Boxes of books offered for sale by the Anoka-Hennepin School District.
A book auction was held recently in Minnesota, and a most atypical one at that. The starting bids were exceptionally low, though perhaps not for the rather ordinary material offered. Books were priced at a minimum of $5 per box, with the contents a mystery. All that was promised was that each box would contain 12-30 books. Their general topics were written on the outside of the boxes, discernable because the books inside were arranged consecutively by Dewey Decimal System numbers. Bidders could not, however, open a box and rifle through the contents, nor even bid on specific boxes. Bidding was simply for some stated quantity of boxes. However, winning bidders could look at the notations on the outside when they came around to pick up their winning bids, and thereby select a topic.
The auction is perhaps a sign of the times, the difficult economy, combined with declining enrollment in schools in the Anoka-Hennepin Independent School District. This district in the suburbs north of Minneapolis and St. Paul is the state's largest school district. At one time, it experienced rapid growth. Now, it is declining, and the district has responded by closing some schools. The district may lose one more resident next year if favorite daughter, and Anoka High graduate, Michele Bachmann becomes America's next president.
When the district closed down six elementary schools, it found itself with an excess of property, including a couple of buildings, lots of furniture, and around 17,000 library books. What do you do with 17,000 books from elementary school libraries? A larger number of more desirable books was moved to other schools, but there were far more books than room in the remaining libraries. So, the Anoka-Hennepin District put them up for auction. These not being valuable titles, the district had no hope of selling them one at a time. Instead, it put them in boxes, perhaps somewhat haphazardly, roughly by shelf order, and as many as could fit in a box. Differences in book size would account for different quantities of books per box. Approximately 800 boxes were offered for sale.
Naturally, the district hoped to make some money on these sales, but the reality is they most needed to find a way to dispose of the books. If every one of the boxes received a $5 bid, that would still only amount to $4,000, hardly a drop in the bucket for a large school district. That is less than 25 cents per book, and undoubtedly the cost was many times that amount. Obviously, this book auction was not going to Sotheby's or Christie's.
Instead, the auction was posted on the Public Service auction website. Bidding began on June 14, with a two-week window. Ten days into the auction, the school district was still awaiting its first bid. Perhaps there were snipers waiting to enter their bid at the last second? Maybe. The auction came to a close on June 28, and fortunately, there were sufficient last-minute bids to win all 800 boxes. The bidding was essentially all at the minimum $5 per box (the high bid was $5.50), but the sale brought in $4,000 to the schools' coffers, and perhaps more importantly, took those 800 boxes of books off of their hands.
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Ellis Smith Prints unsigned. 20” by 16”.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: United typothetae of America presidents. Pictures of 37 UTA presidents 46th annual convention United typothetae of America Cincinnati 1932.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec signed Paper Impressionism Art Prints. MayMilton 9 1/2” by 13” Reine de Joie 9 1/2” by 13”.
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Aberle’ Ballet editions. 108th triumph, American season spring and summer 1944.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Puss ‘n Boots. 1994 Charles Perrult All four are signed by Andreas Deja
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Specimen book of type faces. Job composition department, Philadelphia gazette publishing company .
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: An exhibit of printed books, Bridwell library.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court By Mark Twain 1889.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 1963 Philadelphia Eagles official program.
High Bids Win Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines and Machine Manuals December 24 to January 9
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 8 - Esquire the magazine for men 1954.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: The American printer, July 1910.
High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Leaves of grass 1855 by Walt Whitman.
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing
Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing
Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing
Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing
Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
Case Antiques 2025 Winter Fine Art & Antiques Auction January 25-26, 2025
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: 1861 Civil War Personal Flag. $12,000 to $14,000.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Armory Show 1913 Exhibition Poster. $8,000 to $9,000.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Abraham Lincoln Signed Appointment, 1863. $4,000 to $5,000.
Case Antiques 2025 Winter Fine Art & Antiques Auction January 25-26, 2025
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, 1st Edition, Signed. $3,800 to $4,200.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, 1st Edition, Signed. $3,200 to $3,400.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Winston Churchill & Bernard Baruch Signed Letters Plus Photo. $1,400 to $1,600.
Case Antiques 2025 Winter Fine Art & Antiques Auction January 25-26, 2025
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Mississippi Civil War Ambrotype, Dr. Bisland Shields with Saber and Hat. $1,400 to $1,600.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Custom 19th C. Lord Byron Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, 4 Vols w/ Over 350 Prints Incl. Ex-Joshua Reynolds. $1,200 to $1,400.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Four NASA Lunar Orbiter Survey Photos, 1966; Maestlin G Crater; Apollo. $600 to $700.
Case Antiques 2025 Winter Fine Art & Antiques Auction January 25-26, 2025
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Three Margaret Mitchell Signed Books; Association Copies. $1,000 to $1,200.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Jimmie Rodgers Signed & Dated Photograph plus Record, Framed. $1,000 to $1,200.
Case Antiques, Jan. 25-26: Edward VIII Signed Letter Autograph. $500 to $600.
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare. The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USD
Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USD
Sotheby’s: William Golding. Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USD
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll. Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USD
Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USD
Sotheby’s: John Milton. Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD