An educational and informational site about rare, old and antiquarian books.
Last quarter’s coverage of the big rare book auctions, focused almost entirely on the new price record set by a first edition of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica, which has become the most expensive printed scientific book ever sold at auction after a winning bid of $3.7m (£3m), nearly two and a half times […]
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In terms of total dollars, global auction sales of rare books in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2016 were slightly down from the same period in 2015; this year’s $87 million figure, for the period, represents a 6% decrease compared to last year. But a closer look at the top three markets – the […]
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The 2nd quarter of 2016 felt the tremors caused by the UK affirmative Brexit vote. The subsequent drop in the value of the British currency delivered a rather controlled above normal interest in rare books offered in British pounds. Opportunistic buyers took advantage of the lower dollar or euro to sterling exchange rate, mostly through […]
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The value of books determined by the Rare Book Sale Monitor (RBSM) is achieved by selecting comparable sales and adjusting the prices according to the differences between the comparable sales and the item being evaluated. RBSM comparative pricing is produced by adjusting the sale price of a particular title that is closely monitored, by accounting […]
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Last year’s financial results from two of the largest auction houses have signaled the prospect of an art-market slowdown. Christie’s reported $6.5 billion in auction sales for the year, down 4% from a year ago, while rival Sotheby’s reported $6 billion last year, down 2% from a year earlier. Furthermore, this year’s art auctions got […]
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How exciting to investors could the introduction of a mutual fund that invests solely in rare books be? Before you rule that everything about it is controversial, consider this: The mutual fund industry has embraced alternative investing 1 sixty plus years later from the time that Harry Markowitz conducted his breakthrough research on portfolio theory based […]
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The Rare Book Sale Monitor (RBSM) has been tracking the sales performance of “blue chips” for some of the major genre of rare books. In addition the author breakdown follows some of the most frequently traded authors of books that are considered rare, in order to track their performance. The sampling selection included in each […]
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Alternative type investment mutual funds are often pitched as providing decent returns that are not tied to the fate of stocks or bonds. But getting the right asset mix to deliver on both of these goals has proven quite difficult. Alternative fund strategies, in addition to providing diversification, cushion stock-heavy portfolios by reducing volatility. During […]
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In the midst of the Greece crisis reaching yet another boiling point, the RBSM recorded little or no change in ancient, classical Greek authors’ works covering history, science, geography, philosophy and literature. It has definitely not been the type of economic event with significant impact on antiquarian books. The supply of ancient Greek books got […]
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Speculations on the future of the rare book market analyze the dynamics behind both the demand and the supply quite extensively. Demand for rare books in the United States and arguably the rest of western civilization is largely consumed by some long-standing cultural behaviors. Generalizations that are based on collector stereotypes that are broken up by […]
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