Welcome to Rare Books Insider for 20th December 2021 – FREE version.
We use Moneyball tactics to discover undervalued, mispriced, and hidden gems in Fractional Investing.
Rare books in 2021
Rare books continued their sideways trajectory into the last trading week of 2021 on the fractional markets.
Zooming out, the picture looks different for the broader rare books market. November was no doubt boosted by the sale of the US Constitution at Sotheby’s for $43m, but it was a strong month regardless.
And it’s not just November. Year on year, book sales are $590m higher for 2021 than they were in 2020.
Last week
Fractional Secondary Markets
Two books started trading on Rally’s secondary market last week: The Federalist Papers and Flemming’s The Spy Who Loved Me. The former was mostly flat while Spy jumped 10%.
Auctions
We’ve been tracking Heritage’s books to film auction for a few weeks now, and it didn’t disappoint.
For the second week in a row, a Harry Potter first UK edition sold for big bucks, but this time it was a monster result.
A pristine copy of the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (one of 500 total) sold for a modern-fiction record $471k, nearly 6x its pre-auction estimate. A slightly dinged up version went for £94k at Sotheby’s the week prior.
Another copy, which sits somewhere in between the two copies above, will IPO on Otis this week for $115,800 (more on this below).
The rest of the auction featured a number of notable sales and record-breakers.
A set of all three Lord of the Rings books shattered a 20-year old record when it hammered at $103k. A complete set of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, all of which were autographed by the illustrator, went for an even $100k. A copy of The Great Gatsby matched Narnia with an even $100k.
At the high end, rare books are flying.
This week and next week
Fractional Market IPOs
One new book to IPO this week – the first rare book to feature on fractional platform Otis.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 1st Ed, 1st Print
- Market Cap: $115,800
- Inferred Value: $180,000
- Drop: 12/20/21 on Otis
- Recommendation: [INSIDERS ONLY]
Fractional Secondary Markets
One new book opens to secondary trading this week – Animal Farm by George Orwell. Our inferred value for it is around $6,500.
Auctions
I couldn’t find anything interesting at all going on before the new year. Sorry!
