17 Jul
2024
17 Jul
'24
5:55 p.m.
On Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 10:45 AM brad via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Question going back to the estate planning
subject...do auction houses
tend to receive higher bids than ebay for vintage computer gear? Are they
any better in terms of finding the right buyers?One day I might want to
sell my Mark-8 and TVT, not immediately though. But more and more am
thinking of getting out before I'm gotten out.BradSent from my Galaxy
In my experience, yes.
If you watch RR Auctions, particularly when they auction off an Apple 1 or
some other Steve Jobs related thing, they've begun to list various
computers and computer related items, and of the stuff that sells, some of
it fetches greater than eBay values.
When I did consulting for Christie's back in the 2013 timeframe when they
auctioned off the Apple-1 in conjunction with Andy Warhol stuff, Christie's
asked if I had any Apple computers I would be interested in including in
the auction, so I said sure, and offered up about half a dozen real prizes
from my collection, including Apple ][ prototypes, and then also threw in a
first revision Apple //e, as they aren't nearly as common as the later
revision //e's, but whatever. I specified semi-ridiculous reserve prices
for everything, including the //e, which at the time would go for maybe
$200. It ended up selling for the ridiculous price of $1,000.
Many years ago, there was an auction of the collection of a guy (I forget
his name) who spent years collecting computer related books, proceedings,
manuscripts, etc. Some of it was mundane but a lot of it was pretty rare
and unique, and it all fetched a pretty tidy sum.
Auction houses attract a different type of buyer, definitely not your
typical computer collector.
Sellam