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Despite my reputation as an inveterate book-buyer, I do maintain a sense of proportion (occasionally, anyway). This, for example, is a little beyond my financial pale. And the auction hasn't even hit the seller's reserve price yet!
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Wow, that list of goodies brings out all my acquisitive instincts!
Posted by: Belle | January 31, 2008 at 05:15 PM
My "wow" is more like "wow," a seller who provides no information about themselves and has all of 2 feedbacks on ebay? How the heck did they get their hands on a Wycliffite bible??
Posted by: New Kid on the Hallway | January 31, 2008 at 05:35 PM
NK: I had the same reaction as you did. Who bids that high on an item from a seller with feedback numbers that low? Hmmm...
Posted by: Miriam | January 31, 2008 at 06:03 PM
Who bids? Private collectors or institutions (the purchaser) who would rather not pay the auction houses (Christie's or Sotheby's) their 25% commission on the hammer price (the highest bid). Sellers, or consignors, must also pay the auction house a commission, a percentage of the selling price, though this is often negotiable depending upon and relating to the pre-sale estimate for the item. Of course, buying on Ebay can be problematic....
TW
Posted by: T Wood | January 31, 2008 at 10:00 PM
I'm not sure why they think it was Richard Hunne's copy -- one of the photographs shows a sixteenth-century ownership inscription which appears to read 'Iste liber constat Thome Towne de [can't read the last word; looks like 'Haloglyon']', but nothing that obviously connects it with Hunne. Incidentally, the Bible produced in evidence at Hunne's trial is now (probably) Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 147.
The Ebay seller, 'dandtworldwide', is presumably the same as The Bible Museum, Inc. who have this Bible listed in their online inventory, on sale at (take a deep breath) $2.75 million.
Posted by: Arnold | February 02, 2008 at 03:39 PM