Bukowski material up for auction at PBA Galleries 13 June (1 Viewer)

Flower, Fist is rare at one of 200, but it seems like Run With the Hunted is even harder to find. I've probably seen three copies of Flower, Fist for every one Run With the Hunted.

If I was bidding that's what I'd be watching.
 
I'd bid on this...

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Doesn't appear to be much interest in this one. Any reason? I am looking at a few things on the lower end. Never purchased this way before.
Any tips would be welcome!
 
Abe has the occasional bargain, but to get a decent deal you take those prices and deduct 30-40% (in most cases). Or so I think. If you post which items you are looking at, I'm sure you'll get a few comments here as to what would be considered a good deal. And who knows, it might even put some people off of knowing there's competition.
 
I saw some Abe prices for items I own and they seem set to the highest possible value., so taking off 40% seems more reasonable than 30. I'm looking at 3 things in the 150-300 range.
 
Some Abe prices are completely nuts, they'll not sell for another 10 years. I recently got a decent copy of the 1962 EPOS for $600, so there's rare exceptions.
 
The only problem with that is it looks like somebody picked their ass with the upper right corner. I mean no disrespect, I'm just amazed at how obviously delicate and beautiful items get trashed over time. It is not unlike house-hunting and you see that somebody doesn't have a door on their bedroom shitter or they have the washer/dryer in the dining room and you go WTF? (note: I live in an 800 sq foot "rathole").

Abe prices are dream prices. You can outbid the dealers at auction, you just gotta find the sweet spot. If an item is currently available on Abe for $1000-$1200 (let's say 2 copies), a dealer is not gonna go above $650-$700 and become a bag holder. He/She will want to mark it up. Is a dealer gonna want to buy at $650 ($780 with vig), and mark up a measly $100 and try to sell at $880 with copies available around $1000? Not likely. That is too fine of a line.

Gavel prices are true monetary value. Most colleges have free access to American Book Prices Current. My chick was doing grad work and it took me about 40 minutes to pull everything Bukowski and send it to myself in an email. This is good info to have in hand with future auctions.

Ultimately, an item's overall value depends on you. A first trade edition of Post Office might mean more to one owner than a signed limited w/painting to another, especially if the latter is an assclown.
 
Won't bid on them (can't afford) but am curious:
Is the starting bid of 750 USD for the 104 Wormies reasonable? I've absolutely no idea at all about the value of these mag-things, so I'd really be interested.
 
It is worth every bit of $1500. If I had the money, I'd bid on it, but I already have ll of these issues. Where this is especially cool is that for 50 of the issues, they are signed. I'd love to be able to swap my unsigned copies out for signed ones, but alas..

My guess is that some dealer will buy this set to break it up and sell the issues for $20-$30 a pop, more for signed by Bukowski ones...
 
wish I had that kind of money.
Maybe I can sell my soul to someone who has use for this stained little thing. Ah! Not realistic. Or I'd ask a friend to suffer on my behalf. Equally as unrealistic. So, let's see, what it goes for. Won't watch the auction live, since I have to work/write.
 
