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Posted on behalf of Jenny Moran, Northants Archives: I think Peter is being slightly optimistic about the situation. Whilst e-bay does make the items more visible to professionals in the field, it also makes them more visible to collectors, private individuals and other interested parties, including, of course investors. Whilst items being offered for sale in auction houses was of some concern the quantity was usually not significant and the physical procedure of taking your documents for a valuation, sorting out the sale etc was a disincentive to many. Also, auctioneers and valuers were often enthusiasts themselves, understood the material and let record offices know what was coming up. E-bay allows everyone to become a dealer from their own living rooms and the media tends to promote e-bay with articles like 'turn that old junk in the attic into cash' (one of the Sunday supplements recently) in a way they did not for auction houses. True, there is no legal barrier to selling most records on e-bay or anywhere else and depositors have been extremely generous with their documents - many of course held, but not owned by record offices. Whilst the quantity and nature of records being sold may not be a problem right now, are we to expect increasing numbers of collections being withdrawn for sale? Martin Taylor City Archivist Hull City Archives 79 Lowgate Hull HU1 1HN Telephone: 01482 615110 Fax: 01482 613051 ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses. www.mimesweeper.com **********************************************************************