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Re: on-line auctions



This "I-can-get-cash-for-anything"  mentality is especially troublesome for
outfits like us who have to make do without an acquisitions budget.

My only first-hand experience was last year at our annual convention.  I came
across a vendor who was selling piecemeal a big set of equipment blueprints.
He wouldn't even consider donating them to us; all he wanted was $$$. Very
sad. (Worse- he had them spread out on a table in the sunshine, wind, dust
and - eventually - rain, and seemed to resent my advice to help him protect
them somehow. )

Best wishes,

Thomas Berry, Archivist
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
Phone 419-352-5616
Fax 419-352-6086
tberry@wcnet.org
http://www.bigtoy.com

Dean DeBolt wrote:

> 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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