Final bids
11 Two Black Sparrow Press bibliographies $100
68 Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns – complete, all 3 issues $180
70 The Earth Rose 1: Fuck Hate $100
71 A Bukowski bibliography & 6 others on his writings $170
73 Hank: The Life of Charles Bukowski $110
74 Collection of periodicals and anthologies with contributions by Bukowski or reviews of his works $250
75 Portfolio III [With: 20 Tanks from Kasseldown] $325
76 A Bibliography of Charles Bukowski - with an original watercolor painting by Bukowski $1,800
78 Lot of miscellaneous Bukowski related items $80
79 104 issues of Wormwood Review - all with contributions by Bukowski, several signed $1,100
80 Bukowski: 24 Photographs, 1977-1987 $110
81 Notes from Underground - Issues 1, 2, & 3 $130
83 A Tribute to Jim Lowell $100
84 Writers Outside the Margin - 1 of 12 hardcover copies $300
85 5 Bukowski Post Cards $80
86 86'd $190
87 Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip $325
89 All the Assholes in the World and Mine $350
90 Alone in a Time of Armies $120
91 At Terror Street and Agony Way $140
93 Bone Palace Ballet: New Poems $80
94 Bring Me Your Love $250
95 Bukowski at Bellevue, Spring 1970 $100
96 The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship $130
97 Cold Dogs in the Courtyard $325
98 Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts $225
99 Crucifix in a Deathhand $200
100 Crucifix in a Deathhand $275
101 Dear Mr. Bukowski $2,500
102 Eight Black Sparrow Press New Years Greetings by Bukowski - Each one of 26 lettered copies $350
103 Face of a Political Candidate on a Street Billboard $275
104 Factotum $500
105 Fire Station $80
106 Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail $2,500
107 Four advance copies of works by Charles Bukowski $140
108 Fourteen Black Sparrow Press New Years Greetings by Bukowski $120
109 The Girls/ For the Mercy-Mongers $500
110 Heat Wave - One of about 20 review copies $250
111 Horsemeat Pferdefleisch $170
112 Hot Water Music $190
114 Hot Water Music - with an original painting by Bukowski $1,600
115 If You Let Them Kill You, They Will $90
116 In the Shadow of the Rose $130
117 The Last Night of the Earth Poems $250
118 Living on Luck: Selected Letters 1960s-1970's, Volume 2 $275
119 Love is a Dog from Hell $300
120 Luck $120
121 The Movie: "Barfly" $120
122 The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps: New Poems $100
123 Notes of a Dirty Old Man $50
124 One for the Old Boy $110
125 Open All Night, New Poems $80
127 Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument - Broadside announcement $350
128 Poems and Drawings - In Epos: A Quarterly of Poetry, Extra Issue, 1962 $550
130 Poems Written Before Jumping Out of an 8 Story Window $150
131 Pulp $225
132 Reach for the Sun: Selected Letters Volume 3, 1978-1994 $90
133 The Roominghouse Madrigals $350
134 Run with the Hunted $1,700
135 Run with the Hunted: A Charles Bukowski Reader $150
136 Same Old Thing, Shakespeare Through Mailer $150
137 Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters, 1960-1970 $170
138 Septuagenarian Stew: Stories & Poems $190
139 Septuagenarian Stew: Stories & Poems $275
140 Seven Black Sparrow Press New Years Greetings by Bukowski - Each one of 250 or fewer numbered copies $130
141 Seven Bukowski Broadsides $100
143 Shakespeare Never Did This - 3 different issues $150
144 South of No North: Stories of the Buried Life $550
145 There's No Business - 2 issues $170
146 Three first editions by Charles Bukowski - hardcover trade issues $150
147 Three Paget Press editions of works by Charles Bukowski $60
148 Three Poems $100
149 Weather Report - signed broadside $200
150 What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire $90
151 You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense $190
152 You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense $550
153 You Kissed Lilly $250

Unsold
69 Beerspit Night and Cursing: The Correspondence of Charles Bukowski and Sheri Martinelli, 1960-1967 $150 - $250
72 Typed Letter, signed, regarding Bukowski $100 - $150
77 All's Normal Here: A Charles Bukowski Primer $100 - $150
82 Thirteen volumes by, about, or with contributions by Charles Bukowski $250 - $350
88 Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip [in] Story: The Magazine of the Short Story - Vol. XXIV, No. 106 $1,200 - $1,800
92 At Terror Street and Agony Way - original tape recording $700 - $1,000
113 Hot Water Music - One of 30 copies for Canadian reviewers $300 - $500
126 WITHDRAWN Pig In A Pamphlet 12 $150 - $250
129 Poems Written Before Jumping Out an 8 Story Window (2nd edition) $150 - $200
142 Seventeen Charles Bukowski first editions, wrapper-bound issues $400 - $600
 
It's a funny old game Roni. The Runfola auction was 2yrs ago, and there was a lot more material, I guess that would have put a few people off. Some, like me, didn't have as much liquid cash at hand then as they have now, that's also a factor.

Every day is different, even on ebay. I bought a 1 of 225 of Last Night for $249 a week or so ago. Just a few days later a 1 of 750 went for $199. All said and done, "The Girls/ For the Mercy-Mongers" for $600 incl premium ain't a shabby deal any day of the week.
 
I picked up 4 items for much less than I thought they would
go for.
Run W/the Hunted-150
Sept. Stew-190
What Matters-90
Open All Night-80
I don't think I overpaid for anything. What matters and open were
pure impulse buys.
 
Nice one Adam. I don't think any lot went overpaid really. Many went in the area of or below the Low Estimate. The 1962 Run With The Hunted went for more than I expected, though that could have been my fault, I bailed out at $1,600 (I think) and someone else wanted it more.
 
