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Pacific Book Auction - A good place to do business - By Karen Wright Auction Room at Pacific Book Auction. By Karen Wright Last month I attended my first Pacific Book Auction sale. I have bought from them online several times, making bids and either being elated that I won my prize book or deflated when I lost it. But this time, I went for the real thing, and it wasn't just an excuse to go to balmy San Francisco to escape our scorching desert heat, either. Oh, I've been to a few auctions...some books, some antiques, and I've generally bought too much for too much. This time, I went with reselling in mind and I bought much more carefully than I would have were I buying for myself. I still bought too much, but not for too, too much! PBA Galleries is, according to Bruce MacMakin, the Senior Vice President of Consignments and Appraisals, the largest specialty book auction house in the United States. Devoted to works on paper and related arts, PBA conducts approximately twenty-five gallery auctions in a calendar year and continuous live online auctions of rare books, manuscripts, autographs, maps, atlases, prints, and photographs. But mostly, says Bruce, they just handle books. They receive some of their consignments from California, but many more come from all over the U.S. and other countries around the world. Their customer base comes from booksellers, book buyers and collectors from many countries. According to their website, "It is PBA Galleries' primary goal to maintain our high level of standards in the fine arts field and provide the best service to all who are interested in buying and selling at PBA Galleries." I certainly can't argue with that. The whole experience was very professional and the staff was gracious and widely knowledgeable. As a bookseller, I wanted to know if they accepted consignments from many book stores that are going out of business. He replied that they usually don't, since by the time the bookseller gets around to eliminating the last of his or her inventory, s/he has already had half-price sales and all the really good, high-end books have been sold. I asked Mr. MacMakin what his ideal customer would be. "We get a lot of our consignments from estates, book scouts and collectors who are thinning their high quality collections. We have the three Ds; death, debt and divorces; those are our primary auction sources." Hey, that rhymes!
Pacific Book Auction - A good place to do business - By Karen Wright PBA Senior Vice-President Bruce MacMakin. PBA is located in the traffic-clogged downtown of San Francisco on Kearny Street. It costs an arm and a leg to park, so be sure to build the parking costs into any bidding. They were formerly located in Silicone Valley but high rents ousted them. They moved to San Francisco and took over the offices of a former book auction house. "It was perfectly laid out for our purposes and our landlord loves us," said Bruce. "The traffic is bad, but we have a BART station close by and a lot of buses." The building is a rather unassuming place with no exterior sign and one buzzes the door and then elevators oneself up to the fourth floor. The auction room is a very modern, clean, brightly lighted space with a horseshoe-shaped glass cabinet full of yummy antiquarian and scarce-to-rare books. The walls are lined on several sides with bookcases full of the less rare books which may be neatly tied with gold cord in multiple book lots or may be a lot of only one or two books. The least significant books line the floor in boxes and are sold by the box. There may be great riches in the boxes or they may be completely uninteresting, it is for the crafty bookseller to figure out whether there is anything in a box worth bidding on and some pretty hot and heavy bidding can go on if there is a recognized treasure. I asked MacMakin about the history of PBA. For some reason I had it in my head that they had been around since the early 1900s, but I was mistaken. Pacific Book Auction was instigated in 1992 by ex-members and staff of the California Book Auction organization. They held their first auction in July of 1992. Five years ago, they were bought by Roger Wagner, one of their former good customers who was the owner of a software dot com company in Silicone Valley. He revolutionized their online and internet presence, which has contributed greatly to their continuing success. They have a small office in Los Angeles where one person, Rachel Hammelman, pretty much acquires consignments and then ships them to San Francisco for auction.
