Seller's Guide

Why simply sell when you can confidently consign?

The single most frequent question new customers ask us is whether they should sell their items or consign them in one of our upcoming auctions. Our answer, in the thirty years we’ve been in business, has always been the same: consign. If you have a quality historical autograph or collectible, we unequivocally recommend you consign that piece to auction. Why simply sell when you can confidently consign?

It happens almost every weekend, all across the world: you’re cleaning out your parents’ attic and find a nondescript scrapbook– only, when you blow off the dust, you realize a book of Presidential signatures is in your hands. Perhaps, traipsing through a yard sale, you stumble upon a Civil War diary. Maybe, on a lark, you attend a library fair and buy A Farewell to Arms, not noticing until you return home to read it that Hemingway signed the inner leaf. Or, you’ve collected autographs for years, just for the love of the hunt, but never before considered bringing your treasures to market. When it is time to make the next step, information is the difference between a good or terrible experience

Autograph Market

First, know that the autograph market consists primarily of two groups: dealers and collectors. Dealers buy, sell, and trade autographs for profit. Collectors attempt to build groups of collections of autographs based on criteria that are important to them– groupings of Supreme Court Justices, or Allied military leaders of World War II. Collectors span the range from kids wanting to collect the 1969 Mets team, to institutions building enormous holdings on a wide range of subjects.

Second, understand that the autograph owner (you) generally will not achieve the highest sale price in a direct, private sale. When it comes to dealers, margins matter. A dealer will only offer a price lower than what he believes he can sell the item for. Dealer mark-ups often run from 100% to many multiples of their cost of the item. Private collectors, for the most part, do not have the resources to either advertise themselves to you or find you. Institutions will want you to donate your material, or will take many months to source the funds for a purchase.

Your best course of action is to consign confidently with an Alexander Historical Auctions’ auction.

An auction works like a regulator, to help you be sure you’re getting the highest possible market price for your autograph or collectible. More importantly, our auction house has ALL the resources you need to have the best experience in the market. Your item will be thoroughly researched by a professional staff, catalogued in the most accurate, comprehensive, and historically fascinating way, and then superbly presented to the most discerning bidders in the world. We specialize in helping countless consignors navigate their way through this process, which is why we’ve sold over 60,000 historical items over the past thirty years to clients around the world. Don’t settle for second-best, and don’t leave potential profits on the table – join our family of consignors today.

Call us at 203-276-1570 or email us for a full description of the simple consignment process.