[...] Runfola auction [...] a lot more material,
and much more desirable material!

[...] didn't have as much liquid cash at hand [...]

I didn't.
I do not have that kind of money, at no day of the week. But I see opportunities sometimes and when I do, I take any possible effort to jump in.

Some of the items at the Runfola-auction were so teasing (at these prices that is), that I even put my bank-account far into the minus just to get them.
(No need to make a secret of it. It were: Cold Dogs... / Confessions... / Cruelty of Loveless Love / unleaded (manuscript) / Sure (whole lot)).

By now (mid-June) I only have half the money together to pay my rent next month (July) and I do mean this literally and that's not unusual.

But IF I had known at what price 'Flower Fist' will go today, I DEFINITELY had bet on it! No doubt. The money will come frome somewhere some day, but such an opportunity - never again.

Final bids
This spreadsheet includes the pre-auction estimated prices.
as always you're amazing, mjp.
.
.
 
Yeah David, that Run was way out of my league. Hot Water with the painting was also a relatively good deal. Who the Fuck paid
80 for the postcards? I have a couple sets of those and thought them overpriced at 4.95 when I bought them.
 
Roni: The 'desirable' part is subjective, unless you buy purely for investment purposes. It all depends on what you want, and how much can/want to pay for it. As for the Runfola auction, well, sometimes I look back at the auction results and wish I would have thrown in a few more bids. Happy with the Flower Fist buy, I really wanted it, but not at a crazy price. I got lucky. Btw, Confessions tonight went for the same price as it did at the Runfola auction ($225), although the estimate was 50% higher. So did Cold Dogs ($325).

Adam: Luckily I got a copy of the Run With The Hunted, so I wasn't gung-ho on it. For $2,250 you can pick one up on Abe, today's winning bid wasn't too far off that price ($2,040). Hot Water, yes, I lucked that one too. Good question on the post cards though, maybe you should send yours PBA and cash in. I guess someone got hooked on the word 'rare' in the lot description.
 
DavidK:

Sure it's subjective.
To me a signed book (no matter if it's a first ed) or a manuscript is MUCH more desirable than a simple first edition without anything else than being a first. (esp. when you compare the prices.)

And I ain't looking for investments nor am I a collector. I only sometimes see something I'd like to have. Most times I just can't have it (like a painting by Burne-Jones or a house in Tobago or Selena Gomez). But when I can, I try to go for it.

Of course in Bukowskis case, I also think about the archive of the Buk-Society. But I usually buy those items on my own cost, so they belong to me rather than the society.

I was looking for 'confessions' tonight just because the starting bid was lower than what I payed for it at the Runfola-auction. That's why I bid and that's why I only bid for the starting price.

/end of a way too long post.
 
It all depends on what you want...
Which is the only possible way to explain Flower, Fist and the "Dear Mr. Bukowski" set selling for the same price. Because there's no way in hell those two items are of equal objective value.

Speaking of subjective though, I wouldn't buy a Black Sparrow hardcover with a painting unless I thought the painting itself was good or interesting. Both of the paintings today were abstract crap, so I though $1600 and $1800 were high prices for those.

But the "quality" of the paintings doesn't usually seem to affect the prices. Same with the manuscripts.

Run W/the Hunted-150
Sept. Stew-190
What Matters-90
Open All Night-80
I don't think I overpaid for anything.
You overpaid for the last two. Unless you collect books written by John Martin.
 
^^^ Sad but true. Better you hear it from us ... Those faux-buk-books don't seem like they will mature they way the real ones do.

I would have loved the 8th story window that didn't sell. What a title, first of all. But I had no idea how these auctions work. For some reason I assumed like an idiot that it would still be going on tonight when i got back from a saintly mission to be with an ailing man in Cleveland. Nope. Congratulations though to everyone who scored!

Coincidentally, I hit a little real-world cornucopia today though while my buddy was in his hospital visit. A place called Huckleberry Books (Boysenberry? I can't remember. Something like that.) had a huge array of beautiful editions (including two old city lights ones) all right there on the shelf for browsing! I picked up Shakespeare Never Did This in pretty good shape, Black Sparrow edition for 30 bucks. If any Bukowski fan out there hasn't gotten his/her hands on this, I can't recommend it highly enough. The photographs of Bukowski are superb, the cover and back cover are perfectly colored out, and the journalistic narration from Bukowski is always razor sharp.

