• If you start a thread here you have permission to edit the thread and your posts indefinitely. So if the status of your sale or auction changes, please come back and update the thread.

FOR SALE - On eBay Now - Buk Purdy Letters V (1 Viewer)

Bill,
That will be a tough sell at $4000. At a recent PBA auction, one sold for $2800. The other one sold at twice that, but it was the case of a buyer getting carried away. This is not worth $4000.

I just don't want to see you waste the time and money on a book that will not sell.

Of course, if it sells for the $4000, then it will be me that is wrong.

Bill
 
Thanks for the input, Bill.

Sent you a PM.

Had an expert (American Modern Lit) do my pricing, as I don't work in this field -- and have only bought, not sold. Gave me a range of $4-$7k for the book.

Have already had private offers below that, but not too far off -- without posting it on eBay, or anywhere else. So it may be worth more than what you think, and the benchmark may have changed? Don't know, but the free market decides these things. It's a big world out there. Hell, I don't think Mr. May, A-Rod, is worth $25m a year, but what do I know?

If you have any advice, PM me back. Your feedback very, very welcome. I would be interested in hearing what you value the book at, at this juncture in time.

And, if there are other pricing experts out there (here), LMK. This forums input is very important to me...PM or post it here. Want to do the right thing.

Thanks.

Pax,

homeless mind
 
Homeless Mind

I agree with Bill - although I hope you realise more with such beautiful books!

What you have to consider is what a dealer would pay for it - not what a dealer thinks it is worth. It's just like selling an exotic car. Expensive to buy but near impossible to sell!!

If you are trying to achieve what a dealer values it at then you will be disappointed. Every dealer would merely list every item on ebay and achieve their estimated value - it just doesn't happen.

With very high end items - like the two you have listed - you USUALLY have to be patient and wait for the right person to come along. Book dealers can sit on books for years with them listed on all sorts of forums and still not sell. There are plenty examples of over priced Buk books on certain dealers' sites that have been listed for as long as I can remember.

So if you want to sell and get a result - you really need, at a minimum, to follow PBA auction's style.
1. Reasonably determine the value of each book - I'm sure the great minds on this site can help.
2. Start the auction at half the low estimate.
3. Hope that at least two people will bid it up but pray for at least one bidder!!

PBA is the leading Buk auction house and specialises in book auctions and that is how it rolls.

Even though the books are rare and desirable it would not surprise me if you had to relist them a number of times to sell them - slightly lowering the entry price each time.

Just on a personal note - I hate bidding on reserve auctions. It is usually a fishing expedition for the seller just trying to find out what the book is worth - the reserve is almost always set too high. Just start the auction at a price to sell and if it is worth more - people will bid it up.

I tried to be the right person for your Terror copy yesterday. I headed to the track with high expectations and was considering where on my special Buk bookshelf I would display it. My 5-1 special was nabbed on the line by a 60-1 piece of crap after my jockey got caught bumping into other horses' behinds!! I not only can't afford Terror - I don't know if I can meet the cost of industrial toilet paper! I HATE jockeys!!!!!!!!!!

I hope this helps and I'm sure most forum users will agree with the sentiments.

Looking forward to you listing The Days Run Away ... so at least I can look at the pictures of the book.

Good luck and I hope you prove me wrong.
 
Here is a pretty good resource to get a general idea of how to price the books that you plan to list. You can see the before-auction estimates as well as the prices realized (click on an individual listing to see the final sale price of the item you're interested in). Keep in mind that since these were sold en masse, many of the prices realized are probably below what they might have been had fewer prime items come on the market at one time. Also keep in mind that ebay auctions will typically bring less than live auctions (-20-40%).
 
Just a quick note to any of the BUK fans/collectors interested here, the auction for this book expires today (around 3pm). If you are interested, good luck!
 
Here goes my vanity again, quoting myself. [No, it doesn't. -moderator]

So let me change gears, if y'all will oblige me that courtesy... (sp, I know with y'all, but I've only lived in Florida for two years.)

PB"V" is sitting quietly with over one hundred of its brethren "” not the victim of an eBay sale. Safe and sound.

The book, while pissed off at the world for those not willing to offer a new home, has expounded a few morsels for the table.

It is happy here. It enjoys classical music, and '60s rock 'n roll. (Ditto, for sure, but throw in some blues and southern, SRV, LS, AB, and other R&R that really rocked the house.)

It has no interest in politics (unlike many other books), and enjoys a good steak every now and then. I guess that explains the red ink? (No tofu here, either.)

When the grapefruits fall in the back yard, it can hear them. (I can't.)

But it prefers the mangos, the ones the squirrels don't pick when they are small. (I "k" good.)

The japanese pairs aren't bad, but it's too much work sometimes for such a small piece of fruit. (What?)

The papayas are a turn off, and we have far too many of them. (I never liked 'em either.)

And lacrosse is its favorite sport. (Mine, too.)

And what's PB"V's" fave book? Not one at all. (Mine: Shakespeare Riverside Edition, with all my mark-ups.)

Of course it is, "V" for Vendetta: Remember, remember the fifth of November... But that was yesterday (lol).

Heady shit for a book, I know.

As Seger once sang, "turn the page." And I will. (We will; and the rest of the collection is silently "” hiding, me thinks.)

So, I must say to my book, PB"V," "Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky, Like a patient etherized upon a table;..." Ah, TS

Not quite to the bottom of the rabbit hole yet, more to follow...

Pax
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top