Rare Book Hub, né Americana Exchange twenty-five years ago, was intended to build a bridge to the future of collecting. Whatever that meant, I didn’t really know. But now I have a clearer idea born of building the Rare Book Transaction History database, that has become something that is greater than the sum of its parts. What does that mean?
We have long had enough information to credibly calculate rarity and value for hundreds of thousands of items and those valuations are useful to the field worldwide.
Now we’re adding an easier way to capture an instant impression of how a printed item would fit into the world of collectibles.
To do this we’ve been running a thought experiment about how we can support libraries worldwide that receive hundreds of thousands of books every day because no one wants to throw them away. Are they valuable, are they rare, or very simply is there any market for them? Tens of thousands of library staff and volunteers handle close to a million donated items a day to identify appealing material that might financially support their institutions.
To do this, we’ve developed software that anyone who has a phone, can point and shoot at a book’s title page and its backside, it’s called the verso. With that we can instantly match our records with these images to provide an estimate of value within 5 seconds.
Older material will often (but not always) have a bit more value. So that’s a good place to start. When team members browse the donations to find interesting possibilities, we’ll immediately report yea or nay and then suggest values and options.
By our calculus and Gemini’s logic, a million gifted books (in many forms) received every day at libraries in the United States by themselves. Using this software, libraries could convert 2% of this material directly into cash in an efficient way.
To test this process, we’re providing free trials to institutions. We’ll give them 200 scans per institution to see if our snaps can be turned into cashflow.
This software will find a place throughout the collectible paper world. For libraries, we have built this for them.
Lion Heart Autographs Landmark Auction of Rare & Important Autograph Letters & Manuscripts—Fresh to the Market and Unseen for Decades May 20, 2026
Lion Heart, Ending May 20: Dr. King will “follow Christ to death” for Racial Equality & “the health of Democracy”. $12,000 to $14,000.
Lion Heart, Ending May 20: 1775 George Washington Naval DS for a “Freind [sic.] to American Liberty”. $15,000 to $18,000.
Lion Heart, Ending May 20: Marie Antoinette Orders Payment for Swiss Guard’s Elite “Cent-Suisses”. $10,000 to $12,000.
Lion Heart Autographs Landmark Auction of Rare & Important Autograph Letters & Manuscripts—Fresh to the Market and Unseen for Decades May 20, 2026
Lion Heart, Ending May 20: Einstein On the Mystery of the Unbelievable. $3,250 to $3,500.
Lion Heart, Ending May 20: Brahms Signed Autograph Musical Manuscript Last Auctioned in 1938. $42,000 to $45,000.
Lion Heart, Ending May 20: John Adams Signed Land Grant for the Army’s Quartermaster General. $3,500 to $4,000.
Lion Heart Autographs Landmark Auction of Rare & Important Autograph Letters & Manuscripts—Fresh to the Market and Unseen for Decades May 20, 2026
Lion Heart, Ending May 20: Darwin Letter Referring to a Photograph. $3,000 to $3,500.
Lion Heart, Ending May 20: Rare Ltd. Ed. of Alfred Dreyfus’ Memoir Inscribed to French Politician and Dreyfusard. $12,000 to $15,000.
Lion Heart, Ending May 20: Unique, Ten Year Post WWII Jazz Archive Including Brubeck, Desmond, Feather, Kenton, Paul, Taylor, Yaged, and Many Others. $1,000 to $1,200.
Lion Heart Autographs Landmark Auction of Rare & Important Autograph Letters & Manuscripts—Fresh to the Market and Unseen for Decades May 20, 2026
Lion Heart, Ending May 20: Detailed 8-Page Mendelssohn ALS Mentioning the Completion of his "Violin Concerto". $2,600 to $2,800.
Lion Heart, Ending May 20: Rare, Signed Book from Susan B. Anthony’s Library with Remarkable Associations. $2,200 to $2,400.
Lion Heart, Ending May 20: Unique Puccini ALS to His Lover Mentioning Five Operas and Two Great Sopranos. $2,200 to $2,500.
Freeman’s, May 15: William Shakespeare’s Fourth Folio, Printed by Robert Roberts, Robert Everingham, and John Macock for Henry Herringman, 1685. $60,000 – 80,000.