Also picked up Roominghouse Madrigals and Mockingbird Wish Me Luck - my first collections of his earlier work, and all Black Sparrow editions to boot. Didn't go for the City Lights version of Notes From A Dirty Old Man because I'm not quite ready to cut my teeth on the short stories. Not that anyone cares.

As much as I try not to attach to desires, I admit to looking forward to spending the money for my electric bill on something signed some day, and maybe a hard-cover edition. But considering how many bookstores I've been into looking for Bukowski, that spot in Cleveland scratched a lot of itches all at once. Here's to Buk Books.

Sorry to be so boring,
Mike
 
Mike,
If a title did not sell and you are interested, contact PBA. Unless someone else already contacted them and bought it, I can see no reason why they would not sell it to you. If they don't sell it to someone, they have to return it to the owner anyway.

Bill
 
Someone is always shattering something around here. That's why we can't have anything nice in this house.
 
I volunteered the info and MJP is correct. Should have combined the dough for those two and kicked in a bit more for Crucifix. Sometimes we need to hear what we know.
 
I had a meager 200. on Crucifix and didn't follow the auction at all. One of the 2 went for 240., which was cheap, was it?
 
I think I did really well on this one.

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I don't think people realized there were two volumes. Selling the trade edition should cover my 20% buyer's premium, plus there are the two prospectuses. Any advice on selling those separately or with the books?

I made a mistake with Lilly and probably paid more than I should have. It was my first auction and I bid the maximum I was willing to pay, thinking that the starting price would still be $150.00 and not what I paid. Still, after the buyer's premium and shipping, it'll still be $200 less than what Abe is asking.

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But who knows, I may have scared other bidders off by starting large and would have paid the same or more if a bidding war ensued.

Mike
 
Black Swan, $240 is a decent price, you'll rarely find an acceptable copy for less than that. $250-350 seems to be a common range that hasn't changed much over the past 5-6yrs.

Mike, I paid $310 some 3yrs back, so I guess you can't complain about Lilly.
 
Those both seem like keepers to me.

Mike,
If a title did not sell and you are interested, contact PBA. Unless someone else already contacted them and bought it, I can see no reason why they would not sell it to you. If they don't sell it to someone, they have to return it to the owner anyway.
Thanks Bill but I already spent my electric bill on other books last night right after I posted here. Among other things, a hardcover version of Rereading Merleau-Ponty: Essays Beyond the Continental-Analytic Divide.

Off topic as usual, but if anybody around the forum has ANY inclination towards western philosophy, this and another book by Hass (a monograph on Merleau-Ponty) are where it's at. Sartre got all the fame, but this guy Merleau-Ponty had the brainwaves. If I made another big buy, it would be at the expense of a couple new tires for the Chevy - the two up front are balder than eagles :/
 
If a title did not sell and you are interested, contact PBA. Unless someone else already contacted them and bought it, I can see no reason why they would not sell it to you. If they don't sell it to someone, they have to return it to the owner anyway.

Thanks for the info. I wish I would've known that after the Runfola sale. I keep hoping some of that stuff comes back.

Overall, I thought the condition of some of the items available yesterday was weak. I understand that an early 60s chapbook is gonna be near impossible to find in perfect condition but some items might be found in better shape.

re: postcards

Not sure about dropping $80 for those ($96 with vig). There is a set available on abe for $75. Could be the psychology of an auction - you get outbid, you don't want to go home empty-handed, you get desperate and you reach.

I'd love to sit in on one of these things live one day.
 
[...] Crucifix [...] 240., which was cheap, was it?
Definitely.
It's not an expensive item anyway, given the age and the autograph - but the high run of 3,100 makes them flowing around and kills the price it could (& should) be valued at (given the sheer quality of it and history behind it etc).
I bought it, I think at 450.- or so long ago (2004? 2005?) and it's a beautiful item to have. I'd say, whenever you see it under 400.- don't even start to calculate: Go for it!

[...] Could be the psychology of an auction - you get outbid, you don't want [...]
you're so right.
.

- Hey kids!
I'm angry to death, I could even cut off my left hand (I'm right-handed): When 'Flower Fist' came up I had to fix issues with my damn internet-connection.
I mean - HEY! - 3,000 USD for 'Flower Fist'???? It's worth at least 6.000 at any minute of any day of the week and even though I do not have that kind of money, it would HAVE to come in from somewhere somehow.
3 Grand for this one is not a bargain, it's a fuckin' STEAL.
 

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