Rare Book Monthly

Articles - February - 2009 Issue

Wikis Add the AED and Prepare for Stage II

Zamorano 80:  first cut

Zamorano 80: first cut


By Bruce McKinney

This is an Update on Wiki Bibliographies, the future of buying and selling works-on-paper. The goal of this project is to organize available material [books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera, maps, paintings and other works of art] into collecting contexts that help both buyers and sellers understand relevance, rarity and price. The heart of the Wiki is a living bibliography that over time becomes ever more extensive, always incorporating new material as its relevance is confirmed. This is the 5th month in the project and this month Wiki Bibliographies include a variety of new features: free preliminary and full subscription searches in the AED as well as a link for background articles on each subject. Each month the Wikis continue to evolve.

Today most old, collectible and rare books are sold for less than they are worth because their only context is typically within listing sites to other listed copies. Most sellers simply hope buyers will know why to buy because sellers themselves are often unsure what the potential purchaser's motivation will be. Such listings are strong on bibliographic detail and short on descriptive narrative, their listing prices high and the buyer unconvinced. Those items that do sell tend to be well-described or priced below their actual value. This has always been so. Great dealers and great auction houses spin great tales and receive well-earned premiums. However, few people have the intellectual gifts and patience to do this. For them Wikis, by providing extensive bibliographic and subject context, add the element that most listings lack and that makes material attractive to a larger audience: relevance. Wikis answer the question "why should I buy this?" A great storyteller is always going to have an edge but for the vast majority of items the Wikis will get both buyer and seller onto the same page. From there it is simply a matter of condition and price. Of course, if there are more copies than buyers prices will fall and, if there are more buyers than copies, prices will rise. These days collectors, like everyone else, are off in a thousand directions. Point them in one by providing a single place to monitor most of the activity in a collecting area and, because it saves so much time, the market in this collecting niche will be strong - both when they are buying and someday selling.

One aspect of the Wikis not yet fully appreciated is that they are neutral to both form and source. Think about that for a moment. It does not matter where the material comes from. Put a fair price on a properly described item, and if the Wiki has a following, such material will find a buyer. Because there are more than 160 million books on line and the material organized ALPHABETICALLY rather than by collectible subject, it is almost impossible to efficiently locate material in a way that compares examples of one item with examples of another. Examples of the same book may be compared but general comparisons to all available material within a specific collecting area are impossible. Wikis change this. The relative worth, rarity and importance of material can be meaningfully compared; the frequency of appearance [on the market] calculated; and more items considered; perhaps ten, not just one or two. I therefore say without hesitation that, while the traditional listing sites will continue as giant wholesalers Wikis or some version of the concept will soon redefine the way collectible material is bought and sold. Wikis increase the value of material while valuing the collector's their time and ambitions.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Peter Max, Portrait of Mary Tyler Moore (Versions 1,2, 5, 6), 2001. Estimate $10,000-15,000
    DOYLE: The iconic screen-used wall-mounted "M" from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Estimate $5,000-8,000
    DOYLE: The Mary Tyler Moore Show by Al Hirschfeld. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Annie Leibovitz presents Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke for Vanity Fair. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    DOYLE: Al Hirschfeld presents Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke in the CBS Wednesday Night Lineup. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    DOYLE: Richard McKenzie, Portrait of Mary Tyler Moore. Estimate $1,000-2,000
    Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Three Original Bill Hargate Costume Designs for The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. Estimate $600-800
    DOYLE: The famous Bonnie and Clyde "Wanted" broadside. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE: Ticket to the Final Episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show Estimate $400-600
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
  • Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
    Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
    Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
    Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
    Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
    Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
    Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.

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