Consider something new!
From its inception, Rare Book Hub set out with a clear goal: build the deepest database of auction records possible, enabling anyone to instantly trace an item’s performance in the salesrooms since 1850 in a single search. For serious collectors and trade professionals, this data has become the gold standard for establishing rarity and determining fair value. That transparency gives every participant confidence—whether they are consigning, marketing, or buying in a market where collectible paper sales worldwide may reach $1.4 billion this year.
Auctions have served as the principal clearinghouse for collectible paper for centuries, and their records remain the bedrock of market valuation. Our 16.3 million dated transaction records, drawn from over 43,400 auctions spanning 175 years, illustrate how cataloguers and buyers have mutually validated prices day after day through selection, grouping, estimates, and hammer prices.
To remain solvent, auction houses have always had to draw a strict line between the saleable and the unsaleable. Offered far more lots than they can ever catalogue, houses must curate for salability at prices that satisfy both consignor and buyer—both sides must win. Unfamiliar, lower-value, or thinly traded material quickly falls into the thankless category of high labor for low return.
Today, this selectivity is amplified by public tracking. Every week, Rare Book Hub’s Weekly Auction Updates monitor and rank major collectible paper sales. A solid 60% of these auctions hit an 80% or higher sell-through rate, and across the 80 to 100 auctions covered weekly, overall sell-through frequently sits above 80%. This restores a high benchmark last routinely seen in the early 20th century.
However, maintaining these ultra-high sell-through rates leaves traditional auctions ill-equipped for a modern challenge: an enormous influx of emerging ephemera with no established auction history, hyper-low starting prices, and modern buyer-friction issues like return rates.
Where traditional houses turn away this material due to modest valuations or uncertain demand, platforms like eBay and Abe Books have provided a willing host, albeit in an unorganized and unpredictable market. Now, tools like Bound to be Found are bringing structure to this long-tail material* by generating identity profiles and valuation estimates through search technology primarily depending on our Transaction History.
We have been testing how random collections of both auction-identified and unknown materials, reinforce each other. This is important because many, even perhaps most collections are born from intuition, not formal training. They start from a feeling and often the bits and pieces they start with are books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera.
For those who have collectible paper, Bound converts your snapshots into research and estimates. When the items begin to be stacked up, your collecting logic begins to be visible. Once understood, we can tell you what you have and what can next be done.
It starts with snapshots. If you can take pictures with your phone, you’ll be off to the races. All RBH members can have trial accounts. The software is currently a high Beta.
Bound to be Found will serve many masters. The undefined collection and the emerging collector will find Bound a safe harbor. Professionals will use it to create databases. For retiring collectors, Bound will turn your material into a marketable document with valuations.
Contact us. If the material is in your boxes and or on your shelves, it’s time to turns your material into strategies.
Send us an email at bmckinney@rarebookhub.com or call us (877) 323-7273 or (415) 823-6678.
