neer's hands.

To unthinking minds, there exist certain prejudices against the
auction method, doubtless due to a want of discrimination between the
many who faithfully pursue their calling, and the few who by
questionable dealings have dishonored and discredited themselves
rather than their craft. Benjamin Franklin is only one among many of
the American book auctioneers whose names were synonymous with
integrity during the long period--nearly two hundred years--in which
their services were employed in the dispersal of libraries. The long
and honorable careers of certain of the English book auction
houses--notably that of Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, founded in
1744--shows conclusively that the business itself has been accepted by
the public, as forming an essential part in disseminating the world's
literature.

The auctioneer is in a position to extend many exceptional advantages
to his customers.

The quantity and variety of the books offered is far greater than is
possible to be found in the stock of any dealer, being subject to
constant additions and changes. The average quality is high where the
auctioneer makes the sales of private collections a specialty, and
much inferior where dependence is placed upon the sale of material
received from the booksellers which they have been unable to sell
after repeated efforts. Naturally, the better items are reserved for
their own shelves. Among the leaders in the book auction trade, it
will be found that a very large proportion of the material offered by
them comes from authentic private sources, though, in many cases,
there is a disinclination on the part of the owner to allow the use of
his or her name in connection with the sale.

The prices obtained for books at sales held by regular book
auctioneers (no pretence of recognition need be accorded furniture and
bric-a-brac auctioneers, who occasionally secure consignments of books
from parties unaware of the existence of an establishment devoted
exclusively to their sale) are necessarily variable, being governed,
as is everything else, by the law of demand and supply. A particularly
choice item will command about the same price whenever offered,--generally
an increasing one,--but the ordinary book can often be obtained at
bargain figures. This element of uncertainty goes far toward making
the auction sale so attractive to collectors with slender purses, as
also to those who may be designated "moral book-gamblers,