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This article investigates forms of excerpting and their variations as used by Marx. It compares two convolutes of excerpts from the early period of Marx’ work. The first form of excerpting is represented by the “Hefte zur epikureischen Philosophie” (1839/40), which Marx originally created for his dissertation. These booklets aim to reconstruct the history of post‐Aristotelian classical philosophy, with Epicurus at its centre, from fragments and testimonies of third authors, which themselves are often excerpts from excerpts. A second variant is represented by the so‐called Gülich‐excerpts (1846/47), an extensive source collection of economic history. These excerpts later served as a comprehensive and easily accessible basis for the Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy that Marx was already planning at that time. Both variants of excerpts are analysed with regard to the source‐critical method and the acquisition of knowledge in the situation of the new formation of philosophical, social and economic history. This allows for the in‐depth examination of the self‐reflexive practice of excerpting and to shed light on the constitutive tension between copying, critical selection, commentary and autonomous text production.