Pacific Book Auction - A good place to do business - By Karen Wright Christina Geiger prepares for an auction. They have an expert staff of thirteen people, most of whom have been with them for a long time. Administrators are Cameron Whiteman, President; Shannon Kennedy, VP of Client Services; Scott Evans, VP Operations & Technology; Rachel Frothingham, Client Services Associate; Justine Berkeley, Logistics Manager; and Larry Page, Shipping Manager. Then they have the book folk; Consignments, Appraisals and Cataloguing are done by Bruce MacMakin, Senior VP; George Fox, VP of Market Development and Senior Auctioneer; and aides, Thomas Lommen and Christina Geiger. When we were there, Christina was just doing her first big auction, and an awesome job she did! "So tell me the process," I said to Bruce. "When a consignment comes in where does it go?" He said that the very first and most important thing they do, even before they accept a consignment, is talk to the consignee and get a feel for what books the person has to offer. There is no sense taking books that they know they can't sell. A lot of effort goes into each book in each consignment, so they are not looking for $5.00 books, but for higher end antiquarian and rare books. Sometimes when they accept an estate or big collection, they have to accept all the books, wonderful and not so wonderful. As Bruce put it; "PBA's interest is the same as the consignor's; we all need to make money." Once they decide to take on a consignment, then PBA picks up or sends for the books, depending upon where they are located. They turn them over to their consignment department and the experts go through them and catalog them. The catalog contains the usual title, author, etc., and an excellent description of each book. Bruce said that they photograph approximately one in every 30 books, especially if they are real gems. In the meantime, all the books are also cataloged online. Once the print catalog is put together it is sent to their printer. "They can take the catalog and usually get it back to us in four days," Bruce told me. "We also put the catalog online and begin taking bids there." Personally, I love the Category Watch that PBA offers. I have a very specialized bookstore and another job as well, so I don't have time, nor do I want to have to go through their entire catalog of fiction et al. to find my scarce, but wonderful books on architecture, travel, botany, cooking, or how to make jewelry. So when I signed up with PBA, I filled out the Category Watch form and now, when there are books in my arena of interest, they send me an email so I can check them out and bid if I want them.
Pacific Book Auction - A good place to do business - By Karen Wright Books on display at PBA There are several ways that folks can bid on their books. The first and most fun is to attend the live auction at their San Francisco auction house. There are two ways to bid online, passive and active. You may offer a maximum bid ahead of time and then forget about it until the auction is over or you may actively bid online during the auction through an intermediary staff member. They also offer pre-arranged bidding by telephone through a staff surrogate during the auction. Once the fast and furious bidding is done and the auction is over, the lucky high bidders are efficiently and courteously aided by staff to collect their prizes and pay their fees, or their purchases are shipped in a timely manner. I can attest to the fact that when they ship, their books are wrapped in such a way that they come to you in excellent condition. But, don't forget to factor in the rather considerable shipping costs. "How about prices," I asked, "do people realize what they hope to?" Bruce explained that because their staff is so knowledgeable about what prices to put on the books in the first place, "the final selling price is often less than the upper limit of a winning absentee bid. Detailed descriptions in our catalogs mean that items do not have to be examined for one to be able to bid on them with confidence. About 70% of the books sold at PBA go to buyers who do not see the books until we send them." It seemed to me that this also has a lot to do with the fact that they are very clear about discussing what a consignor might expect to net and very discriminating about what books they offer in the first place. "Well," I said, "I guess the internet has made a big difference in high end book auction bidding, has it not?" "Yes," replied Bruce, "To be successful, we couldn't afford to ignore the internet. The 'better' books or what we once considered 'rare' may now be 'medium rare' since there are so many more books available. Some books that we never saw more than one copy of in a year or more, are now much more available, thus bringing down the auction prices. This is both good and bad. It makes it possible for more people to get into collecting the more unusual books; the thrill of seeking thing; but it does lower the prices somewhat." I asked about competition from places like eBay. He said that "PBA is better at book auctioning than eBay because collectors and dealers trust our descriptions. We are professional book sellers, so we know how to describe books accurately and we also guarantee the books to be as stated. We will actually give the customer's money back if it is not as described."
Pacific Book Auction - A good place to do business - By Karen Wright none I wanted a couple of "great find" stories to end our chat and Bruce obliged. "We had a book of Wells West scenery [actually Midwestern] that we thought would go for about $6,000. It went for $24,000. Also, we once got a box of books from a book scout for $500 and later sold a book out of it about the Panama gold rush for $6000. We live for things like that." I'd like to thank Bruce MacMakin and his terrific staff for allowing me the time to wander through their friendly offices and take pictures as they scrambled to get ready for another of their very professional auctions. If you are interested in their action house, go to their user friendly website at www.pbagalleries.com or phone them, toll free, at 866-999-7224.

