Is it worth bidding?
Not all the items sold in auctions are worth the
price people are bidding for them. Usually, it's pretty easy to make an independent check, but
people seem to be more often influenced by what other bidders for an item are doing than by
finding out whether the same item is available at a better price elsewhere.
The first
thing to do when you see an auction item you are interested in is to take a look at what regular
booksellers have on offer at BookFinder or other major sites (such as ABE and
Bibliofind, linked below). It's amazing how often you find that you could buy the same item
cheaper and without the hassle of having to bid for it! A close examination of what's on offer
will also often reveal things you (and possibly the auction seller) didn't know. For example,
you could find out that what is being offered for auction as a first edition is in fact a second
or later impression of the first edition, perhaps issued in the same year as the first issue,
but not really a first. Or you could find that the first state of the book has a misprint on a
certain page, and by e-mailing the auction seller you can confirm whether their copy has that
misprint.
There are all kinds of other points which make a difference to the value of
the item, some of which I've listed here .
If you can't
find the item on BookFinder, then you might perhaps find an
ABE or Bibliofind trader who stocks similar items, and send them an e-mail. You could describe the item and
ask how much you might expect to pay for it, or you could ask if there are any particular first
edition points to look for, and so on. Obviously, there is a limit to how much you can simply
make use of traders in this way, but since such a dialogue may not infrequently lead to a sale
most traders will be willing to help.
I would say that roughly fifty percent of the time
this kind of checking leads me to drop the idea of bidding at auction in favour of purchasing
from an ABE or Bibliofind trader. Other times I have managed to ascertain that an auctioned item
is good value, and bid accordingly.
If you're bidding on a more expensive item, or you
want someone else to do the legwork, The International Society of Appraisers is the place to go.
