Autograph Action Sets Record

Online auction fever is driving up the price of signed first editions. This isn’t news. But the record-breaking price for a signed Dorothy Parker first edition on Ebay was set this month.

On March 14, an Oklahoma collector auctioned off a signed edition of Parker’s 1936 greatest hits package Not So Deep As A Well for $570. This was the highest price paid on Ebay in the two years I’ve been following the market. (See the Gallery Page for other Parker autographs).

What drives the collectibles market? Supply and demand. However, Dorothy Parker signed many, many items in her life. Her signed books and memorabilia are for sale almost monthly. What made this auction so unusual was both the poor quality of the book itself, click and see it here — and that Not So Deep As A Well is essentially a reprint book. It is the first collection of her three volumes from the 1920s, Enough Rope, Sunset Gun and Death and Taxes. If it was a signed first edition of Rope, I could see that. But this book isn’t that rare, or special. This one has peeling cellophane on the cover, and it looks like the slipcase was kept in the sun since 1936. This particular book does come from a group of 485 signed and numbered copies.

However, these come up a couple times a year, and the last one went for under $300. (To be honest, I paid $225 for a hotel card Dottie signed in 1947, but I’m crazy). What makes an autograph so valuable? I used to work in the collectibles business. It is scarcity. It is uniqueness.

I looked at other autograph dealers to see if this going price for authors and literary figures was “market value” — and was fairly stunned by what I found. Steven. S. Raab Autographs is one of the most respected in the country. In checking for what he was selling online, I compared the Dorothy Parker $570 price. Here is a sample of a few other famous writers: Harriet Beecher Stowe ($450); Steven Vincent Benet ($95); George Bernard Shaw ($425); Carl Sandberg ($150); Alexander Dumas ($195); Charles Dickens ($995); Samuel Clemens ($550); Nathaniel Hawthorne ($795) and John Steinbeck ($250). In my opinion, paying this much for such a book is too much. I would love your feedback on this one.