For the week ending March 3^rd, 2012 thirteen auctions were archived; five in dollars, two in Mexican Pesos, one in British Pounds and five in Euros.   Five thousand nine hundred and thirty-one lots were offered and 4,929 sold for an 83% success rate.  Total sales were $12,434,885, 172% of the aggregate high estimate of $7,137,080.  What accounted for the spectacular performance?  Two words:  Heritage and comics.   Keep this up and soon both Lincoln and Washington will need to wear capes to achieve great results.   

Heritage achieved something rare.  They offered 1,848 lots in the vintage comic book category and sold 1,840 of them, for a 99.4% sales rate.  They also tripled the high estimate of $2,877,363.  Auction results do not get better than that.

Five sales reached or exceeded 100% of their total high estimate for all lots offered.

Heritage             Vintage Comics on February 22-24:  306%

Ferraton                     Books and Cartographies, second vacance on February 18^th:  169% 

Ferraton                     Books and Cartographies, first vacance on February 17^th:  163%

Bruun Rasmussen.    Old Prints on February 29^th:  120%

Alde                            Jacques Montessaro Library 1 on February 27^th:  107%

For the week ahead 12 sales are scheduled:

Tuesday March 6^th: Bruun Rasmussen.  Modern Prints (827)

                                    Bruun Rasmussen.  Modern Prints (1210a)

                                    Piasa.  Ancient and Modern Books (18212)

Wed, March 7^th:      Bruun Rasmussen.  Old Prints (1210b)

                                    Dominic Winter Book Auctions.  Printed Books and Maps (30712)

                                    Doyle New York.  Doyle at Home (12DF03)

Thurs. March 8^th:       Dominic Winter Book Auctions.  Photography (30812)

                                    Swann Galleries.  Jean-Emile LaBoureur:  Prints, Paintings & Livres D’Artiste
 / 19^th & 20^th Century Prints & Drawings (2272)

Sat. March 10^th:          Coutau-Begarie.  Comic Strips (18764)

                                    Marc van de Wiele Auctions.  Books Part 1 (41)

                                    Marc van de Wiele Auctions.  Books Part 2 (42)

                                    Neal Auction Company.  Prints (31012)

The market seems caught between lust and fear.

Bruce McKinney

AE

4 March 2012