Looking to Sell Your Books?
In today's world, it's hard to know who to trust when consigning your property. We offer our consignors many advantages that our competitors do not. Below, you will see just a few of the advantages to consigning with Addison & Sarova.
1. We are a specialized auctioneer. This means that we sell rare books in dedicated rare book auctions. This means that your book will be sold to an audience interested specifically in buying the type of item you are selling. This means better prices and more fair prices, because the prices are decided by an informed bidding audience who knows the value of your piece and has a particular appreciation for it.
2. We do not charge cataloguing and photographing fees. Other houses charge anywhere from $30 to $100 to photograph and catalogue each item. Our commission includes those services whereas some other auctioneers will "nickel and dime" consignors with hidden charges. Some even charge "unsold item" fees which is a fee charged to the seller if their item does not sell in the auction; so, the consignor could end up owing money to the auction house for nothing! To us, that's just not right, and we only make money if an item sells and the consignor makes money.
3. Our commission rates (figured by percentage) are comparable to other auctioneers but are reduced as the price goes upward.
Plus, we don't charge the fees discussed in number 2, above.
4. Lotting is key to your bottom line if you are selling a large collection. Comparable auction houses typically will not consign your entire collection; they tend to accept only the material estimated to sell above $800 or more. If they do consign the lower value material, then they sell it in shelf-lots for pennies on the dollar. We accept consignments in a wider range of values. If we believe that an item is likely to bring at least $300, then we will lot and sell that item individually. For the consignor, this means that not only can we sell a larger amount of their material, but it also means that each item (even if it isn't worth a small fortune) will get the same individual attention as the higher value items.
5. Unlike most, we provide live video and audio broadcast of our auctions to our online bidders. This allows our bidders from all over the world to participate in our auctions as if they were there on the auction floor. This attracts more online bidders than standard online bidding platforms used by our competitors. In today's auction market, it is not uncommon for online bidders to make up about 3/4 of the total number of registered bidders in a specialized auction. Our online bidding platform takes advantage of this trend and attracts more online bidders to our auctions. This is one reason why so many of our buyers are located across international borders. Our marketing strategies and the way we conduct our auctions takes advantage of technology and current market realities rather than insisting on doing things the ways they've always been done!
6. As licensed auctioneers in the states of Georgia and Texas, we adhere to a strict legal code and code of ethics, and we are overseen by the office of the Georgia Secretary of State. In some states, such as California, auctioneers do not even need a license to practice auctioneering. This means that in those states there are no specific auction laws that mandate - for example - timely payment to consignors, ethical treatment of buyers and sellers, continuing education and training pertaining to their profession, or many other state auction laws that are in place to protect consignors, buyers, and the general public.
7. "Results." That's the word we focus upon. All that we do is aimed at getting the best possible price for a consignor's property. To date, we have a record of selling well above 90% of the lots we offer in an industry that, on average, sells closer to 70% of the items they offer at auction. Most items sell within their estimated range, and many exceed the high estimate. We also routinely set new price records for various titles and editions.
