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Print and Photograph Prices Price Reference Guide and Datastore

Posted July 21, 2004.

Gordon's print and photograph auction price database products are superior to those of other art price publishers for a number of reasons. Gordon's entries contain technical data not found in other references like quality of images' impressions, paper types, condition information, and margin details (as described in auction catalogues). Gordon's also provides extensive reference book bibliographies, and, for prints, its editorial staff corrects incorrect titles, states, catalogue raisonne numbers, and other errors that appear in auction catalogue listings. Titles of prints are translated into the language of the catalogue raisonne for many major artists.

Gordon's provides international auction sales records for prints and photographs in all price ranges with no minimum price cut-offs, as well as prices for buy-ins (items that fail to sell) and withdrawn lots (items withdrawn from auctions before sales take place). This year, Gordon's adds image databases to complement it's online and CD-ROM databases, available to users for a nominal additional charge.

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Gordon's Print Price Annual 2004-1985 CD-ROM set is the best print price database product available. It contains 20 years of international print auction records totaling over 725,000 entries by nearly 30,000 artists. Sales records include those for Old Master, Modern, and Contemporary fine prints; decorative, historical, botanical, topographical, and Japanese prints; vintage, fine art, and film posters; illustrated books, livres d'artiste (artist books), books and periodicals with original graphics; Picasso ceramics; and more. Also included on the CD-ROM are older print prices dating from the turn-of-the-century to 1985; a trilingual print lexicon in English, French, and German; and a worldwide directory of auction houses, print dealers, and photography dealers.

This year, an online database of 25,000 images of prints is available to users of the CD-ROM. Here's how it works: You buy the CD-ROM for $595 ($295 per annual update) and for an extra $100, you have access to the image database. To use the database, you run the CD-ROM on a computer with an open internet connection. When an image is available in conjunction with a particular entry, a thumbnail image appears on your computer screen, and you click it to see the enlargement.

Please note that Macintosh users need PC emulating software in order to run Gordon's CD-ROM products.

Gordon's Print Price Annual International 2004-1985, CD-ROM, Gordon's Art Reference, Inc., Phoenix, 2004, $595 for the initial subscription, $295 for subsequent annual updates. 25,000 image database access, $100.

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Gordon's Photography Prices, 2004-1970, CD-ROM is the world's leading resource of price information for 19th and 20th century photographs as well as for books and periodicals containing original photographs. It contains over 165,000 sales results for photographs by nearly 15,000 photographers sold primarily at international auctions, but also includes some dealer prices. Sales results date from as far back as the 1930's, but most are current and date from the past twelve years; nearly 15,000 entries are brand new and date from the 2003 auction year. Each entry includes the name of the photographer, title of the image, type of print, data about the negative and date of the printing, signature, date, condition, additional annotations (when applicable), auctioneer, catalogue number, and selling price in Dollars, Pounds, Euros, and the currency of the country where the sale took place. Dimensions are given in inches and millimeters.

As with Gordon's print price database, 15,000 images of photographs are now available to users of the CD-ROM. Once again, you buy the CD-ROM for $595 ($245 per annual update) and for an extra $100, you have access to the image database. Run the CD-ROM on a computer with an open internet connection, and when an image is available in conjunction with a particular entry, a thumbnail image appears on your computer screen. You click the thumbnail to see the enlargement.

For those of you who prefer traditional hard-copy photograph price references, Gordon's Photography Price Annual International 2004 also happens to be the world's leading guide to fine art photography prices at auction. The current edition contains nearly 15,000 sales results for original photographs and photographically illustrated books that sold worldwide at auctions during the year 2003. Image titles are arranged alphabetically under each artist, rather than from highest to lowest selling prices, which makes locating selling prices for particular titles easy.

Please note that Macintosh users need PC emulating software in order to run Gordon's CD-ROM products.

Gordon's Photography Prices, 2004-1970, CD-ROM edited by Lisa Reinhardt, Gordon's Art Reference, Inc., Phoenix, 2004. Initial subscription: $595. Subsequent annual updates: $245. 15,000 image database access, $100.

Gordon's Photography Price Annual International 2003 Edition edited by Lisa Reinhardt, Gordon's Art Reference, Inc., Phoenix, 2004, hardbound, 557 pages, 8 7/8 by 11 1/4, $145.

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The new Gordon's Datastore is the online equivalent of Gordon's CD-ROMS with one important plus point-- the online database is updated monthly, so you keep current with results for international print and/or photograph auctions. Two more big advantages to the Datastore are that it's quick and easy to use (you don't have to load a CD-ROM), and Mac users don't have to bother installing PC emulating software to see price results. On the other hand, once your online subscription expires, you have to buy new access-- you can't keep using it over and over again like you can a CD-ROM (even though the CD-ROM might be a bit outdated). And if you have a slow internet connection, the CD-ROM will likely be faster than waiting for Datastore results to load.

Datastore prices are the same as CD-ROM prices, as is access to the respective image databases. Now for the confusing part: If you buy Datastore services, you can also buy the respective CD-ROM(s) for half price. And you can pay monthly. Or you can access the Datastore on a month-by-month basis for a different monthly rate than if you pay monthly for a complete year of service. And package deals are also available such as both Print and Photograph price annuals in book, CD-ROM, or Datastore forms, or maybe you can mix and match. Who knows? I suppose the basic idea is that if you want to combine stuff, Gordon's will work with you and reduce the price on whatever stuff you combine.

For complete information on Datastore products and prices, please visit the at theDatastore products page at the Gordon's website.

All Gordon's products are available from Gordon's Art Reference, Inc., 306 West Coronado Road, Phoenix, AZ 85003-1147 or call 1-800-892-4622 or visit Gordon's Art Reference online.