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The Other Kind of Collecting - By Thomas McKinney MatchMaker results, as seen on the AE member homepage. By Tom McKinney Last month, I wrote a bit about the development of a thing called the Attention Age, an offshoot of the greater Information Era. In reading my piece before last month's AE Monthly released, my father wrote me a quick response. Books today have to fit into people's lives; whereas for my generation the model has been one of the collector fitting into a collecting scheme, i.e. a category or approach that was defined more by tradition and bibliographies. That idea led to this article. The old methods, like live auction and established dealers with stores, have remained; but new ones, Internet-based, have emerged. The sheer amount of information on the Internet allows for another kind of collecting: that of the obscure or specific topic. I'm talking personal interest. It's why people start their first collections; for me, that means basketball cards and stamps. In terms of books, this might be where you grew up, or an era you find particularly interesting. The collector has more power in dictating their collection these days. Before the Internet, the limit was what you could find, or what the dealers you bought from had in their inventories. Now, there are no distances the web can't handle. Rather than a limited selection, collectors are now overwhelmed by a massive selection available through multiple sources online, on top of all the traditional sources. Specificity is a necessity. The Internet's size, and improved search tools, have made it so that people can pick a topic as small as single townships or counties, and start a collection off that basis. Of course, there is the flipside. The large amount of available material means the criteria for traditional value becomes harsher and harsher. My personal view of collecting is that the value lies in the hobby and enjoyment one derives from it. This is not to say that personal collecting can't be profitable. It may just not be as profitable as collecting say, incunabula only; it also will not cost you hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to do! The Americana Exchange has provided to our Octavo and Folio level members a pro-active search tool that was built for this kind of collecting. In fact, after using it, I challenge anyone to try to go back to their old methods. This service is called MatchMaker, and it truly allows for a more efficient, and in my eyes, sensible, way to collect smaller or less well-known topics. You can also use it to search large, established keywords, but again, specificity is key. Having to sort through hundreds of matches for a search for New York on a daily basis defeats the purpose of the system. More on MatchMaker in a minute.
The Other Kind of Collecting - By Thomas McKinney A detailed look at MatchMaker results for eBay. My father has participated in both kinds of collecting. The De Orbe Novo Collection was a significant assembly of important material related to the New World, obtained through dealers and auctions. Millions of dollars were spent, and it sold for the same. His current project focuses on the Hudson Valley. He grew up there, and is a history buff. This collection is broader, containing art, books, manuscripts and ephemera. For the latter three, the ceiling of his spending on any one item has been about $1,000. And, the reason I bring it up, the way he's acquiring material these days isn't the way he built De Orbe Novo. Collecting a specific town, - let's take Rondout, New York, as an example - can be difficult. Material related to Rondout is not prolific. In five years, my father's amassed about 50 items. How did he obtain these items? Did he search the various listing sites, day after day after day hoping for a new match? Maybe a little bit. Maybe, until he came up with the idea for MatchMaker. It does what I just described, for you. It searches your keywords everyday against listing sites, eBay and traditional auctions, and when a new item appears, you're notified. Personally I can't think of a better and more efficient way to collect obscure material. If anyone reading this collects a niche subject, I'd recommend giving MatchMaker a shot for a month. It will enhance your ability to collect. It will allow you to acquire material faster, and from more sources than are practical for a single person to search themselves on a daily basis. This service isn't free, but I rest my case for its value.

The Other Kind of Collecting

- By Thomas McKinney

MatchMaker results, as seen on the AE member homepage.

By Tom McKinney

Last month, I wrote a bit about the development of a thing called the Attention Age, an offshoot of the greater Information Era. In reading my piece before last month's AE Monthly released, my father wrote me a quick response. Books today have to fit into people's lives; whereas for my generation the model has been one of the collector fitting into a collecting scheme, i.e. a category or approach that was defined more by tradition and bibliographies. That idea led to this article. The old methods, like live auction and established dealers with stores, have remained; but new ones, Internet-based, have emerged.

The sheer amount of information on the Internet allows for another kind of collecting: that of the obscure or specific topic. I'm talking personal interest. It's why people start their first collections; for me, that means basketball cards and stamps. In terms of books, this might be where you grew up, or an era you find particularly interesting. The collector has more power in dictating their collection these days. Before the Internet, the limit was what you could find, or what the dealers you bought from had in their inventories. Now, there are no distances the web can't handle. Rather than a limited selection, collectors are now overwhelmed by a massive selection available through multiple sources online, on top of all the traditional sources. Specificity is a necessity.

The Internet's size, and improved search tools, have made it so that people can pick a topic as small as single townships or counties, and start a collection off that basis. Of course, there is the flipside. The large amount of available material means the criteria for traditional value becomes harsher and harsher. My personal view of collecting is that the value lies in the hobby and enjoyment one derives from it. This is not to say that personal collecting can't be profitable. It may just not be as profitable as collecting say, incunabula only; it also will not cost you hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to do!

The Americana Exchange has provided to our Octavo and Folio level members a pro-active search tool that was built for this kind of collecting. In fact, after using it, I challenge anyone to try to go back to their old methods. This service is called MatchMaker, and it truly allows for a more efficient, and in my eyes, sensible, way to collect smaller or less well-known topics. You can also use it to search large, established keywords, but again, specificity is key. Having to sort through hundreds of matches for a search for New York on a daily basis defeats the purpose of the system. More on MatchMaker in a minute.

The Other Kind of Collecting

- By Thomas McKinney

A detailed look at MatchMaker results for eBay.

My father has participated in both kinds of collecting. The De Orbe Novo Collection was a significant assembly of important material related to the New World, obtained through dealers and auctions. Millions of dollars were spent, and it sold for the same. His current project focuses on the Hudson Valley. He grew up there, and is a history buff. This collection is broader, containing art, books, manuscripts and ephemera. For the latter three, the ceiling of his spending on any one item has been about $1,000. And, the reason I bring it up, the way he's acquiring material these days isn't the way he built De Orbe Novo.

Collecting a specific town, - let's take Rondout, New York, as an example - can be difficult. Material related to Rondout is not prolific. In five years, my father's amassed about 50 items. How did he obtain these items? Did he search the various listing sites, day after day after day hoping for a new match? Maybe a little bit. Maybe, until he came up with the idea for MatchMaker. It does what I just described, for you. It searches your keywords everyday against listing sites, eBay and traditional auctions, and when a new item appears, you're notified. Personally I can't think of a better and more efficient way to collect obscure material.

If anyone reading this collects a niche subject, I'd recommend giving MatchMaker a shot for a month. It will enhance your ability to collect. It will allow you to acquire material faster, and from more sources than are practical for a single person to search themselves on a daily basis. This service isn't free, but I rest my case for its value.