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Re: on-line auctions



I have been regularly using eBay for a number of reasons.  First,
our regional area of coverage (panhandle Florida) is, of course, a
tourist mecca.  Much of the 1880-1950 paper ephemera which is
important to us is not here in Florida, but elsewhere in the U.S.
Second, as a Navy town, much of the material that we could use
covering naval aviation history, the pilots, the local populance,
again ends up elsewhere.    Kinds of items I have purchased for
the collection include postcards, ephemera, advertising booklets,
and the like.

Provenance can indeed be a factor, but I usually have the seller's
name and address and often they will tell me where something
came from.    Ebay is also an interesting "database" ... by that,
I've been able to stumble across information, suggestions, etc.
that I didn't know.   For example, one seller listed a copy of an
old historical newspaper; he went to great lengths to describe
the contents which included a report on yellow fever in Pensacola.
Now we have the newspaper on microfilm but like many old
papers, no indexes.   So this provided us some information that
we didn't have.

One of the problems with eBay, and this is just philosophy mind
you, is the implication to people that everything is worth $$$.  I've
run into donors that after I explain our interest and research value
of something, they'll say, well, if I don't give it to you, I'll probably
sell it on eBay.   And I've seen that happen.   Perhaps the other
side of this is that because of the vast audience, some items sell
when they should have gone to a repository.    Pensacola had a
turbulent 1963-1965 period in race relations, especially involving
several high schools.    I am missing those yearbooks and two of
them turned up on eBay.   I got one of them, but the other one's
price just escalated beyond reason.   Turned out the seller was
local; she's supplementing her income as a junior college
secretary.   So suddenly to get some items, I'm in competition
with an international audience.    That's a problem as I see it.

For archivists, I should mention that there is an increasing
number of collections of personal papers and records coming
up on eBay.   One group I found were the archives of an archi-
tectural company, which the seller said, he had "saved" when
he was hired to tear the building down.   He had a starting bid
of $100,000 for some 400 boxes, hundreds of blueprints, etc.
In one sense this is good.   I've actually sent e-mail and made
contact with sellers and bidders.   In one case, I got a bidder
to stop bidding against me, because the materials were coming
to an archives and the parts he was interested in, would be
available.    I really don't see a great deal of difference between
eBay and the past history where archives (including the Library
of Congress) purchased collections through auction houses,
private arrangements with dealers, sales from rare book catalogs,
etc.

Other comments?


Dean


Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections and West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
Tele:  850-474-2213;   Fax:  850-474-3338

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