Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2003 Issue

Herd on the Street

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The sell side of the market is clearly coming into view and there are going to be a variety of options sufficient to satisfy both immediate and long term sellers. It is important to note that the pursuit of any single longer term (as in slower to realization) selling solution so to achieve higher prices is not going to preclude the offering of material by any other method although in time, the market will probably assign relative value, meaning and importance to the various selling methods. And what will be true for sellers will be as true for buyers and the difference will be only in the scale of the prices less the commissions paid to create the sale. In short, the spread between the bid and ask, between the buyer’s bid and the seller’s offer, will ultimately come to be understood as a margin defined by time. So if the annual rate of appreciation of collectible books is thought to be seven percent and the spread between the bid and ask also seven percent, and again assuming this margin is equally divided by buyer and seller, the seller yields six months appreciation and the buyer is whole six months after the transaction is completed.

To help collectors define their potential collections we have developed keyword searches of our database, the ÆD, that identify relevant material and permit members to then mark records that fit within their personal parameters. These lists of selected materials, which include author, title, date and place of publication, can then be set to search both internet and auction listings every day for matches. For auctions we also provide “keyword” searches of all lots in upcoming sales. Keywords make it possible to find material that you “hope” exists. Every day after we compare your list(s) to what has become available over the past 24 hours, on the net and at auction, we immediately notify you of any matches found. This is not the way anyone has ever collected books before but it is the way intelligent collectors will collect books in the future. It is the way that interest in book collecting will be rebuilt to ultimately bring demand and supply back into a positive relationship.

This past year has seen enormous change in the book collecting world and no doubt the coming year will see even more. The electronic world is collector centric while the old world of books was dealer centric. There will be no going back. Sellers see it and every day come to the net to set up their businesses. Buyers do not yet, in proportionate numbers, see it as clearly. All of us who are committed to that future should be looking for ways to make its interesting potential evident to the world. Past is not prologue but neither is the pace of change certain. It will happen. Working together we can make it happen sooner.

Rare Book Monthly

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    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
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    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
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    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
  • Sotheby'sSell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts Sotheby'sSell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Leland Little, Jan. 22: The First Issue of Robert Frost's A Boy's Will, In Extremely Scarce Binding.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Knight's An Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Locke's Important Treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: The Richly Illustrated First French Edition of Voyages de Corneille Le Brun par la Moscovie, en Perse, et aux Indes Orientales.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Scarce First Issue of An Account of the Province of Carolina in America, Finely Bound and With Celebrated John Speed Map.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Humphrey's An Historical Account, Complete with Scarce Folding Maps.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Chamberlain's Scarce Civil War Memoir The Passing of the Armies.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: A Rare Photograph of David Bruce Brown and #48 Fiat.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: George Cruikshank (England, 1792-1878), Archive of Sketches, Notes, and Letters.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Extremely Scarce Copy of Die Samländische Ode (The Samland Ode), Signed by Max Pechstein.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Andy Warhol's The Thirteen Most Wanted Men Exhibition Catalogue.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Edward Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Every Building on the Sunset Strip.

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