Pacific Book Auction - A good place to do business

- By Karen Wright

Auction Room at Pacific Book Auction.

By Karen Wright

Last month I attended my first Pacific Book Auction sale. I have bought from them online several times, making bids and either being elated that I won my prize book or deflated when I lost it. But this time, I went for the real thing, and it wasn't just an excuse to go to balmy San Francisco to escape our scorching desert heat, either. Oh, I've been to a few auctions...some books, some antiques, and I've generally bought too much for too much. This time, I went with reselling in mind and I bought much more carefully than I would have were I buying for myself. I still bought too much, but not for too, too much!

PBA Galleries is, according to Bruce MacMakin, the Senior Vice President of Consignments and Appraisals, the largest specialty book auction house in the United States. Devoted to works on paper and related arts, PBA conducts approximately twenty-five gallery auctions in a calendar year and continuous live online auctions of rare books, manuscripts, autographs, maps, atlases, prints, and photographs. But mostly, says Bruce, they just handle books. They receive some of their consignments from California, but many more come from all over the U.S. and other countries around the world. Their customer base comes from booksellers, book buyers and collectors from many countries. According to their website, "It is PBA Galleries' primary goal to maintain our high level of standards in the fine arts field and provide the best service to all who are interested in buying and selling at PBA Galleries." I certainly can't argue with that. The whole experience was very professional and the staff was gracious and widely knowledgeable.

As a bookseller, I wanted to know if they accepted consignments from many book stores that are going out of business. He replied that they usually don't, since by the time the bookseller gets around to eliminating the last of his or her inventory, s/he has already had half-price sales and all the really good, high-end books have been sold. I asked Mr. MacMakin what his ideal customer would be. "We get a lot of our consignments from estates, book scouts and collectors who are thinning their high quality collections. We have the three Ds; death, debt and divorces; those are our primary auction sources." Hey, that rhymes!

Pacific Book Auction - A good place to do business

- By Karen Wright

PBA Senior Vice-President Bruce MacMakin.

PBA is located in the traffic-clogged downtown of San Francisco on Kearny Street. It costs an arm and a leg to park, so be sure to build the parking costs into any bidding. They were formerly located in Silicone Valley but high rents ousted them. They moved to San Francisco and took over the offices of a former book auction house. "It was perfectly laid out for our purposes and our landlord loves us," said Bruce. "The traffic is bad, but we have a BART station close by and a lot of buses."

The building is a rather unassuming place with no exterior sign and one buzzes the door and then elevators oneself up to the fourth floor. The auction room is a very modern, clean, brightly lighted space with a horseshoe-shaped glass cabinet full of yummy antiquarian and scarce-to-rare books. The walls are lined on several sides with bookcases full of the less rare books which may be neatly tied with gold cord in multiple book lots or may be a lot of only one or two books. The least significant books line the floor in boxes and are sold by the box. There may be great riches in the boxes or they may be completely uninteresting, it is for the crafty bookseller to figure out whether there is anything in a box worth bidding on and some pretty hot and heavy bidding can go on if there is a recognized treasure.

I asked MacMakin about the history of PBA. For some reason I had it in my head that they had been around since the early 1900s, but I was mistaken. Pacific Book Auction was instigated in 1992 by ex-members and staff of the California Book Auction organization. They held their first auction in July of 1992. Five years ago, they were bought by Roger Wagner, one of their former good customers who was the owner of a software dot com company in Silicone Valley. He revolutionized their online and internet presence, which has contributed greatly to their continuing success. They have a small office in Los Angeles where one person, Rachel Hammelman, pretty much acquires consignments and then ships them to San Francisco for auction.

Pacific Book Auction - A good place to do business

- By Karen Wright

Christina Geiger prepares for an auction.

They have an expert staff of thirteen people, most of whom have been with them for a long time. Administrators are Cameron Whiteman, President; Shannon Kennedy, VP of Client Services; Scott Evans, VP Operations & Technology; Rachel Frothingham, Client Services Associate; Justine Berkeley, Logistics Manager; and Larry Page, Shipping Manager. Then they have the book folk; Consignments, Appraisals and Cataloguing are done by Bruce MacMakin, Senior VP; George Fox, VP of Market Development and Senior Auctioneer; and aides, Thomas Lommen and Christina Geiger. When we were there, Christina was just doing her first big auction, and an awesome job she did!

