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Seems a crazy cheap price I agree. Matthias Bartz's first edition Dino Compendium Is now worth much less I feel since the green cover new edition arrived.

 

Basically true, but often a good reason to buy from them. Having said that, be sure you have a plan for shipping in place. In some places (big cities, overseas, etc.) that can be staggeringly expensive otherwise. Don't count on much (or any, often enough) help or hand-holding from the auction house.

Sorry to say, but it's not unusual for big lots from big auction houses. Typically, when books get grouped together, the price per unit goes down, often way down. More than you might think, it's to the point of what the bidder is willing to pay for the one desired title inclusive of shipping. Everything else just sort of gets thrown in for free. This sale was no aberration. I have bid in more than a few where the results are essentially the same.

True, no doubt! But this particular example was certainly before (2019) that came about.

Not true. Believe me, I know. I paid the invoice.

Look this sale (or plenty of others) up on Bonhams' (or Gooding's, RM's, etc.) website. You will see MANY lots where the results are essentially the same. Bottom line, big lots of books result in low per unit prices. Often, very low. If you think it's possible to dispose of a large collection of books quickly and at "market correct" prices, you are likely very wrong. Off the top of my head, I can think of precious few examples (the Keith Martin and John Lamm collections on BAT?) that run even slightly counter to this conclusion.

 

The car auction houses such as ones mentioned as well as others truly do not like dealing with the books. Only some special books are lotted individually, and even with those, these auction houses just do not care. Almost all insist on only accepting consignments that will be sold at no reserve. They might as well be running sausage factories.

I've been buying and selling various automobilia including books (as a dealer and a collector) with auction houses for over 30 years, and admittedly I have a like/hate relationship with them. I learned my lesson the hard way with consigning books with a couple of the big names....The couple of times I have sold books at no reserve I have gotten screwed, and I have seen the same happen with other consignors more times than I can count. Conversely, I have done very well selling books privately and directly to my clients. The only, and I do mean only times that you should consider or agree to consigning any of your property for sale at "no reserve" is:
a) If you don’t care about how much money you could lose.
b) If you need to sell quickly regardless of the results.
c) If for some reason you need to show a massive loss on your financials.

 

Word!

 

Ferrari dealers here in the States have a large number of books on shelves in their waiting rooms, all fully cellophane wrapped and NOT for sale! The local dealer has some titles I would like to buy, but.....

 

I believe it is part of the dealership branding package so all dealers have the same set of books, no doubt supplied by Ferrari with an appropriate profit margin added on.

 

Hello, a part of my collection. A special love for Ecurie Francorchamps and Ferrari club Belgio.
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If you go back and look at that auction, the "whole" collection was broken into different lots.

Now, it was still, by lot, respectively, insanely cheap.

I own 75% of this collection, as the gentleman who purchased at that auction, passed away, and as I look lot by lot at what I have, and the titles, it becomes clear he bought all of the lots. He must've sold, or someone went "estate" picking before me, but I have about 25 boxes total from what he purchased.

I can say without a doubt it is a phenomenal collection he put together.


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The lots of books at that particular sale definitely went on and on... I believe that all of them had previously been the collection of an individual named Jack Middleton.

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/25222/?section=1#/aa1=1&MR1_length=235&w1=list&MR1_section_0=1&m1=1

 

Correct

this type of note appears in many of these books



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I attended that auction. I was going to take a pass on it but Fred Simeone encouraged me to attend, "There are tons of good books in the sale". We agreed not to bid against each other so there were a number of lots(like Lot 22) that I missed out on. As it was I purchased hundreds of books at the sale.
The collection was located in Oklahoma and Philip Kantor from Bonhams travelled there to inventory/catalog the collection. He placed them in very specific lots. The company who shipped the books to Philadelphia packed them willy-nilly and the Bonhams crew had a terrible time sorting it out(didn't get it all quite right).
I paid for my lots and after loading them my car was riding on its bump stops. BTW the last thing my wife said to me before I left to attend the auction was "don't buy any more books".

 

Actually, your post brings up a tangential point. That sale was a bit of a bonanza for unexpected signed books. I ended up with Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Luca Montezemolo, and others. If you think the auction company would check for that sort of thing and promote it to increase the sale amount, think again.

Gooding's Phil Hill sales last year took this sort of "bonus" into overdrive. Many of his books were inscribed to him by all sorts of people, had signed menus from various events tucked inside, even 70 year old notes from Luigi Chinetti, and so on. Once again, no one on the selling end, apparently, paid any attention.

 

This is the Ferrari library of my good friend Jean-Louis Bezemer. Sadly, because of health issues, he auctioned of most of it about two years ago. He had a large living area with the wall cabinets filled with books, a work den with even more books and a cellar with rows of binders sorted by tipo. When I visited him after the auction I expected an empty house, but he still has a massive amount of binders, mostly modern tipos and formula one related, and his work den hasn't changed at all.
He always wanted to keep his library intact for prosperity, but a several attempts have failed. His children aren't really into it, except for the personal stuff.
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Agreed. It seems like that would be one of the pillars of an auction houses job (in this case).

Even a sloppy person such as myself did what should be proper, and I spent an entire day categorizing by name, author, ISBN, print date and special notes (ie signature or etc)(I admit it, there’s a method to my madness, but most would probably find my approach messy

 

This is exactly why I firmly believe that most of these car auction houses do a poor job and perform a disservice to consignors, especially since most of them such as RM, Gooding, Bonhams, etc. insist on only accepting consignments with no reserve. Sellers/consignors must take all the risk as well as shipping cost to the auction company, and then the auction co's. also take their sellers premium cut at the end. All for doing almost nothing. If they are not going to do a proper job selling automobilia, then they should not be in that end of the business at all. I typically supply photos and descriptions with anything I consign to avoid screw ups.

Full disclosure for my previous & next comments. I have previously consigned three high end models with Gooding for two different sales and accepted the risk only because I had very little invested, and felt confident they would sell decently. The first two in one sale sold well, but not as well as they should have, and the third in a later sale did poorly, but I still made a little bit of a profit. And for all of these models, Gooding wanted to take the photos which they did, I told them views that we needed, and I supplied all written text, which all worked well. But....as for one of Gooding's later Phil Hill sales, I also did extremely well as a buyer with a group of rare autographed photos, some were taken by sought after photographers such as Bernard Cahier, and Flip Schulke. There was no mention of who the photographers were or anything at all about the photos, and no images of the backsides either, which had their signatures, stamps and hand written notes. Hence I scored very well, and yes, I did feel a bit guilty and bad for the consignor. Other lots of his also went for much less than they should have. I saw many lots in that sale as well as other Gooding sales that sold poorly; of course there have been some high sales from them, but overall Gooding more often than not, does a terrible job with selling any automobilia. They have no one there specifically devoted to automobilia or who knows much about it. I have also not consigned anything with them since my last experience as a consignor, and have no intention to consign anything with them again unless they make all the necessary changes and improvements, which I highly doubt they ever will do.

 

I remember that auction. Quite an amazing collection.

 

Mostly articles and photos. Sorted by tipo and for each tipo it starts with a binder full of general information, followed by information on each individual chassis. Usually there are several binders per tipo.

 

Sì

 

As pointed out by others, the major houses do a slipshod job of presenting and selling automobilia. That's great if you are buying, terrible if you are selling. I've consigned lots to RM Sotheby's on two occasions and most of the lots hammered for giveaway prices. Never again.