AE Monthly

Article Archives Search

AE Articles


A Hard Sell: The Alexander J. Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates Material - By Bruce McKinney A portion of the Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates material Earlier this year Alex Jemal, a Michigan lawyer now in his 80’s, approached me. He had built a collection of the writings of and as homage to Joyce Carol Oates, the later 20^th century prolific. Over her career Ms. Oates has written more than fifty novels and innumerable other pieces. She was busy and popular at a time when reading books as a hobby was peaking and has since continued to write as cable television, the internet, iPods and iPads have elbowed books aside as sources of casual entertainment. She continues today even as books, not so long ago our stalwart companions on planes, at beaches and on bedside tables, are now receding into the cablevision gloom. She and her audience were once close friends but have since become casual, even distant. Twenty-five years ago she was the answer to a $100 Jeopardy question, today probably $400. Collecting is an uncertain process. We, for many reasons embark on collecting adventures and become, by happenstance the prisoner of trends that move our subjects in and out of favor. The initial decision may have been simple but such collections become complex interactions with the subject and the times. If the commitment continues the collection becomes something between a hillock and a mountain. For Mr. Jemal whose efforts have been consistent and his purchases incremental over three decades, the sum of his acquisitions is now a stunning number, some 1724 more or less. He invested time but not a great sum of money, only about $120,000 or $70 an item and purchased the majority of his material a decade or two ago. We know this because he kept meticulous records. Few collectors know what they spent. Mr. Jemal knows what he spent on postage. Whether the money spent as a passion was also well spent as an investment is another thing altogether. Collectors buy what they like and hope when the journey is done that others will value what they pursued. With respect to Ms. Oates the public has liked her too much and a search on abebooks.com confirms it. Her name finds 22,413 items for sale, the lady’s work interesting but not rare. There’s also more of it than the 22,413 suggests. Most prices are low so there’s probably plenty more to be posted if her prices get back to double digits.
A Hard Sell: The Alexander J. Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates Material - By Bruce McKinney Additional material I asked an anonymous dealer, a specialist in fiction, for his view and he suggested the field was soft. He summed up his focus these days as being on rare, obscure and important and without saying it seemed to suggest JCO does not fit his criteria. He then added, “its tough out there.” He’s not unsympathetic. He suggests that for fiction dealers generally- buying books has become something akin to taking a commercial flight. You know where your book will land before you buy it and you don’t otherwise buy it unless its positively cheap. That makes it particularly tough for a collector to achieve a reasonable financial outcome when the time comes to sell dealers, institutions and collectors want to cherry pick – often rendering the balance of material unsalable. Said severely, collectors look for adoptions, acquirers for body parts. On the collector side there are advantages to being a specialist. A collector lives their focus and in time recognizes the unusual and unique when they see it. In this way they become discerning - leading to the acquisition of deeper, more complex material. They are also rarely in a rush to sell and, when they do, tend to have modest expectations. Dealers are home run hitters; collectors hit singles. In the 9^th inning, as Mr. Jemal is at 84, they don’t usually hold out for the last dollar, often selling at auction where outcomes even if not great have a sense of being market valuations. They can live with that. They’ve had a long and satisfying relationship that is not only, if at all, measured in dollars. When looking to sell or dispose even getting a dealer interested to market the material is difficult, getting an auction house to handle even a 20 lots sale more difficult because the market has been running against fiction for years. Auction houses are justifiably cautious. “Can we sell this? I’m not sure.” Generally such sales have been recently disappointing with the normal few notable exceptions. Auction houses have the added burden that if they fail it’s a public failure. Dealers, when they misjudge, fail quietly. They waste time but not reputation. The very fact that the average item in the Jemal collection originally cost $70 tells tells a great deal about value in this field. Dealers don’t like to handle inexpensive material so you can believe they had no choice. They’ve had too much and have been pricing it low for years.
A Hard Sell: The Alexander J. Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates Material - By Bruce McKinney Rare and unusual material So this brings us to today. Dealers are decidedly lukewarm about a massive, and may I add the appropriate adjective, obsessive collection of Joyce Carol Oates material. A typical response is “I have plenty of this kind of material already and it’s not selling.” Some dealers will consider marketing the Jemal collection but, using the assigned landing slot before take-off analogy, are not optimistic for they don’t see prospects - no easy way to place the collection. Where a deal is possible the model now prevailing is a combination of purchase and gift that gets the donor some money, some tax benefits and perhaps recognition, in other words, three consolation prizes. So who are the most logical buyers? They are institutions and there are three. Syracuse University has material that Joyce Carol Oates has given them. By many accounts it’s her Sistine Chapel. She is also associated with the University of Michigan and they too have a substantial collection. The third possibility is Princeton where Ms. Oates has been a writer in residence for decades. They apparently do not have a substantial collection and could logically be expected to have one. All this leaves Mr. Jemal, after thirty years, in an uncertain state and this why I’m writing about his predicament. His clock is running and he believes he’ll achieve a better outcome than his heirs. He has been faithful and resolute as serious collectors are wont but the outcome has now become murky. It’s no consolation but he’s not alone. Others equally committed, as they age, face the same prospects and I have for years sought to understand this predicament that can turn a burning passion into an expensive trap. It’s complicated. That this has often been true for collectors on the wrong side of trend lines. No dealer ever told them they were throwing pennies in the ocean and that in every scenario they’d be under water. Along the way they probably suspected as much, thought they wouldn’t care but in time succumbed to hope. The world will see and ultimately appreciate what I saw and felt. But for Mr. Jemal it hasn’t turned out that way. Perhaps Ms. Oates’ next book will be “The Law of Large Numbers” and he’ll read it to learn what went wrong. The answers? Internet availability and changing tastes are leaving collectible 20^th century women’s fiction lolling in the doldrums. It’s a story you can’t make up.
A Hard Sell: The Alexander J. Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates Material - By Bruce McKinney Rare and unusual material This of course leaves other possibilities. There are other unnamed and undiscovered colleges and universities with strong women’s studies programs for whom this collection would be an important addition. There are also collectors of women’s materials that could buy this archive, add to it and in time pass it on. Such archives are always unusual, the term rarely heard outside of academic circles. But such resources are uncommon because such material often takes decades to identify and acquire. Not so for Miss Oates. Her next great collection is already loaded on Abebooks and waiting to be assembled. Needless to say this makes Mr. Jemal’s predicament tougher. There are choices but they will require both hard work and luck. Mr. Jemal is flexible. At 84 he’d like to bring his collection in for a landing. His records are meticulous. He’s done what an institution would do, build a great searchable catalogue that makes the complete collection accessible. His documentation is in fact unique, his collection for the acquirer a decision, not a project. It should be of interest. If you are among the interested contact me. Mr. Jemal has asked and I have agreed without fee to help him. More is at stake than Mr. Jemal’s collection. Great collections are abuilding in hundreds of fields and focuses. They will also need help. A dealer could step forward to craft a strategy. An auction house could take it on for the occasional financial benefit and the larger advantage that leadership confers. A collector too could assume the challenge. For the moment he’s circling, waiting to begin a conversation. Seven files detailing the Jemal Collection will be provided by email if requested. A perspective on Ms. Oates that is published on the Princeton University website is linked here. If you are interested in this collection contact me at 877-323-7273 or by email at bmckinney@americanaexchange.com

