Our Weekly Auction Updates: books and the auctions by the numbers

Our Weekly Auction Updates (WAU) have become a significant publication for us over the past 10 years. Our RBM and WAU audiences are similar but their perspectives are different. Rare Book Monthly has been geared to the retail trade, our WAU following organized for the professional trade. Increasingly the dividing line between these two communities is becoming less black and white.

The difference?

Books are built on words, buying and selling at auction is basically a numbers game. The numerical history of an item is heavily dependent on frequency of appearance, who the offering agent is, the timing of the offer, and the relative strength or weakness of the overall sale.

The Weekly Auction Updates, which are issued every week of the year, are single snowflakes. Over the course of a year you get a sense of the annual downpour. These reports suggest whether you bring an umbrella or buy a bottle of champagne.

Altogether, there is a lot to be learned.

Our WAU are always posted on our Auction Page. Here’s a link.