Freeman’s, May 14: Tolkien, J.R.R.. The Lord of the Rings trilogy. All First Editions and First Impressions. 1955. $15,000 – 20,000.
Freeman’s, May 15: A significant archive of works on communications theory, comprising foundational texts by leading mathematicians. $20,000 – 30,000.
Freeman’s, May 15: ALS, Albert Einstein to President Hoover, Berlin, 1929. “I alone am but a grain-of-dust in the development of the human spirit.” $15,000 – 20,000.
Freeman’s, May 14: William Shakespeare’s As You Like It and The Taming of the Shrew. First Printings of Two Complete Plays From Shakespeare's First Folio. 1623. $30,000 – 50,000.
Freeman’s, May 14: Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949. First Edition with the Rare Publisher’s Printed Wrap-Around Band. $8,000 – 12,000.
Freeman’s, May 15: Complete Set of 52 Tinted Lithographed Plates Containing Pre-Fire Chicago City Views by Louis Kurz and the Chicago Lithographing Company. $10,000 – 15,000.
Freeman’s, May 14: Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia. First London Edition. $10,000 – 15,000.
Freeman’s, May 15: A significant archive of works on game theory, comprising foundational texts by leading mathematicians. $20,000 – 30,000.
Freeman’s, May 14: Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Raven" in The American Review. Volume I, number II. February 1845. First Printing in Original Wrappers. $8,000 – 12,000.
Freeman’s, May 14: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. First Edition, First Issue. $6,000 – 8,000.
Freeman’s, May 15: A group of artifacts relating to the Pre-Fire Chicago courthouse bell, ca 1871-1877. $800 – 1,200.
Ketterer Rare Books Auction May 18th
Ketterer Rare Books, May 18: Linschoten, Navigatio ac itinerarium. 1599. Est: € 80,000
Ketterer Rare Books, May 18: Basilius Besler, Hortus Eystettensis, 1640. Est: € 180,000
Ketterer Rare Books, May 18: Alberto Giacometti, Paris sans fin, 1969. Est: € 15,000
Ketterer Rare Books Auction May 18th
Ketterer Rare Books, May 18: J. Glogoviensis, Introductorium compendiosum in tractatum spere, 1513. Est: € 8,000
Ketterer Rare Books, May 18: G. W. Knorr, Verlustiging der oogen en van den geest, 1717-50. Est: € 5,000
Ketterer Rare Books, May 18: Albert Einstein, Signifcant scientific letter to his Princeton colleague E. G. Straus, 1945. Est: € 10,000
Ketterer Rare Books Auction May 18th
Ketterer Rare Books, May 18: Ostrog Bible, 1581. Est: € 18,000
Ketterer Rare Books, May 18:PAN, 10 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: € 12,000
Ketterer Rare Books, May 18: Kurt Schwitters, Merz 11, 1924. Est: € 10,000
Ketterer Rare Books Auction May 18th
Ketterer Rare Books, May 18: H. Schedel, Liber chronicarum, 1493. Est: € 35,000
Ketterer Rare Books, May 18: A.-E. Gautier d’Agoty, Cours complet d’anatomie, 1773. Est: € 8,000
Ketterer Rare Books, May 18: Ch. Bukowski & K. Price, Heat Wave, 1995. Est: € 5,000
Sotheby’s Original Film Posters Open for bidding 5-20 May
Sotheby’s, May 5-20: King Kong (1933). Rare Czech poster for King Kong, 1933. £40,000 to £60,000.
Sotheby’s, May 5-20: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). British One Sheet for Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 1986. £4,000 to £6,000.
Sotheby’s, May 5-20: Goldfinger (1964). British Quad for Goldfinger, signed by Shirley Bassey, 1964. £7,000 to £10,000.
Sotheby’s, May 5-20: Alice in Wonderland / Alice au Pays des Merveilles (1951). French Grande for Alice in Wonderland / Alice au Pays des Merveilles, 1951. £7,000 to £10,000.
Sotheby’s, May 5-20: Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). US poster for Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1961. £15,000 to £20,000.
Sotheby’s, May 5-20: Star Wars (1977). British Quad for Star Wars, 1977. £5,000 to £8,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
