The Rare Book Transaction History is a service of the Rare Book Hub. The Rare Book Hub was founded in 2002 by San Francisco collector Bruce McKinney to provide information and clarity to the field, particularly with respect to values, which was wanting at the time. There were few resources available to collectors and others that enabled them to reasonably value books and paper collectibles. The result was that collectors, booksellers, libraries and other institutions were often making poor decisions when they bought and sold their material.

The focus has been on auctions as these are the only records for which actual sales prices are available. Many places offer “for sale” listings, but these are not relevant to determining actual value. It was also decided to include the full auction listings as this provides valuable data for book historians, particularly with regard to accurately identifying copies and tracing their history. Appearances, and lack thereof at auction over time, provide data concerning rarity and changing public interest in titles. New auction results have been added regularly since 2002, while older auction listings have been sought out so that now the database includes millions of older auctions, dating as far back as the 1850s. Important dealer catalogues and bibliographies are also included.

The Rare Book Hub now offers a host of additional services – including a place to find new listings in upcoming auctions from around 200 worldwide houses all in one place. There is a monthly news magazine, reviews of bookseller's catalogues and listings of their e-catalogues, and numerous charts and graphs pertaining to auctions. We know of no other resource that comes close to providing the depth and breadth of information in the field of books and works on paper and their history in the trade as the Rare Book Hub.