Big E readers may be interesting in knowing that both gray and crimson leatherette (not leather) sets of the 21 John J. Ford, Jr. Collection sale catalogues will be offered in the January 9, 2010 public auction sale of the Stack's Family Library.

In my opinion, the price for complete softbound Ford sets is likely to drop over time as more and more sets enter the secondary market. Initially, four part sets of Bowers' Garrett Collection easily brought $75 or more; hardbound sets $150 or more.

I do not think, however, that the analogy will hold true for hardbound Ford sets since the special edition Garrett catalogues were bargain-priced and aggressively marketed while their Ford Collection counterparts were higher priced and less actively promoted.

I have no idea of edition runs of either hardbound version but "4-5 sets bound in grey leather (sic)" appears to be too low.

When I was at Stack's from 1990-1994, we did hardbacks of a few special sales such as the Lovejoy Dimes, Floyd Starr, Herman Halpern US Paper Money and Reed Hawn sales (when the 1913 Nickel and 1804 dollar were in the same sale).

For some of the sales, like Lovejoy, I only remember ordering 5-6 white leather for Lovejoy family members and the company library. For other sales, like Halpern and Hawn, there were regular soft back catalogs, Hard Back Catalogs with the Prices Realized added in a hand tipped in envelope (distributed to bidders after the sale, with a numbered bookplate); and then Cloth Hard back (usually under 30), and leather hard back (usually under 10). I am sure collectors will see plenty of interesting stuff in the forthcoming sales of the (Company/Family) Library.

The illustrations of the Adams editions gives the incorrect impression that both are the same size.