New England Book Auctions (NEBA) will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2027. Since 2010 it has been owned by Paul Muller-Reed, 66, and his wife Florence. The company based in Deerfield, MA employs a staff of nine and specializes, as the name implies, in books. It hosts over 40-50 auctions a year in multiple categories. Most of the sales contain about 200 lots, and most of those lots range from a single item, to a small group of volumes, or a whole shelf or more. Many have a minimum starting bid of $100.
Though the name New England Book Auctions might not be as familiar as Christie’s or Sotheby’s, when it comes to buying or selling books at auction, especially books that are good quality, well-described and within the means of the average dealer or collector, this firm has much to recommend it. It moves an estimated 100,000 books a year with a 99% sell-through rate. That seems like a great deal of volume to generate out of a 6,000 square foot facility.
In a mid-September phone conversation, Muller-Reed filled in some of the details: He started with the company in 1990 as an employee and after several twists and turns purchased the business in 2010. He characterized their growth rate as “steady,” and their promotional technique as “old fashioned.”
“Word-of-mouth is our main vehicle. People know us, they stay with us, they tell others.” Those who would like to know about upcoming events can sign up for free automatic email notifications.
What particularly caught our attention at Rare Book Hub is that almost every auction, whether it's a catalog sale, shelf lots, or some other configuration seems to offer something quirky, unusual or going for a very reasonable valuation. The only caveat is you’ve got to read it all, and you’ve got to read it carefully.
Auctions are posted on the company site and bids are accepted for two weeks prior to the night of final bidding, which occurs live on Tuesday and Thursday, starting at 5:30 at p.m. EST. Most of the clientele is American, but they do have international buyers, so, he said, “it is not uncommon to be on the phone with England in the middle of the night.”
NEBA is affiliated with LiveAuctioneer.com but for actual bidding he recommended the company’s own site nebookauctions.com “where the terms are better.”
Payment is made by phone - credit cards and checks accepted. The company does not use electronic services like Paypal, though they do accept wire transfers for international sales.
Except for the occasional framed pieces, which require special handling, shipping is done in-house. "If it’s going overseas it can be pricey,” he noted, but “so far, we have not had to deal with tariffs.”
“No matter how the books come in, the house creates the lots,” Muller-Reed said, as he feels those consigning “are not always the best judge of value,” nor of “what goes with what.”
He named “Literature” as the company’s most popular category. Other subjects that do well are “Science and Medicine” (“because that’s what people send us”) and “Ephemera,” which he described as other paper based collectibles such as broadsides, documents, autographs, photographs and larger lots.
He named Tolkien, the Beat Generation, as well as “all the standard greats like Hemingway and Faulkner” as consistently popular with buyers. He is sometimes surprised at what sells, and gave an example of a fairly common Victorian Bible which commanded $900. He also mentioned that one reason their sell-through rate is so high is that if something fails to sell, they review it and relist it often with additional or different volumes in the lot.
Muller-Reed estimated that 80% of their inventory comes from the New England area,10% from New York and the rest worldwide. Consignors pay a range of fees, the buyers’ premium is 20% added to the hammer price.
He prides himself on the cataloging, which until recently he has done himself, and is an aspect of the business he enjoys. He is also proud of what he calls, “My only personal collection,” described as his “30,000 volume bibliographical reference library.”
Like others in the auction business, he has noticed the rapid growth of auction companies specializing in sports memorabilia, Pokemon and other gaming cards, and comic books, but these are not the categories that really interest him. His personal taste runs to 15th and 16th century material, and the fine points of early printing. In his opinion “a good incunable is a better value than a sports card.”
As for the future, Muller-Reed plans to, “Keep doing what we’ve been doing. In ten years you’ll probably find me dead under a bookcase.”
New England Book Auctions
220 Greenfield Road, South
Deerfield, MA 01373
Phone (413) 665-3253
office@nebookauctions.com
