Welcome to Rare Books Insider for February 23rd, 2022 – FREE EDITION.
Each week we give you the scoop on undervalued, mispriced and hidden gems in Alternative Investing.
Table of Contents
Last week in Rare Books
Auctions
Overall it was a decent week on the auction front as over $17m changed hands across more than 10,000 lots. The average sale price of $1,697 was slightly below par but still healthy.
Last week we were eyeing some American Presidential nostalgia, and there was a LOT of it.
A letter signed by George Washington sold for $20k, while a letter signed twice didn’t hit its reserve.
Two letters from sixteenth American President Abraham Lincoln went for $11k and $8k respectively.
Several other Lincoln letters sold for low-four figures to mid-five figures at Heritage Auction’s Lincoln event. They commanded a wide variety of prices.
A historically significant letter from Lincoln to the Army of the Potomac sold for $325k, which shows just how important the letter’s contents are (relative to the two Lincoln letters above).
Last and certainly least, GW’s hair sold for $17,640 (gross), and a bloodstained shirt cuff from Lincoln’s assassination sold for nearly $94,000 (double gross).
This week and next week in Rare Books
Fractional Market IPOs
Rally brings us a timely IPO, given the recent spate of book bans in the US.
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 – Signed First Edition
- Market Cap: $18k
- Inferred Value: $13k
- Drop Details: 2/23 on Rally
- Our View: [INSIDERS ONLY]
Fractional Secondary Markets
Two new books open this week on Rally, and both are around 16% to 17% higher than their fair market value. Historically books on Rally trade at a 20% premium, so we’ll keep an eye on these.
The buy view for Where the Wild Things Are was based on the expectation of a quick bump at secondary. We’ll be selling if it does jump slightly.