A Hard Sell: The Alexander J. Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates Material

- By Bruce McKinney

A portion of the Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates material

Earlier this year Alex Jemal, a Michigan lawyer now in his 80’s, approached me. He had built a collection of the writings of and as homage to Joyce Carol Oates, the later 20^th century prolific. Over her career Ms. Oates has written more than fifty novels and innumerable other pieces. She was busy and popular at a time when reading books as a hobby was peaking and has since continued to write as cable television, the internet, iPods and iPads have elbowed books aside as sources of casual entertainment. She continues today even as books, not so long ago our stalwart companions on planes, at beaches and on bedside tables, are now receding into the cablevision gloom. She and her audience were once close friends but have since become casual, even distant. Twenty-five years ago she was the answer to a $100 Jeopardy question, today probably $400.

Collecting is an uncertain process. We, for many reasons embark on collecting adventures and become, by happenstance the prisoner of trends that move our subjects in and out of favor. The initial decision may have been simple but such collections become complex interactions with the subject and the times. If the commitment continues the collection becomes something between a hillock and a mountain. For Mr. Jemal whose efforts have been consistent and his purchases incremental over three decades, the sum of his acquisitions is now a stunning number, some 1724 more or less. He invested time but not a great sum of money, only about $120,000 or $70 an item and purchased the majority of his material a decade or two ago. We know this because he kept meticulous records. Few collectors know what they spent. Mr. Jemal knows what he spent on postage.

Whether the money spent as a passion was also well spent as an investment is another thing altogether. Collectors buy what they like and hope when the journey is done that others will value what they pursued. With respect to Ms. Oates the public has liked her too much and a search on abebooks.com confirms it. Her name finds 22,413 items for sale, the lady’s work interesting but not rare. There’s also more of it than the 22,413 suggests. Most prices are low so there’s probably plenty more to be posted if her prices get back to double digits.

A Hard Sell: The Alexander J. Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates Material

- By Bruce McKinney

Additional material

I asked an anonymous dealer, a specialist in fiction, for his view and he suggested the field was soft. He summed up his focus these days as being on rare, obscure and important and without saying it seemed to suggest JCO does not fit his criteria. He then added, “its tough out there.” He’s not unsympathetic.

He suggests that for fiction dealers generally- buying books has become something akin to taking a commercial flight. You know where your book will land before you buy it and you don’t otherwise buy it unless its positively cheap. That makes it particularly tough for a collector to achieve a reasonable financial outcome when the time comes to sell dealers, institutions and collectors want to cherry pick – often rendering the balance of material unsalable. Said severely, collectors look for adoptions, acquirers for body parts.

