Does anyone know if old coin auction catalogs have any value? I have a dozen or so Bowers and Ruddy auction catalogs from the mid 70's. At that time they put out very nice, thick, quality catalogs.
They can be very valuable as research tools, but unless they are from specialty auctions, they are of much more use to a reference library than to an individual collector. The highest current bid on any coin auction catalog on EBay is $2.99. The highest listed opening bid is £49.99 for a 1935 catalog of ancients. The highest sale price in a completed auction is AU$92 for a recent catalog for an "Important Australian, New Zealand & World Coins, Medals & Banknotes" sale. A somewhat erratic market if you ask me.
I keep every one I can get my hands on - not for monetary value, but for the information they contain. There are coins out there for which reference to can be found nowhere else. And the catalogs often provide much more detailed information about a given coin than can be found in standard reference catalogs - and much better pictures.
I like to keep my auction catalogs as well. The research is great. The only problem I have is indexing. Once the stack gets a little large, it's hard to remember where certain coins are. Major specialty sale catalogs are easy to use, but in general it can be very time consuming.
