Break out your wallets (or, perhaps, get a loan!)

With price estimates running from one hundred to several thousand euros, the books and special editions being auctioned by Bernaerts on October 25th, 2012 fall outside the spending zones of all but the most serious collector. (List view of the items, here.)

But,even if you don't intend to spend, there are several reasons to check out the offerings.The web site is informative and, more importantly, presents an interesting set of offerings. Typically, the photobooks sold at auction houses tend toward classic, long out of print, and hard to find works: the original French edition of Robert Frank's Americans, Soviet propaganda books, etc. In other words, the high profile, big name, big bucks offerings of the photobook world.

In contrast, this auction offers contemporary small run books, recent special editions and the occasional recent reprint of a classic work. Or, stated another way, small edition books with relatively high price points that have only recently sold out. Thus, the auction provides an interesting opportunity, for those drawn to photobooks as an investment, to gauge the strength of the market. Will theses books sell at approximately their original price, or at a significant premium? Only time will tell. And, in this case, you don't have long to wait to find out!