OT: Need help with auctioning rare book

[Archive]

Posted By: Rob Fouch

Hi, everybody. I asked Leon if I could make this off-topic request for help and he graciously said OK. It's actually loosely on-topic (very loosely, I'll admit).

I go to tag/estate sales to look for stuff (books, records, etc.) to sell to fund my T206 habit. (See? I told you it was kind of on-topic. ) Well, I found a real doozie last week. I bought a stack of old books for $15 and one of them, it appears, is an exceedingly rare first edition called "How to Trade in Stocks," by Jesse Livermore, the legendary Wall Street trader. I'd never heard of him, but I'm a financial idiot, so no surprise there.

Anyway, I found it on some various book sites and on ebay for sale anywhere from $3,000 to $7,000. And here's the kicker: The one I found is autographed by Livermore, who committed suicide the same year this book came out. None of the ones on the sites I found were autographed, so I may have a real rarity here. I've sent pictures to several auction houses that deal in rare books
and four of them so far have said they would accept it on consignment.
Basically, I was hoping maybe a few board members would have experience
auctioning off an old book and could recommend a good auction house.

Seems like it would be best to auction it in New York, since that's where the people perhaps most interested in it all live and work. The three New York auction houses (plus one based in San Francisco) who've said they would accept it are: Doyle New York, Bonhams and Swann Galleries. Have any of you ever auctioned a rare non-sports book? Are you familiar with these auction houses? Any others I should consider? I also sent it to Christie's, but haven't heard back. And I suspect this book doesn't reach the Christie's level anyway.

I'm leaning toward Doyle because the books guy there called me the very next day I submitted the information. And he seemed knowledgable about the book, and also excited. To quote, he said, "I think this could do quite well." I'm hoping I'll end up with a couple of Wall Street types fighting over it. I can dream, can't I? Regardless, whatever I end up getting, it won't be a bad return on my $1.50 investment.

Any and all help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. And thanks to Leon for allowing this post.

Rob