The Price of Vintage Baseball Books

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Posted By: barrysloate

In today's New York Times Book Review Baumann Rare Books of NYC has a listing which features primarily baseball books (topical with the new season about to begin). Here is a sampling of some prices:

Athletic Sports in America $3500
Spalding's America's National Game $2800
Spink's The National Game $2200
1891 Camp's American Football $1800

In each case these books are listed at roughly 7x-10x what they typically trade for. We've had discussions about how books are priced in the rare book trade, but can anyone explain these? Is anybody buying these books? Would they pay 40-50% of their asking price for additional copies? Simply extraordinary pricing.

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Posted By: Max Weder

Delusional pricing.

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Posted By: barrysloate

So Max- if I call them today and offer an Athletic Sports for $1000 (about 29% of their asking price), are they rushing into Brooklyn with a certified check to pick it up?

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Posted By: Max Weder

Barry

They shouldn't, because I'm emailing them an offer for mine for $750...

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Posted By: Joseph

That's what Bauman and booksellers of the cater-to-the-art-crowd ilk do. Same deal with Hemingway and Dickens. High quality...very high price. I've been amused at their ads for years. I will, however, extend kudos to the salesperson for continuing to score these ads given the gloom of the newspaper industry!

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Posted By: barrysloate

Max- we can turn this into a reverse auction...they can have mine for $675.

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Posted By: Glenn

Barry,

I suppose there is no easy, quick explanation. It's an attempt to hit the home run, make the quick, big profit. Though I hate to use Ebay as a reference, you see it there every day. Sellers put up items for outrageous prices (maybe not 7-10x) and, occassionally, someone comes along and pays the price. Why? I don't know. I guess because they can.

You know there are people with money who simply spend it because they can. There are buyers out there who can drop a few thousand without blinking an eye and will buy something that catches the eye. When you react to such an ad as to which you refer, you are reacting from the perspective of a dealer/collector, someone who knows the hobby and knows sports books and publications. There are people out there who buy without that perspective; but they do have the money.

I know that doesn't address your specific question and I certainly don't have an answer. As you well know, there are people who move in and out of the market (not the hobby) and spend oodles of money and drive up prices on select items, then, seemingly disappear. Speaking of books, the Sol White History is a good example. Jerry sold a copy several years ago for about 24K. A few years later, the exact same copy sold in auction for less than 40% of the previous price. And, it did not sell to the previous underbidder. My point is that there were two people who were willing to pay a very, very high price for an item at that time and in that rather small auction. So, yes, there are people out there who will pay extremely high prices at any given time.

REA has a 1860 Base Ball Player's Pocket Companion in auction. It will be interesting to watch. Previously, he sold the 1859 for $12K and 1861 for $10K. Mastro sold the 1859 for $22K. This one was on ebay for $8500 and did not sell. The seller tried Make An Offer and turned down $5K, asking $6500. Fair price, I thought. I will be watching this one.

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Posted By: Jason Mishelow

I would be curious how they square these prices with the results at the Swann Auction held on March 26th where Carver's Book of Sports went for less then 3000, Richter's (sp?) went for around 300, a very nice Anson for less then 500 and a buch of early guides on the 300-500 range. I know I have said it before but i think that this is the number 1 problem with the rare book market-- the prices are so high that nothing moves and no one ever gets to see these great books. If the books were priced to market and started to move I think the prices would start to climb

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Posted By: barrysloate

Glenn- I saw that Pocket Companion on ebay and figured it was the same one. That was once considered a near impossible book to find but copies do surface. And I think Jerry's Sol White went for more like 20K, but that's irrelevant. It was an auction and there was a real live bidder at each bidding increment.

Nevertheless, let me pose this question to you, even though you can only guess the answer. I have copies of all three baseball books cited above, as well as many others that are much rarer. If I call Baumann and tell them I want to sell my entire library, what percentage of their asking price would you guess they would offer me?

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Posted By: barrysloate

Jason- I never made it to Swann's but I heard that the Carver book was in pretty bad shape, so that may be why it went so low. Also, a few weeks before another copy sold at New England book auctions, so that is two available in a short period of time. That's another book that is popping up with greater frequency these days.

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Posted By: Glenn

Barry-I have no idea, but if you get a good offer, let me know. I have some to sell, too.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I would say that probability of getting a good offer is slim and none- and that's my point.

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Posted By: Glenn

Agreed!!

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Posted By: Max Weder

And then just when we thought the book market was in full decay, this auction result hits:

http://tinyurl.com/c3mnsp



I didn't think this book would have commanded this price (and I'm still regretting the day when my pc crashed when I was bidding on one of these in dust jacket...) but perhaps it's harder to find and of more interest than I thought.

Max

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Posted By: barrysloate

That is a strong price for that book. I don't think it's too exciting, but it does have nice plates. I have to say I have had really good results lately selling vintage books on ebay. As I mentioned on the main board, I had about eight books on BST a couple of months ago, and sold exactly one without even a second inquiry on any of them. I put them on ebay and got a ton more than my listed price. I was truly impressed. Don't give up on baseball books quite yet.