The term "original owner" really doesn't mean anything anymore. It is nothing more than a sales tool.
Don't mean to single out one small aspect of your position, Jim, but this one hits close to home and so I wanted to address it.
The term "original owner" means everything to some collectors. That is, when it is used in the appropriate context. I've started to sell off books that I bought off the rack back in the day. Being the original owner, and having left the books unmanipulated, I can say with absolute certainty to the buying public that these books are unmanipulated.
While I recognize that this doesn't mean anything to many collectors, there are at least a few who prefer to buy this type of collectible. So when certain sellers start each of their sales threads with the line "Yeah, yeah, like any other seller, any book I have may have been pressed", it is worthwhile to remember that they are wrong. There are, indeed, rare circumstances under which a seller can unconditionally guarantee that the books they are offering are unmanipulated. In this case, rather than the term "original owner" carrying no meaning, it instead carries a great deal of meaning, especially since the opportunities to buy guaranteed unmanipulated books are so infrequent.
No offense, Bob, but all we have is your word that you bought them off the news stand. I don't have any reason to believe you would lie, quite the contrary, but I have seen more than one seller do it here without any compunction whatsoever. So, for me, the OO designation holds very little weight.
I also see it as away of saying, "buy me, press me" without the seller having to come right out and say that. Therefore satisfying both ends of the buying and selling spectrum and still being able to hold common ground with both sides and everyone marginally happy.
Just to bolster this opinion... look at the diamond run books -- the speculation was that non diamond run books were added and just claimed to be part of the original owner run -- even though some had obvious resto done to them.
OO does mean something to me in the case of Bob or Harry -- but how often do I actually know the original owner? Not many.
I don't see it as an opportunity to say, buy me and press me, so much as it is to play on advertising that there is something supposedly very unique about this collection.
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Magnificent 7? I cannot confirm or deny its existence.
