Hi MMD,  It has been pointed out that the more bedraggled an old
roll looks, it is probably a good indication that it was played a lot.
I have been restoring piano rolls and selling them on eBay for several
years.  I've usually stayed with the more recent rolls because I felt
there would be more interest in them and they took less effort and time
to restore.  However I've recently noted there have been a significant
number of sales to collector type individuals and most of these have
been quite old rolls.

I have a couple boxes containing over 500+ rolls of this type, i.e.,
no boxes, torn leaders, etc.  I've started restoring these and putting
them on eBay at the rate of about 10 or 12 per day.  There are some
great titles showing up.  Since I don't collect 88-note rolls these are
all going on eBay.  If you want to see what I've been restoring look
for user ID 9653819.  I usually have from 40 to 60 listings on eBay
most of the time.

Thanks for looking,
Tom Hutchinson