Saving Paper Auction Catalogs - Need your thoughts
EastonCollection
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For the last 30 plus years of so, I have been saving all auction catalogs from all the auction houses. I do refer to them frequently during the year as I research my coins, but it does take up a fair amount of space. Yes, I can stack them up neater or whatever. My questions are (1) Do you save your all auction catalogs, (2) save only ones that you feel are relevant to your collection, (3) save only special catalogs i.e. Pogue, Norweb & others, (4) save only those that have your coins in the auctions (5) throw the catalogs away after the auction or any other thoughts i.e. might not need them after the auction because there are a fair number of online auction references. Love to hear everyone's thoughts on this topic.
Easton Collection
7
Comments
Wow! Generally, I only care about saving catalogs that include coins that I own.
Nothing is as expensive as free money.
That's quite a collection you have! I've always liked books and auction catalogs.... but the organization and space does not allow me to have but a very few. The ones I tend to keep are the specialty ones or the ones that have a tie to types of coins/tokens in my interest area.
Your image is a wonderful example of what happens over time. The sheer mass starts to become somewhat daunting.
Especially when so much of the last 20 years (especially) is fairly easily accessed via the internet.
However, like all books, especially regarding art and design, and my different hobbies, I have a hard time discarding published documents that have (or may have) reasonable knowledge (for my use). I appreciate having the printed copy.
During my recent move, I packed multiple boxes of books and periodicals, including old Numismatic Literature, from Auction catalogues to Periodicals like the Numismatist, and wondered to myself if those thousands of pounds of boxes were worth the trouble ... especially when I rarely referred to or re-read any of them (but knew almost EXACTLY where they were).
But again, parting with many of them was not in my nature.
To answer your question about catalogues in general;
No, I don't (and never have) kept them all, but I tend to keep most of them for at least a few years. After the "local" pile gets too big (or the shelf too full) the ones I feel are important, or have coins and currency I ended up acquiring, always seem to find a spot to be saved as "keepers" (now in multiple boxes).
I did try to purge some of these before packing for the move, and probably reduced the load by maybe a third. The rest all survived the move, but now, of course, which items come out of the boxes into a useful and at-hand library, and which items find the attic, is another endeavor entirely. I probably should re-think that purge and do it again (and maybe again after that!).
Good luck on what you do.
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242
Keep them for another 50 years it might worth some money by that time. Time will add value to them.
Why? So far, time has tended to decrease the value of such things not increased them.
Thinking about it reminded me of an old song ...
"Goodbye old desert rat
You half crazy wildcat
You knew where it was at
What life's all about
Saver of catalogs
King of the prairie dogs
Success is survival
We all tough it out"
~Michael Murphy
EDITED to add - Wow. I just pulled up the original version and didn't realize it sounded like that. I guess because we played it with guitars on a slight up-tempo and sang it with a touch of high-desert twang, my memory picked the later.
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242
Save only those that are considered to be reference works for specialized collections. Recycle the rest.
lol.......finally someone that has almost as many catalogs/magazines/books as me. I'm finally listening to my wife and children that my collection will never be looked at in my lifetime. So, I am slowly going through and getting rid of some of them.
How do you even look something up in the catalogs?
The one time I save any were for only significant auctions with pieces that I had acquired or had bid on and lost ... but no more. I have been dumping those and I have asked all the auction houses to take my name off of the mailings for catalogs all together - to save cost / environment and my time to dump them out.
The web sites and tools on the major auction houses web sites (Like Heritages ) are wonderful. Their picture quality, links to references such as to the PCGS or NGC coin facts info, plus auction achieves makes the paper books ineffective.
The Newman portal have auction catalogues back to the 1800's in PDF format so I see no reason to even have hard copies of anything.
Only wish there was a better search engine to look up a coin auction history across ALL past auctions on the Newman portal. Saying that however, PCGS's "price look up " feature is a good tool and they have been expanding it to go back to at least 1990's and in some of the cases well into the 1980's. Only improvement I would see if they make would be to included "Not Sold " Pieces and a link to a PDF copy of the auction catalog found in the Newman portal.
Good luck ... If you have a 1954 Palace Collection Auction of King Farouk - it might be worth something.
