rromerotx wrote in Planescape Sketchbook:Requesting help or a resource to have someone authenticate a Dana Knutson, Planescape Sketchbook ??
It is in very good condition with only a few rubs to the outer covers front and back.  Interior pages are pristine.  It will be for sale but for peace of mind for both myself and eventual buyer, it should truly be authenticated or at least details compared to another existing copy.  This copy is not signed but has Dana's name and phone numbers on the inside front cover, likely in his writing.  It is also probable that he was consulted by my Father, a Studio Makeup artist, for a film project and this is how he acquired the sketchbook. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to The Acaeum!

The first step would be to post a link to some high quality photos of the book so the overall condition can be gauged. Please note any obvious condition flaws such as stains, smells, tears, rips, bends, dings, etc. You should confirm completeness by doing a page count and making sure everything is present. As far as the signature, I believe copies exist with and without Dana's signature so validation there may be more challenging, but having a letter of provenance might be useful for potential buyers.

** My apologies. I see it is not a signature but you might want to blur the phone number on any photos. **

You might receive several private offers, but please note this is a rare item for Planescape collectors. An eBay acution with a reserve may net you more even after eBay and payment-related fees.

Good luck!

Where are you coming up with the quantity of 80 for this item?

I'm not saying that you're wrong...but I was at the GenCon where these were sold and the stack of Planescape sketchbooks was large.
I'm really, really clued in to printing quantities of TSR things and I've not seen any documentation for the number 80, so that's why I was asking. Do you have any source for that number? Thank you.

Not to jump in for Bill here, but that number seems to be tied to Dana Knutsen's rough estimate of the ones they were sold at the two Cons he attended. From NKG:

"The Planescape Sketchbook was produced as a conceptual item in a fashion that is commonly done for movies. It has many sketches and notes throughout the book explaining the process of putting together what was, at the time, just the idea of the Planescape Campaign setting. These books were produced to be sold at GenCon and Euro-GenCon where Dana was available to autograph them. According to Dana Knutson, a very limited number of these were sold (approximately 80)."

That's not necessarily indicative of the total number printed, nor what may have been sold/taken by employees/given away outside of the Cons after the fact.

The original print run surely exceeded that number, do we have any idea what happened to them after the fact?  Were they all pulped?  

Some older threads on here speculated the original print run may have been as many as 1000.

Planescape Sketchbook

Obviously, that's also speculation, but I think the point is, the 80 is just a rough estimate of what was sold at the Cons and not of the larger print run or what may have happened to what was left over after the Cons.  It's the same thing that surrounds the Orange B3, where there's tons of speculation as to how many copies actually survived(e.g. one case pulled out of the trash), but no actual known concrete number. Just a lot of unsubstantiated claims and fuzzy memories.