ABE's top 10 vs AE's top 500...poking the numbers...

Americana Exchange, an auction results database and producer of AE Monthly, have just run an interesting article titled, "ABE's Top 10: What Does It Tell us About ABE?". They note that in 2006, ABE's top sales ranged from $25,000 (Durer's, Institutiones Geometricae) at the high end to $9,000 (Frank's, Flower Is tied with another photography collection). AE's auction records for 2006 show a much different range: $5.2MM (Shakespeare's, First Folio) to $60,000 (de Vou, et al's, Rotterdam me al syn rebouwen...). In short, the *lowest* sale on the top 500 was about 2.5 times the highest sale on ABE.

Interesting, but so what? While the author notes that based on generally accepted numbers (about 20,000 sales/day, then "book sales at all substantial auctions combined are maybe 2% or 3% of what they are on Abe alone", and this does not touch sales on various other aggregators. It appears that while there is no doubt that there is a great *volume* of sales online, the *serious* transactions take place elsewhere.

I think most people accept that most collectors would never buy a *major* item sight unseen from the web. Even ABE knows this, as evidenced by Richard Davies' response (Davies is ABE's PR and Publicity wonk). He notes that there seems to be a ceiling to what people will pay online. Sales at the $1000 price point are quite common, but 5 digit sales are quite rare.

I completely agree with his analysis. I know I have absolutely no expectation of selling my higher-end material through an aggregator...I would be suspect of anyone being willing to spend $10K and up without handling the item...hell, I worry about people purchasing $1,500 items online.

I do, however, think that it is an effective advertising venue...a means for collectors (and other dealers) to find material that they would otherwise have to work harder to locate. Our listing fees at ABE, Biblio and TomFolio fall under marketing/advertising on our P/L statements for a reason (as opposed to cost of goods sold). If the sites break even or better, that is great...but first and foremost they are a means to advertise our inventory and our brand. I wager that the same is the case for many other professional dealers.

AE also digs into some of ABE's other numbers...with interesting and/or frightening and/or sad results... Apparently the top 10 list of authors ranges from Stephen King, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens and Dan Brown...and Nora Roberts (with over 4o,000 books listed). As the author notes, it is not often that Dickens and Roberts show up on the same list...urgh.