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Rarity

I record appearances of Bourne engravings constantly as they appear on eBay, eBid, and elsewhere. There are usually 80 to 110 Bourne engravings for sale on eBay at any time.

 

Collectors should understand that only a tiny percentage ever sells. Why would that be?

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  • The market for collectible engravings is EXCEEDINGLY thin.

  • Sellers price their prints unrealistically.

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It is utterly impossible to know how many Bourne prints might exist. Consequently, my "rarity" scale is actually an appearance scale, based upon the number of times prints have appeared for sale over a period of about ten years.


The vast majority of prints are offered for sale numerous times as sellers struggle to find buyers. Therefore, the same print might be counted once or it might be counted ten times or more. Still that shows collectors how long they may need to wait for a desired engraving.

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Rarity 1. Continuously available. Offered twice per month or more.

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Rarity 2. Very common. Offered about one time per month.

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Rarity 3. Common. Offered about six times per year.

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Rarity 4. Somewhat common. Offered about three times per year.

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Rarity 5. Somewhat scarce. Offered about one time per year.

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Rarity 6. Scarce. Offered about one time every two years.

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Rarity 7. Very scarce. Offered about one time every five years.

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Rarity 8. Rare. Offered about one time every ten years.

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Extremely rare. An engraving has been reported in a reliable source, but no example has appeared for sale.

Amateur sellers on eBay and even pros in antique emporiums have no idea how thin the market is for collectible prints. They acquire engravings of unassailable quality and assume there are many collectors who will pay big bucks for their new finds. They naturally think their prints are worth a lot of money. 

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This constant availability of prints should inform sellers that their prices need to be reasonable. Unfortunately, most sellers price their collectibles in a vacuum. Few sellers ever try to discover what Bourne's prints actually fetch in the marketplace.

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Astute sellers lower prices when items don't sell; most sellers don't. It is not uncommon to see prices ten, twenty, even a hundred times higher than the highest price ever paid.

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This is a testimony that amateur sellers believe the pervasive myth about collectibles. They think prices reflect rarity. In truth, prices reflect demand. No item will ever sell until prices come in line with demand. Sadly, there is very little demand for Bourne's prints, so items sell at extremely low prices relative to rarity.

The rarity of some prints are labeled as "unknown." There may be one or more reasons:

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  • Questionable attribution to Bourne. Sellers have occasionally mis-attributed prints to Bourne or references cannot be confirmed. Mistakes may exist for years until prints are examined in person or a contributor sends a good image.

  • Extremely rare engravings. Some engravings have been referenced only from appearances in books and may not exist as individual prints. Some engravings have been referenced in museum collections and no examples have been seen elsewhere.

  • Titles on engravings mistakenly transcribed. 

I warn collectors, in the strongest way possible:

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DO NOT CONFUSE RARITY WITH PRICE.

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There is no direct relationship between rarity and price. Rarity reflects the numbers of items in existence and that is seldom known. Price reflects collector demand. If demand is low, prices follow

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