The Means of Book Trading That Dares Not Speak Its Name: eBay
HOW THEY STARTED USING EBAY
Barlow: “It was the Duncan Hines material that got me on to eBay. At first I had this idea to collect postcards of restaurants, but then I found that that was too general so I limited it to collecting postcards relating to Duncan Hines. This gives me a period and more interesting restaurants to boot. This sort of material is not in book stores – it’s too cheap and too ephemeral. With eBay, I have acquired all but the first edition of Duncan Hines. eBay allows me to bid on ephemera and material not sold by dealers and auction houses, such as restaurant menus. I use eBay primarily to buy particular types of things that I couldn’t get any other way.”
Barlow: “I am also a member of the Grolier Club and also I teach a course on Book Collecting with Terry Belanger at the University of Virginia’s Rare Book School, so in part I started on eBay as research when I was exploring all book searching engines on the net.”
Dealer Y: “I am a perennial collector, a frequenter of flea markets and estate sales. For people like me, eBay functions as a 24 hour estate sale. It is the fulfillment of my dreams, to be able to have access to this material within the confines of my home, in physical/temporal ways that had never previously existed.”
WHAT THEY BUY OR SELL ON EBAY
Librarian X: “For my independent book business, I have spurts of interest in different things. The Hogarth Press is a fairly regular interest. I have sold these at some reasonable profit, but not on eBay but on abe.com and other bookselling sites. You can’t buy cheap on abe.com. You can, however, buy cheap on eBay and sell high on abe. For the special collection I work for, I buy postcards, movie postcards, ephemera, trade catalogues, out of print material on eBay.”
Zubal: “With eBay I have been really focused on popular culture. Literary 1920s, 1930s do sell but at low prices. I only sell things that I would throw out anyway or wholesale at pennies. Instead I sell it on eBay and get dollars, not pennies, for it.”
Barlow: “I buy books, mostly. But I also buy stamps and ephemeral material especially material relating to waterskiing (which used to be a hobby of mine), and material relating to restaurants listed in Duncan Hines.”
Dealer Y: “I buy fine first edition books in modern art, photography, about objects d’art, and sometimes I buy the objects d’art themselves not just the books about them.”
APPROXIMATELY HOW MANY PIECES THEY’VE TRADED IN VIA EBAY/APPROXIMATE PERCENTAGE OF BUSINESS CONDUCTED OVER EBAY
Zubal: “I’d say eBay makes for less than 1% of my total sales. I sell several hundred books a day on my website [www.zubal.com]. I sell at most something like four items a day on eBay. Since it’s very time consuming and labor intensive to do rare book descriptions, I sell on eBay more as a lark to get rid of stuff that I would otherwise generally dump.”
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
Heritage Auctions Rare Books Signature Auction December 15, 2025
Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/00d5fd41-2542-4a80-b119-4886d4b9925f.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.")
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
