, and the two still work together.

“I’m second generation, so that’s what led me in,” Raab said. “What keeps me in is getting to interact with these incredibly important pieces of history, discovering new things that nobody had seen and meeting the wonderful families that sell these documents. Every day is different, and I never know what to expect.”

For information, visit The Raab Collection website at raabcollection.com.