General chat about buying/selling/pricing Buk items (1 Viewer)

[Joseph K]

I wondered if we could have this thread a place to discuss collecting/pricing/selling Buk books, broadsides and so on. (If this seems the redundant or the wrong place for the thread, please feel free to erase or move.)

Any thoughts on the pricing at the moment? I think it dipped with the recession and people became more sceptical. Has the Buk speculation bubble burst?

 

[mjp]

Outside of auction house prices, a lot of the prices have fallen. I've had 2 by Bukowski on eBay for a year and dropped the price several times (it's $900 now), no one has even asked about it. 8 or 10 years ago a couple copies of that sold in the $1500 range.

You can still get a decent price for manuscripts and some of the books with paintings. Normal manuscript prices seem pretty stable, and only down slightly from the days - probably 15 years ago now? - when a pair of deep-pocketed eBay bidders drove them to artificial heights (you could easily pick up all the 70s and 80s poem manuscripts you wanted for $100 to $300, sometimes a little more, then those two showed up and manuscripts that were selling for $300 sold to them for $1500, etc.). But you saw what happened at a recent auction when older manuscripts (50s and 60s) sold for very high prices. People will still pay for rarity.

Having said that, I don't know if there ever was a bubble. As far as manuscripts are concerned, I think the price was artificially low for a long time because Scott Harrison unloaded a couple thousand manuscripts over the period of a few years. So it was the opposite of a bubble, it was a glut. Again, until the grudge-match bidders came in late on the scene.

But I don't think the truly rare things are overvalued now, or ever have been. I think paying $5000 for one of those 50s manuscripts in the recent auction was smart. I certainly considered a couple of them (until I remembered to add 25% to those bid numbers). As time goes on and supply dries up, which it pretty much has as far as manuscripts go, those things are only going to become more valuable.

The manufactured rarities, not so much. I don't think Martin's signed, numbered, diamond encrusted things are ever going to be worth more than the early chapbooks. Then again, I started this saying that I can't sell an early Bukowski chapbook, so what do I know.

And for what it's worth, anyone who was speculating on Bukowski items...I don't get it. As a purely speculative buy, it's pretty stupid. You're better off betting on pork belly or lard futures. I never bought a Bukowski item just to flip it. I wanted to have each of those things. But like a lot of "things" they just get sold over the years for other reasons.

 

[roni]

As far as manuscripts are concerned, I think the price was artificially low for a long time because Scott Harrison unloaded a couple thousand manuscripts over the period of a few years.

I feel the same way.
(And: I wish I had known about those low prizes, when they've been the standard.)

What I recognized in the last years was, that a lot of the formerly high-prized items fell into a gap, but what arose [is that an english word? ] were the paintings, be it tipped into books or seperate. And good so. I fully support that move. Was about time, they'd be recognized.

And I am sure, that in the long run, maybe a very long run, we will see Bukowski way above where he's already been. In my world, he is still underrated. I'm positive this'll change.