LiveAuctioneers Rapid Growth - A Sign of the Times
- by Michael Stillman
Some of the books and related paper sold this year by LiveAuctioneers.
LiveAuctioneers reported record sales and substantial growth during the first half of 2018. LiveAuctioneers conducts online bidding for almost 5,000 auction houses, galleries, and dealers in the field of art, antiques and collectibles. Among the items regularly appearing in their sales are books and related collectible paper, including manuscripts, posters, photographs and prints. What we are seeing in the auction field is reminiscent of what we saw in fixed-price sales two decades ago, when aggregators such as AbeBooks, Amazon, Alibris and Biblio quickly became the major marketplace for antiquarian and collectible books.
LiveAuctioneers, along with others such as Invaluable and BidSquare, have staked out a position in the auction field similar to the book aggregators in the late 1990s. The numbers achieved by LiveAuctioneers are impressive. According to a news release issued by the firm a few days ago, "The first half of the year comparisons on a year-over-year basis include:
• An increase of 37% more bids.
• An industry-leading average sell-through rate of 24.7%.
• An increase of more than 50,000 new bidders, on average, every month.
• Web and mobile traffic of over 23 million visits, up 34%.
• Over 133,000 consignments directed, an increase of more than 27%."
LiveAuctioneers also reported delivering winning bids on over 300,000 items in the first half of 2018, and processing bids (both winning bids and underbids) in the amount of billions of dollars.
Naturally, books are not the largest part of these billions of dollars in bids. We should only be so lucky. They sold works of art that ran into six figures. Still, books and paper sold on their platform went into five figures. As the accompanying illustration shows, a signed letter from Grand Duchess Anastasia (is she still alive?) sold for $85,000. One we all could have bought a few years ago if we were more prescient, a first edition, first printing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, took in over $40,000. Other double-digit items included a letter from George Washington to Chief Justice John Marshall, a letter from Tchaikovsky, and a first edition of Gulliver's Travels.
LiveAuctioneers also reported that they will be using their past success to grow services to help their clients better market and sell their items. One recent addition was adding the ability to accept payment in cryptocurrency, something it is unlikely most houses, particularly smaller ones, are equipped to do by themselves.
LiveAuctioneers success is the latest step in markets constantly reinventing themselves. We saw local bookstores replaced by chains, which in turn were replaced by large bookstores that sold coffee and food and provided live entertainment, in turn replaced with internet listing sites that aggregated sellers from around the world. Meanwhile, Amazon learned how to sell books and everything else in huge quantities online. The antiquarian field was somewhat shielded from change compared to those who sold new books, but not all that much. Then came the equalizing, everyone-can-be-an-auctioneer provided by eBay for primarily lower priced items. Now we see LiveAuctioneers aggregated 5,000 auction sellers. Some may see it as less personal than the old ways of selling, and perhaps it is, but in a world where people no longer have much free time available, efficiency and cost matter. The customer is always right, so of course, they are once again making the right choices.
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.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
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.
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