Rare Book Monthly
Articles - August - 2009 Issue
The AED: useful in tough times
A book's history is part of the story
In the future both sales history and current listings will be on the same page. Listings will also be time stamped as in "first posted for sale November 8th, 2007 at $750, repriced in October 14th, 2008 at $600." When then juxtaposed against auction records the cash market and the listing market will resume their traditional relationship of 7-10. That is, a $1,000 book on line will sell for about $700 or thereabouts at auction.
During the current downturn however such information is not on the same page. So while auction realizations, posted day after day, have fallen to 50% of online listing prices generally and are continuing to adjust to changing market conditions, listing prices are only beginning to adjust. As this occurs online sellers are dividing into two camps. Some are reducing prices to reflect the current weaker market. Others are holding their prices in anticipation that the economy, and by extension the market, will recover. For sellers looking to adjust, the AED is a quick snapshot of current valuation. For buyers it is the quick way to confirm if current offers are reflecting current conditions. This is important to know because there are exceptional values being offered but they are mixed in among millions of yet to adjust items and prices. The courage to buy is often born of confidence in both the quality and value of the purchase. The AED provides the pricing history to justify that confidence.
The AED, for 2008 alone, includes more than 220,000 lots offered at auction. If they sold we provide the price. If they did not we provide the estimates which weren't reached. Because we also include all documented group lots the total number of items offered at auction in 2008, was 460,000. In total, the AED includes more than 2.15 million full text records covering four million items.
If you need reality and a high probability of sale your quest for a transaction begins by understanding the market.
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