"So tell me the process," I said to Bruce. "When a consignment comes in where does it go?" He said that the very first and most important thing they do, even before they accept a consignment, is talk to the consignee and get a feel for what books the person has to offer. There is no sense taking books that they know they can't sell. A lot of effort goes into each book in each consignment, so they are not looking for $5.00 books, but for higher end antiquarian and rare books. Sometimes when they accept an estate or big collection, they have to accept all the books, wonderful and not so wonderful. As Bruce put it; "PBA's interest is the same as the consignor's; we all need to make money."

Once they decide to take on a consignment, then PBA picks up or sends for the books, depending upon where they are located. They turn them over to their consignment department and the experts go through them and catalog them. The catalog contains the usual title, author, etc., and an excellent description of each book. Bruce said that they photograph approximately one in every 30 books, especially if they are real gems. In the meantime, all the books are also cataloged online. Once the print catalog is put together it is sent to their printer. "They can take the catalog and usually get it back to us in four days," Bruce told me. "We also put the catalog online and begin taking bids there."

Personally, I love the Category Watch that PBA offers. I have a very specialized bookstore and another job as well, so I don't have time, nor do I want to have to go through their entire catalog of fiction et al. to find my scarce, but wonderful books on architecture, travel, botany, cooking, or how to make jewelry. So when I signed up with PBA, I filled out the Category Watch form and now, when there are books in my arena of interest, they send me an email so I can check them out and bid if I want them.

Pacific Book Auction - A good place to do business

- By Karen Wright

Books on display at PBA

There are several ways that folks can bid on their books. The first and most fun is to attend the live auction at their San Francisco auction house. There are two ways to bid online, passive and active. You may offer a maximum bid ahead of time and then forget about it until the auction is over or you may actively bid online during the auction through an intermediary staff member. They also offer pre-arranged bidding by telephone through a staff surrogate during the auction. Once the fast and furious bidding is done and the auction is over, the lucky high bidders are efficiently and courteously aided by staff to collect their prizes and pay their fees, or their purchases are shipped in a timely manner. I can attest to the fact that when they ship, their books are wrapped in such a way that they come to you in excellent condition. But, don't forget to factor in the rather considerable shipping costs.

"How about prices," I asked, "do people realize what they hope to?" Bruce explained that because their staff is so knowledgeable about what prices to put on the books in the first place, "the final selling price is often less than the upper limit of a winning absentee bid. Detailed descriptions in our catalogs mean that items do not have to be examined for one to be able to bid on them with confidence. About 70% of the books sold at PBA go to buyers who do not see the books until we send them." It seemed to me that this also has a lot to do with the fact that they are very clear about discussing what a consignor might expect to net and very discriminating about what books they offer in the first place.

"Well," I said, "I guess the internet has made a big difference in high end book auction bidding, has it not?" "Yes," replied Bruce, "To be successful, we couldn't afford to ignore the internet. The 'better' books or what we once considered 'rare' may now be 'medium rare' since there are so many more books available. Some books that we never saw more than one copy of in a year or more, are now much more available, thus bringing down the auction prices. This is both good and bad. It makes it possible for more people to get into collecting the more unusual books; the thrill of seeking thing; but it does lower the prices somewhat." I asked about competition from places like eBay. He said that "PBA is better at book auctioning than eBay because collectors and dealers trust our descriptions. We are professional book sellers, so we know how to describe books accurately and we also guarantee the books to be as stated. We will actually give the customer's money back if it is not as described."

Pacific Book Auction - A good place to do business

- By Karen Wright

none

I wanted a couple of "great find" stories to end our chat and Bruce obliged. "We had a book of Wells West scenery [actually Midwestern] that we thought would go for about $6,000. It went for $24,000. Also, we once got a box of books from a book scout for $500 and later sold a book out of it about the Panama gold rush for $6000. We live for things like that."

I'd like to thank Bruce MacMakin and his terrific staff for allowing me the time to wander through their friendly offices and take pictures as they scrambled to get ready for another of their very professional auctions. If you are interested in their action house, go to their user friendly website at www.pbagalleries.com or phone them, toll free, at 866-999-7224.