Collectibles

The cardboard business card has been with us just 200 years, a period of unprecedented change in society and scientific knowledge. This is the second part of a series in which we examine history from a different angle.

There has always been a marketplace for the personal cards of important people, but the humble ceremonial personal card (aka business card, visiting card, calling card, Carte de Visite) has never received much attention at auction, and has often been used as part of a significant lot to highlight provenance and authenticity.

Recent prices paid for the business cards of Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos raise some fascinating questions about the long-term value of all business cards that have sold before... so what will an Albert Einstein business card fetch at auction?

The signed original lead sheet music for "We Are the World" as perfromed by "U.S.A. for Africa" heads to auction this week, reminding us that “the world must come together as one.”

Video game prices at auction are at unprecedented levels – but only sealed video games get those prices and with video game antiquity so recent, and video game arcades past their prime, many historically significant machines are being ignored and undervalued.

Auction prices for original Apple iPhones have been surging since 2022 and the next big auction prize fight is set for 20 March, 2025 where we expect the US$190,000 record iPhone price to be challenged yet again. Here's why

One of two Apple Macintosh prototypes extant and already the most valuable Apple Macintosh to have ever sold at auction, #M0001 is heading for auction at Bonhams’ History of Science & Technology Sale on 23 October 2024.

The computer mouse changed the world. Apple & Microsoft pioneered the mouse to global adoption. Now one of the very first batch is going to auction ...

Two Superman comics are now locked in battle for comic book price supremacy, while also pushing all prices into the art domain. A birds-eye view of the data offers some fascinating insights into superhero hierarchy in a rapidly heating marketplace.

The booming alternative assets market space added yet another heavyweight genre this week as the world record for a business card was smashed twice today by both Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, and the auction still has four days to run.

Everyone acknowledges the massive impact of the digital revolution upon every aspect of society, but auction prices for landmark digital memorabilia suggest we haven't got it all in perspective just yet. Here are five recent examples of historically important items that sold for a fraction of their worth.

One of the world's most significant historic documents will sell at public auction on the March 14. "Atomic Bombs," written just weeks before the first such weapons dropped on Japan, records a researcher's-eye view of the Manhattan Project.

As the only visible part of a Formula One driver on global television each race, the F1 racing helmet has become a modern icon. But in a world where a Mickey Mantle baseball card is worth US$12.6 million, it's amazing how little F1 helmets sell for.

In 2007 a Canadian doctor paid $14,250 for a well-used second edition of "De humani corporis fabrica" (1555) covered in latin annotations by an unknown hand. The handwriting turned out to be that of the man who wrote the book - Andreas Vesalius - one of history's most important scientists and teachers.

Controversial 16th Century adventurer Samuel de Champlain penned two of history’s most captivating travel books, chronicling his exploration and mapping of much of the North American continent and his founding of New France.