Collectible paper, née Rare Books, is moving on
- by Bruce E. McKinney
Auction Reports are a new choice. Then open the Advance Search. Voila!
Collectible paper’s value has long depended on content and priority which is often subject to interpretation and argument. When such material is offered at auction [and often but not always sold], by tradition, results have been published. Since the 19th century such results have been announced and occasionally been written about in newspapers, periodicals, and books. Since 2002 Rare Book Hub, in response to the lack of broad, centralized record keeping of auction appearances and results, we made it our goal to build a complete record.
This past month we added Auction Reports for all 8,700,000 lots in our Transaction History that were offered between 2002 to 2024. This month we have further reorganized our 25,000 auctions to provide Search within the Search capability. To tap into this information we are providing two options. On all pages where the Keyword Search appears, to the left is the new option:
Rare Book Transaction History
Upcoming Auctions
Auction Reports
These reports are found by searching by house, date and or event name.
Once selected, these reports are treated as CURRENT Events as if they were being reported today with analysis of top lots, prices paid, and percentage of lots sold. As well now, on this report we include a Search within the Search capability for those who wish to better understand how the entire event worked. Particularly for single owner sales in the past, analogous or related material often appeared in volume. This is one of the principal differences between current and past sales.
This enhancement to Auction Reports is also accessible on all Rare Book Transaction History Search Results via a link on each line of Preliminary Search Results under the Auction Details links.
8,700,000 of our results are currently accessible this way [2002-2024]. As to our other 5,300,000 pre-2002 results, we are going to quickly release enabling software house by house, completing this process within 6 weeks.
Welcome to the new world!
As we go to press we are providing 14,001,415 records reflecting offers and sales from 1848 up to last night.