Matthew on ephemera

[Milan Zahorcak*]

Greetings to all from Tucson, Arizona.  A bit of holiday R&R and so not on my
home machine.

Matthew asked me to upload this image . . . a bit trickier to do when I not an
official user on mom's laptop.  But my FTP program is on my flashdrive and we
eventually got lucky.

As sent by Matthew follows:


Milan,
 
Please make this available on line. I am sending you the email that concerns the
jpg.
************************************

With the internet and new public access to this ephemera, I would say
the value of any of this ephemera will slowly become worthless, so why
not share ? Google is destroying the ephemera market !
************************************
The above statement confuses me.
I am writing this because I hold so many of you members in respect that I feel I
can share some of my opinions with you even if they differ from yours.

To those who feel the ephemera market is crashing:   I find the high end
ephemera market is stronger than ever. On November 7, 2007, I paid on eBay $919.00 plus shipping for a 2 ft. wide broadside from a tintype gallery printed
in the 1860s or 1870s. There were 20 bids from 8 different collectors.  I do not
believe public access depreciates an item. I just believe it makes the focused
collector more aware of what is out there and he or she would still want the
original as opposed to a copy.

Now, if you mean common garden variety ephemera, I believe eBay has brought
prices into line for plain merchandise, but my personal experience is the
thrilling pieces of ephemera keep going up in value. I was outbid at the Naylor
auction on two small pieces of paper, one a rare invoice and the other an even
rarer ad. The first brought over $5000, and the second brought over $7000 and
the high bidder in both cases was a dealer.

For those of you who feel differently, I would like some concrete examples of
your experience. I also consider early labeled bottles ephemera and they are
still going up in value. I do admit, the garden variety Anthony bottles have
leveled off, but that is because so many of them have surfaced through eBay. It seems
to be a perfect case for supply and demand determining the price. I have a
wonderful 1947 copy of a Beard polychrome advertisement that was originally
printed a century earlier. I would still love to get the original. The copy
usually can be bought for about 30 to 70 dollars depending on who is buying and
who is selling, but I and at least a half dozen others would pay a healthy four
figure price for the original.

There are copies of the 1839 Daguerre manual available, but they have not
affected the price of an original. I do not believe the sky is falling, and I
still have faith that really great antiques of any variety, and that includes
ephemera are still a wonderful investment. It is not exposure to the items that
makes the price drop, it is either a change in contemporary taste or a case of
supply and demand, and of course, demand is determined by contemporary taste.

I hope the previous paragraph is meant to start a dialogue, not an argument.

MRI

PS: Come on, MZ, let me hear from you also. Oh yes, I will send a high quality
scan to Milan so you can also appreciate this 24" wide piece of paper, and yes,
size does count. Look at the lens!

MZ replies:  My, that's a big one, but I suspect an artists rendering with a bit
of license.

[Marenfred]

Totally agree with MRI. True for equipment as well, not just ephemera.

Fred

---

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[Ralph & Bobbi London]

Milan,

I do not see an image or a pointer to one.

Ralph

[Dan Colucci]

First off, my statements were exaggerated for effect - but I do believe that the worldwide scanning of books and posting them on line for free access will ( and already has ) impact the PAPER ephemera market.
 
Secondly, it was also a little joust to see if we as a group were willing to share more - Matthew included !
 
Dan

________________________________

From: woodandbrass-bounces@... on behalf of Milan Zahorcak*
Sent: Sun 12/16/2007 10:41 AM
To: Unknown Wood & Brass
Subject: [W&B] Matthew on ephemera



Greetings to all from Tucson, Arizona.  A bit of holiday R&R and so not on my
home machine.

Matthew asked me to upload this image . . . a bit trickier to do when I not an
official user on mom's laptop.  But my FTP program is on my flashdrive and we
eventually got lucky.

As sent by Matthew follows:


Milan,

Please make this available on line. I am sending you the email that concerns the
jpg.
************************************

With the internet and new public access to this ephemera, I would say
the value of any of this ephemera will slowly become worthless, so why
not share ? Google is destroying the ephemera market !
************************************
The above statement confuses me.
I am writing this because I hold so many of you members in respect that I feel I
can share some of my opinions with you even if they differ from yours.

To those who feel the ephemera market is crashing:   I find the high end
ephemera market is stronger than ever. On November 7, 2007, I paid on eBay $919.00 plus shipping for a 2 ft. wide broadside from a tintype gallery printed
in the 1860s or 1870s. There were 20 bids from 8 different collectors.  I do not
believe public access depreciates an item. I just believe it makes the focused
collector more aware of what is out there and he or she would still want the
original as opposed to a copy.

Now, if you mean common garden variety ephemera, I believe eBay has brought
prices into line for plain merchandise, but my personal experience is the
thrilling pieces of ephemera keep going up in value. I was outbid at the Naylor
auction on two small pieces of paper, one a rare invoice and the other an even
rarer ad. The first brought over $5000, and the second brought over $7000 and
the high bidder in both cases was a dealer.

For those of you who feel differently, I would like some concrete examples of
your experience. I also consider early labeled bottles ephemera and they are
still going up in value. I do admit, the garden variety Anthony bottles have
leveled off, but that is because so many of them have surfaced through eBay. It seems
to be a perfect case for supply and demand determining the price. I have a
wonderful 1947 copy of a Beard polychrome advertisement that was originally
printed a century earlier. I would still love to get the original. The copy
usually can be bought for about 30 to 70 dollars depending on who is buying and
who is selling, but I and at least a half dozen others would pay a healthy four
figure price for the original.

There are copies of the 1839 Daguerre manual available, but they have not
affected the price of an original. I do not believe the sky is falling, and I
still have faith that really great antiques of any variety, and that includes
ephemera are still a wonderful investment. It is not exposure to the items that
makes the price drop, it is either a change in contemporary taste or a case of
supply and demand, and of course, demand is determined by contemporary taste.

I hope the previous paragraph is meant to start a dialogue, not an argument.

MRI

PS: Come on, MZ, let me hear from you also. Oh yes, I will send a high quality
scan to Milan so you can also appreciate this 24" wide piece of paper, and yes,
size does count. Look at the lens!

MZ replies:  My, that's a big one, but I suspect an artists rendering with a bit
of license.