The Future of the Past

Collectible paper has been prospering in the auction rooms for many years. Over the prior 15 years it has been a given that the annual numbers would slowly increase. When Covid hit no one knew what would happen and it turned out in 2020 that the book auctions would became the beneficiary of the stay-at-home health policies that reduced or eliminated shows and closed shops.

The question would be whether the upsurge in lots, prices, and traffic would hold and today we know. The surge has held and our month to month records for the past 4 years suggest that old paper at auction will be maintaining, into 2024, the billion dollar pace we first saw in 2021.

Here are some charts to think about.

Year	Month	Events	Total Lots	Lots Sold
2023	1	168	41,969	35,764
2023	2	189	45,318	37,697
2023	3	228	59,741	48,673
2023	4	204	49,723	40,038
2023	5	219	64,325	48,431
2023	6	228	58,775	44,758
2023	7	186	50,091	41,070
2023	8	151	33,377	27,002
	Total	1573	403,319	323,433

	2	0	2	2
Year	Month	Events	Total Lots	Lots Sold
2022	1	169	41065	34,970
2022	2	176	46829	39,596
2022	3	209	50250	40,806
2022	4	206	52659	43,429
2022	5	230	70657	51,394
2022	6	217	58069	46,732
2022	7	184	50157	40,965
2022	8	134	29170	25,839
	Total	1525	398,856	323,731

	2	0	2	1
Year	Month	Events	Total Lots	Lot Sold
2021	1	146	36432	32,469
2021	2	152	40993	35,469
2021	3	188	47389	39.426
2021	4	186	48225	38,681
2021	5	186	63921	51,371
2021	6	239	64246	52,446
2021	7	179	52741	39,558
2021	8	142	37459	33,682
	Total	1418	391,406	283,715

	2	0	2	0
Year	Month	Events	Total Lots	Lots Sold
2020	1	128	34180	29,956
2020	2	126	35289	28,095
2020	3	143	39760	33,536
2020	4	126	34465	29,883
2020	5	140	46153	38,062
2020	6	190	52496	42,475
2020	7	163	45589	35,784
2020	8	120	27823	24,034
	Total	1136	315,755	261,825

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The Future of the Past

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The Future of the Past

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