Eric Caren and Steven Goldman shown with a Revolutionary War run of the Boston Gazette
This is a useful step because interesting material, that is going to change hands at around $25, is not going to get the same kind of write-up that Sotheby’s and Christies are going to devote to Lincoln’s personally corrected copy of the Gettysburg Address. All this is not to suggest, for a moment, that the ocean of material flowing through eBay isn’t good. Once you find these companies’ auctions, that offer the type and quality of material you like, you’ll want to bookmark them because you’ll be returning every day. Both sellers keep hundreds of listings live all the time and they both enjoy a loyal following of past buyers who occupy the front seats of their ongoing auctions. In effect they are running auctions 24/7/365. Perhaps, rather than think eBay, think DeWolfe & Wood as well as SAGHN because they are running their own auctions on eBay around the clock and they are selling a great deal of material, developing wider reputations, finding customers and one suspects material to purchase as well. It’s no wonder eBay is such a strong business and that its adherents so strongly support it.
On eBay you can save keywords to search current auction lots for matches. But eBay’s saved list of keywords only search lot titles and titles generally don’t tell you enough. Keywords on Æ's MatchMaker, by comparison, search the entire lot descriptions and that is where most matches are found. eBay does permit full text descriptions to be searched but only on a manual one-by-one basis. Recurrent searching of the full text is not presently offered on eBay itself. Keywords you develop using MatchMaker on Æ also search all regular book auctions worldwide.
Selling on eBay is good even for those with no skills but there are clear rewards for those who use the medium to maximize their efficiency. Buyers can not help but notice the inconsistent way that materials are offered and described on eBay. Extensive descriptions require work but pay real dividends. The more extensive the explanation the better chance there is for a higher realization. Images are terribly important and in almost all cases, images are provided for the lots both firms offer. Experience has shown that when images are not provided the realizations are lower.
Depending on how much you sell there is a complicated sliding scale of fees but figure 5% as an estimate of your cost. Fees get lower with volume.
eBayoffers a variety of options for learning how to develop your listings. There are manuals, tutorials and classes. They are all investments in knowledge and are not easily transferable to other sites. In becoming enmeshed in the eBay process and experience you are incrementally committing yourself to them for the potential long term. Dr. Goldman told us that within two months of starting to sell on eBay he knew it was going to both work and would become important to him. At DeWolfe & Wood they said it was at about 3 months that they knew it was going to work out. Five years later eBay is an arrow in DeWolfe & Wood’s quiver and a major tool for Stephen A. Goldman Historical newspapers. Both are eBay Power-Sellers and very comfortable using the eBay platform.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s Geek Week 2-17 July | New York
Sotheby’s, July 17: Album Containing Four Signed Photographs of Albert Einstein, With Eleven Additional Einstein Photographs, From His Journey to Japan Aboard the S.S. Kitano Maru, 1922. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Fred Freeman. Illustration of the Channel Tunnel’s British Portal (Presumably at Folkestone), ca. 1958. $5,000 to $7,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Wolfgang Kurt Hermann Panofsky Group of Awards. Pief Panofsky's 1961 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, National Medal of Science, Enrico Fermi Award, and Others. $8,000 to $12,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Seymour Cray; Cray-3. Manuscript Cray-3 Logbook, 1989-90. — The Only Significant Cray Manuscript to Come to Auction. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.
![<b>Forum, July 17:</b> Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/148a7ca4-9746-44c9-a75e-86229b6f10d2.png "<b>Forum, July 17:</b> Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.")
![<b>Forum, July 17:</b> Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/863855a8-4b41-4512-b168-a4a3eab5d6a6.png "<b>Forum, July 17:</b> Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.")