On the collector side there are advantages to being a specialist. A collector lives their focus and in time recognizes the unusual and unique when they see it. In this way they become discerning - leading to the acquisition of deeper, more complex material. They are also rarely in a rush to sell and, when they do, tend to have modest expectations. Dealers are home run hitters; collectors hit singles. In the 9^th inning, as Mr. Jemal is at 84, they don’t usually hold out for the last dollar, often selling at auction where outcomes even if not great have a sense of being market valuations. They can live with that. They’ve had a long and satisfying relationship that is not only, if at all, measured in dollars.

When looking to sell or dispose even getting a dealer interested to market the material is difficult, getting an auction house to handle even a 20 lots sale more difficult because the market has been running against fiction for years. Auction houses are justifiably cautious. “Can we sell this? I’m not sure.” Generally such sales have been recently disappointing with the normal few notable exceptions. Auction houses have the added burden that if they fail it’s a public failure. Dealers, when they misjudge, fail quietly. They waste time but not reputation. The very fact that the average item in the Jemal collection originally cost $70 tells tells a great deal about value in this field. Dealers don’t like to handle inexpensive material so you can believe they had no choice. They’ve had too much and have been pricing it low for years.

A Hard Sell: The Alexander J. Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates Material

- By Bruce McKinney

Rare and unusual material

So this brings us to today. Dealers are decidedly lukewarm about a massive, and may I add the appropriate adjective, obsessive collection of Joyce Carol Oates material. A typical response is “I have plenty of this kind of material already and it’s not selling.”

Some dealers will consider marketing the Jemal collection but, using the assigned landing slot before take-off analogy, are not optimistic for they don’t see prospects - no easy way to place the collection. Where a deal is possible the model now prevailing is a combination of purchase and gift that gets the donor some money, some tax benefits and perhaps recognition, in other words, three consolation prizes.

So who are the most logical buyers? They are institutions and there are three. Syracuse University has material that Joyce Carol Oates has given them. By many accounts it’s her Sistine Chapel. She is also associated with the University of Michigan and they too have a substantial collection. The third possibility is Princeton where Ms. Oates has been a writer in residence for decades. They apparently do not have a substantial collection and could logically be expected to have one.

All this leaves Mr. Jemal, after thirty years, in an uncertain state and this why I’m writing about his predicament. His clock is running and he believes he’ll achieve a better outcome than his heirs. He has been faithful and resolute as serious collectors are wont but the outcome has now become murky. It’s no consolation but he’s not alone. Others equally committed, as they age, face the same prospects and I have for years sought to understand this predicament that can turn a burning passion into an expensive trap. It’s complicated. That this has often been true for collectors on the wrong side of trend lines. No dealer ever told them they were throwing pennies in the ocean and that in every scenario they’d be under water. Along the way they probably suspected as much, thought they wouldn’t care but in time succumbed to hope. The world will see and ultimately appreciate what I saw and felt. But for Mr. Jemal it hasn’t turned out that way. Perhaps Ms. Oates’ next book will be “The Law of Large Numbers” and he’ll read it to learn what went wrong. The answers? Internet availability and changing tastes are leaving collectible 20^th century women’s fiction lolling in the doldrums. It’s a story you can’t make up.

A Hard Sell: The Alexander J. Jemal Collection of Joyce Carol Oates Material

- By Bruce McKinney

Rare and unusual material

This of course leaves other possibilities. There are other unnamed and undiscovered colleges and universities with strong women’s studies programs for whom this collection would be an important addition. There are also collectors of women’s materials that could buy this archive, add to it and in time pass it on. Such archives are always unusual, the term rarely heard outside of academic circles. But such resources are uncommon because such material often takes decades to identify and acquire. Not so for Miss Oates. Her next great collection is already loaded on Abebooks and waiting to be assembled. Needless to say this makes Mr. Jemal’s predicament tougher.

There are choices but they will require both hard work and luck. Mr. Jemal is flexible. At 84 he’d like to bring his collection in for a landing. His records are meticulous. He’s done what an institution would do, build a great searchable catalogue that makes the complete collection accessible. His documentation is in fact unique, his collection for the acquirer a decision, not a project. It should be of interest. If you are among the interested contact me. Mr. Jemal has asked and I have agreed without fee to help him. More is at stake than Mr. Jemal’s collection. Great collections are abuilding in hundreds of fields and focuses. They will also need help.

A dealer could step forward to craft a strategy. An auction house could take it on for the occasional financial benefit and the larger advantage that leadership confers. A collector too could assume the challenge.

For the moment he’s circling, waiting to begin a conversation.

Seven files detailing the Jemal Collection will be provided by email if requested.

A perspective on Ms. Oates that is published on the Princeton University website is linked here.

If you are interested in this collection contact me at 877-323-7273 or by email at bmckinney@americanaexchange.com