[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: on-line auctions



In response to Michael Doylen's query regarding archives and on-line auctions... 

1. I have bought a few postcards documenting campus buildings on eBay for our collections.  I anticipate purchasing items related to our collections (postcards, photographs, and publications) in the future.

2. I also was contacted by an individual who had in her possession historic photographs relevant to our collections, from the estate of a former administrator.  She misled me about her interest and her intentions to donate the material, and benefitted from provenance research I conducted for her.  She then offered to sell the entire collection to me, including 75% of the items that were of no use to me, for a hefty price.  She actually threatened to sell the items piecemeal on eBay if I did not buy the entire collection.  I did not buy and one year later, I have yet to see them posted on eBay.

3. I have also seen an individual periodically posting reprints of a few historic photographs and wonder if the originals are in his possession or if they originated from an archival collection.

Between eBay and the Antiques Road Show reinforcing the notion that everything under the sun is worth a small fortune, I wonder if outright donations are drying up for historical collections, and if more and more members of the general public are becoming bounty hunters.  

However, I continue to receive unsolicited donations of materials from different parts of the world, and I have been able to find postcards online that were not turning up in the local antique and used book stores.  So, I guess the new electronic auction/yard sale environment can be a two-sided coin, with its benefits and drawbacks.

>Is anyone aware of archives, public or private, using on-line >auctions such as eBay or Amazon to deaccession or acquire >items (e.g., records, reference sources, ephemera)?  I'm >particularly interested in the legal and ethical issues raised by this >relatively new technology for both archives and (potential) >donors.  



Andrew Martinez
Archivist
Rhode Island School of Design
2 College Street
Providence, RI  02903
(401) 454-6398
amartine@risd.edu

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>