OMG ... My Mother was Right about Everything!
I wake up with a Good Attitude Every Day. Then … Idiots Happen!
The NNP/Internet Archive (the backend) has a large collection of auction catalogs.
For those that have been digitized... you could winnow out those that have been scanned, but
What you need to figure out is whether you could do the same research if you displayed the digital versions on a truly large monitor (say 4k - 3840 x 2160 - or the coming 8k monitors)?
Is there enough detail in the scans that you can zoom in to meaningfully see the coin filling the screen? If all you care about is the text, we've probably passed the tipping point. With images, well, you do you... we can't answer for you.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Specialty auctions, famous collections, recycle the rest. The older catalogues in those categories are fun to look at occasionally and there aren’t that many compared to the massive number you have amassed. I got rid of some of my early important catalogues and miss them. Not a digital guy altogether.
Like you I never wanted to toss them so they piled up until they became unmanageable. I'm talking from the late 1960s through the 1990s. I finally grouped them by year and auction company and sold a ton of them on eBay. With the NNP available and ridiculous postage rates I don't know if that would work today or not.
I still have a few boxes left over and every month I try to remember to bring a stack to my local coin show. I leave them on a table outside the conference room with other advertising and by the time I leave they are usually gone.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
Weren't these catalogs free in the first place? I know I didn't pay for the ones I have -- they were just sent to me because I bid on something once.
I save the special ones that I enjoy rereading, or catalogs that are important and don’t exist online. I think that adds up to only 20 or so.
Most were. Some were sold. Only certain collections are off any historical interest. The others...
Seems like to thing to do is to save those that are cool to own - Norweb, Eliasberg, Pogue & others and dump the rest. This will really free up my basement and my wife will be thrilled. Thanks for everyone's advice.
Don't strain your back while moving them. If you haven't moved them in a long time you may be surprised at just how heavy they are!
Just added 10 catalogs to the rack - boy oh boy, your right - they are quite heavy!
Contact the ANA, NNP and a few book catalog dealers. If you have PRs for them STRESS that. I took over 500 catalogs and another 200 Numismatist and weeklies. The Boy Scouts helped me carry them in and give them away. This was at the Fall South Carolina show a few years ago.
Most of the ones that I have left are from before 1960.
I have stacks of them that I don’t know what to do with. They take up a lot of space. Luckily, I don’t receive them anymore. Can’t bring myself to trash them.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
I have precious few. Some are famous collections (Eliasberg, JJP), some are good attribution references (Missouri Cabinet half cents), and some are just catalogs I haven't gotten rid of.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
I have many catalog PDFs downloaded to a folder on my computer, this allows me to perform searches with a great deal more ease than thumbing through catalogs. This includes many old sales that can be found on archive.org and through the NNP.
If a high quality PDF of the catalog exists, I think it’s safe to ditch the print catalog, unless it is of extraordinary significance.
I would consider also saving the ones from auctions that you attended that may have useful notations that you wrote when viewing the coins. That's information that you can't get anywhere else.
I keep them and collect them and refer to them. My wife hates them as they are clogging up otherwise beautiful bookcases.
"Look up, old boy, and see what you get." -William Bonney.
So far - we have a wide range of what folks do. I guess I will continue to save the most catalogs but the ones I feel that are not necessary on a going forward basis, I won't save. I tend to refer to refer to these catalogs with some frequency.
Well, #2, 3 and 4 are good reasons to save them. The rest, not so much. Fahrenheit 451. 😎
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Shread them make papier-mâché and use it to form your coffin. 😳
You’ll have something to read in the afterlife.
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
I very much prefer to read from paper than to read from a computer or my phone. It's just more enjoyable. Keep 'em!
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
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That is so morbid it's kinda funny!
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242
I do not save auction catalogs, however I have a large filing cabinet and have devoted 2 drawers to holding old copies of Coin World. There is no method to the madness. The oldest are from the 1980's and my subscription ended in the early 2000's. Every once in awhile I will find a coin i am researching and will end up going through them. The only other time I will use them is when for either medical or weather reasons I am trapped in the house with time on my hands. (3 day blizzards have their use). James