Rare Book Monthly

Articles - July - 2012 Issue

A Case for Buying from Dealers

A prospectus for the Jersey City and Albany Railway 1875

A prospectus for the Jersey City and Albany Railway 1875

Buying books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera is no great task.  There are millions of items available today.  Finding material that is highly relevant to a collecting strategy and requiring that price roughly equal value is oh so much more difficult, buying from dealers who most often have such material  - at prices that provide a reasonable chance to someday sell for a profit  - even more of a challenge.
  

Locating common material is often easy and does not require the help of knowledgeable dealers.  For run-of-the-mill rarities listing sites and eBay provide thousands of opportunities.  Learning to differentiate between common and uncommon rarities and to sort them by relevance to your collecting focus however is an art learned slowly.  As a collector I’m focused on material relating to the Hudson Valley, in particular to people, places and things on both sides of the Hudson River between New York and Albany, an at once difficult to collect subject and also the subject of thousands, invariably tens of thousands of items.  Finding the right material is the challenge and experienced dealer perspective very useful.

For help I turned recently to two dealers, Bill Reese and Peter Luke, who routinely encounter the material I want.  Bill is of course the New Haven dealer and leader in the Americana field in the United States.  Peter, doing business as Peter Luke Antiques, Ephemera, Old and Rare Books, is a long experienced, deeply knowledgeable dealer whose home in the Hudson Valley in New Baltimore an hour south of Albany, gives him a window on the flow of the local material I most value.  Both have a practiced eye.

The easy logic is that dealers are often expensive and some sellers on listings sites and many sellers on eBay cheap.  Following that line of thinking I would buy more from the inexpensive sources and I in fact do.  This however ignores the value of dealer perspective.  What is rare?  What is important, what is “good condition for issue”?  Dealers see a great deal of material and some develop a sense of ‘relative condition’, an important criteria when it’s necessary to pay up.  Paying them for this perspective is part of the calculation in making them offers, deciding what to offer or accept often a tough call.  For these calculations I rely on the AED’s current value and probability of reappearance calculations as the basic measure of value and rarity and its very effective.

My collecting focus of course also needs to be on target.  An unfocused collection I build will sell but may disappoint just as a laser-like focus on an out-of-favor area may also fail financially.  Of course choosing a subject exclusively for its potential for profit may meet financial criterion but be unsatisfying.  Every collector has to balance these factors.  I long ago came down on the side of collecting passion and have worked hard to have my collection make sense and do this by considering every possibility and rejecting most.  If this sounds like I’m denying myself my wife will be quick to say “I haven’t seen that yet.”  My collection of early and interesting material relating to the Hudson Valley approaches, and probably exceeds, 3,000 items. 

The collection is large because I’ve been open to the possibilities the Internet has provided.  When speaking with dealers I explain that I collect narrowly and deeply.  As to minutia I consider it all.  And it turns out only institutions and very focused collectors want the deep detail I pursue so I’m constantly considering appealing material that few others want.  Items I want may start on eBay at $200 but 4 or 5 unsuccessful auctions later I buy them for $40.  This keeps prices within reason.

This may also limit the collection’s ultimate value because if there is no market now for much of what I buy, who is to say there will be a market for it in future?  I’m certain there will be but am less certain when.   Why so?  Because such focused collecting becomes important often only when it becomes very complete and has been explained.  Most collections are never complete and many of them fall into the hands of heirs who view such hard to understand aggregations as impediments to selling the real estate and therefore dispose of them quickly for a small fraction of their actual value.  In other words such collections are a little bit dangerous.  They can become important, and valuable, when complete.  They are otherwise often indistinguishable from the boxes of rubble that every collector, dealer and library has.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’sBooks, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to ModernNow through July 10, 2025 Sotheby’sBooks, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to ModernNow through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly! Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
    Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
    Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025 DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025
    DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025 Freeman’s | HindmanWestern Manuscripts and MiniaturesJuly 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.

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