Options
State of the Rare Book Market — Parallels to the Coin Market?
P0CKETCHANGE
Posts: 3,027 ✭✭✭✭✭
An interesting write-up on the rare book market that has quite a few parallels to the rare coin market. In short, the very high end is booming and setting records while everything else is languishing. COVID has dramatically accelerated the already ongoing shift to online, and there is general surprise at how willing collectors (esp. wealthy ones) are to buy “sight-unseen”. Online availability has also made items that seemed rare in the past seem much less rare.
Which aspects do you agree with, and are there any trends that are divergent between the two hobbies? I do not own any rare books so I am taking the article at face value.
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
2
Comments
I have 'scarce' books.... Maybe some are rare, I really do not know. I have been a book 'accumulator' for most of my life.... I frequented book stores and flea markets and hobby shows for many years. That being said, I know nothing of the rare book market - and found the article interesting. Cheers, RickO
Everything I’ve read said coins are doing quite well between the $500-$10000 range.
I think there is a lot that also applies to the coin market, but other collectables as well. The truly rare items will hold their value, that goes for any collectable. I think all markets were heading to an increased online presence, covid and the restrictions just accelerated it.
I also think as a result of quarantining, people had money 'burning a hole in their pocket'. People were stuck at home and needed a fix-not so much for the high end items-but maybe sort of scarce or great condition items.
Online sales and offerings have been correcting all of the collectable markets for years. I won't say ruin the markets, it has only revealed what is truly rare, scarce, or common.
I believe it's a fallacy that "truly rare items" hold their value. Some do and some don't. And even the best of the best can decline in value during soft/down markets, which can last for a very long period of time.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
I encourage people to watch “The Booksellers” documentary.
Latin American Collection
My experience in the used book market is far, far removed from the "trophy hunter" market of the rich.
My observations of the ordinary used book market:
Historical significance is of great importance in determining rare coin values and somewhat subjective.
I would think even more so with rare book valuation.
The best promoters in dealing books will do well.
I agree with Mark. Although I do think it is fair to say that "truly rare items" outperform their more common brethren.
I think the best example of this continues to be the philatelic market where this has been going on for 25 years. Items like inverted jennys continue to set records. "Scarce" items like Zeppelins & Columbians have been holding steady lately but after an 80% drop over the previous 25 years. "Common" items like banknotes or low-denomination 19th century continue to slide into the abyss.
I'm not sure you're referencing the correct market. "Used books" aren't the same as "rare books". I think we're talking medieval illustrated books here not ex-library books.
There are plenty of 20th century books that are rare and valuable and well-collected.
If the dealer owns it it is rare. If you own it isn't seems to be the way the market operates in the "less than trophy" arena.
This doesn't seem like the coin to me. For coins, the mid-range (4-5 figure coins) seems to do well while top end coins (7 figures) aren't selling strong and low-end (2-3 figures) are about the same.
Sounds like the coin catalog market?
There are many parallels between the coin and the rare book markets. Collector demographics, dealer demographics, decline of shows, decline of storefronts, shift to online, shift to auctions, and more. But there are also important differences.
Institutions. One-third to one-half of high end material is sold to institutions, such as libraries and museums. There’s really no comparable thing in numismatics.
Buy-sell Spread. Dealers buy books at pennies on the dollar. Part of the reason is that a book will often sit on the shelf for years before being sold. A coin dealer would be vilified if he offered 10% of retail for a coin.
Buried. Unless you buy at auction and accumulate a focused collection worth selling at auction you will be buried in your books (see above). That’s OK, institutions don’t care and many book collectors intend to be buried with their books. Coin collectors generally aren’t OK with being buried.
Pricing. Coins are easy to price. Plus or minus some percent for eye appeal, coin prices are well-defined by the price guides. Books prices are all over the place. That’s part of why there are so many unsold book lots at auctions. It’s not uncommon to have only 70% of lots sell. That never happens in coin auctions.
The rare book market is doing fine overall, just like coins. Shows (last year) were solid, auctions are now strong.
LIBERTY SEATED DIMES WITH MAJOR VARIETIES CIRCULATION STRIKES (1837-1891) digital album
Were any of them specifically "made for collectors" and almost all of them preserved in virtually perfect condition?
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
my opinion fwiw....there will come a time when coins and rare books are collected as odd novelties - relics representing how people used to manage commerce and read. when that time comes, the market for those items will be relatively tiny and cheap compared to today...
however, IMO, everyone here will be long dead and gone by then
Super interesting article.
Thanks for sharing this.
What the article doesn’t mention, and perhaps it’s just an obvious given, is the role of popularity and historical significance to any given items value. A rare signed first edition, penned by a Pulitzer Prize winning author, that has fallen out of favor culturally, may have very little value if there aren’t active competing buyers currently interested in that author’s work currently.
In the market for rare books, coins, and other collectibles, the basic laws of supply and demand might be magnified or diminished exponentially based on popularity.
Personally, I have a collection of material that this very much is applicable to.
I’m actually considering donating it to a historical archive rather than placing it into auction.
Very interesting material to the right party! If any of them are alive that is!
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
Uplifting thought for the day....... I know I feel better now.
I’ve got a book so rare I can’t find an “expert” who can realize it. It’s a softcover First Edition 1845 Frederick Douglass Narrative of an American Slave. This is a first edition Boston imprint. 4500 overall were printed, and of that number a very few were left untrimmed, longer, and never had hardcovers put on. These few were left softcover and sewn into the linings of free black seamen who smuggled the book into the south. Experts......
I only have one, but I enjoy it. Signed by the author.
Sure. But "rare books" still a> @Hydrant said:
Yeah, no one ever buys Roman Imperial oil lamps or medieval swords and cross bows.
Yes there could be some parallels the wealthy pay much more for the big ticket stuff whether coins, entertainment, or travel. That’s bc it’s chump change to them. Like Joe Regular guy buying a gourmet burger and premium beer.
Yes go out there and buy a $10,000 coin then shop it around the bourse at a show 6 mo later.
@Boosibri
.
.
I would like to suggest watching "Made You Look" available on Netflix.
*
Made You Look
*
Could this happen in the coin world?
Well I think we all know that it's been happening for many, many years albeit perhaps on a less sophisticated level.
Crime follows the money, and right now money is flowing heavily into collectibles, especially cards IMO.
I suspect advanced criminal enterprises are already well at work.
I think this documentary could be of interest to anyone who collects anything of value.
It shows how if you let down your guard or fail to trust your instincts, you can be fooled, and that includes "the experts".
Charles III Album
Charles III Portrait Set
Charles IV Album
Charles IV Portrait Set
Spanish Colonial Pillar Set
Many factors have changed the "rare" book market in the last 20 years:
For research, Google Books has digitized many rare books. No more searching though many B&M book stores or traveling to research libraries. Also, many have been reprinted.
I made a case that part of the reason 1794, 1801, and 1802 half dollars have been soft in mid-grades is that so many are on-line. They are not "rare" as once touted, and a collector does not have to travel to the ANA convention to find one.
My experience with antiquarian books is mostly limited to 1782-1800 books with Robert Scot engraved copperplate illustrations. All are "scarce" and some were described as "rare" by booksellers. The most hyped was 1783 "Ahiman Rezon" American edition of the first Freemason's constitution. Around 2008 found a not-so-great copy for $1500 where the bookseller claimed only 4 had appeared at auction. Few years later found a better copy on Abebooks for $850. Fast-forward to today, four on Abebooks @ $750, $1100, $1890, and $2500. Not so rare as once hyped.
The impression I have is that most of the demand is for first printing of first editions but don't know much more than that. There are also so many that the demand must be really thin for the overwhelming majority, no matter how rare.
I own a set of Britannica's 54 volume set of Great Books of the Western World. My father probably bought it in the late 1950's and other than being slightly "toned" on the edge, it's essentially "as issued". I was surprised when my brother was able to find a comparable set for $200 CAD. That's like $3.75 for each volume.
The content is interesting to me but I will keep for sentimental reasons and for display purposes, certainly not because I think it will be worth a lot more.
And..they are hard to fit in slabs!
I just bought a small collection of books in an esoteric field for $12,000. I'm the poster child for "a bigger sucker" in this case. I wouldn't be able to resell the books quickly for 20% of that price if I needed to. Much of the book market is like that. They can sit on the shelf for decades until a buyer comes along.
LIBERTY SEATED DIMES WITH MAJOR VARIETIES CIRCULATION STRIKES (1837-1891) digital album
I’ve got a book so rare I can’t find an “expert” who can realize it. It’s a softcover First Edition 1845 Frederick Douglass Narrative of an American Slave. This is a first edition Boston imprint. 4500 overall were printed, and of that number a very few were left untrimmed, longer, and never had hardcovers put on. These few were left softcover and sewn into the linings of free black seamen who smuggled the book into the south. Experts
Not an expert but I remembered seeing this book offered in a rare book online catalog that I saved from last September.The Douglas book offered here is a hardcover volume in a box.
fwiw,
Boston: Published at the Anti-Slavery Office, 1845. First edition of this treatise on abolition written by famous orator and former slave Frederick Douglass. Small octavo, original brown cloth stamped in blind with gilt title to the front panel, frontispiece portrait of Douglass, green endpapers. In very good condition with rubbing and wear to the extremities and some loss to the spine, contemporary ownership signature. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Rare especially in the original cloth. $15,000
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
Same as some coin dealers.
A lot of good insight in the above posts.
I collected autographed books for a while and still add new ones on occassion.
The downside to book collecting is that they take up so much darned space, and there are constant fears about storage conditions that might impact condition.
I have a few books I would consider "rare" or at least valuable, such as an autographed first edition of Arthur Miller"s "Death of a Salesman", and a copy of Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" autographed with his thumbprint.
Books like that would find a buyer or auction quite easily, but as others have said the liquidity and markups in the collectable book business are very different from coins.