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UNEDITED PRICE GUIDE? YOU BET!

In the last Dealer to Dealer we made mention of the fact that John Furphy Pty. Ltd. had decided to change focus in their price guide to include large numbers of items from auction houses. This seems to have caused quite a lot resentment with some members of the trade, one of whom reported a conversation with the 'editor' of Furphy's price guide, during which the dealer was told that it became necessary for them to do that since the "dealers were not co-operating with our photographers."
If that's true, why is that so? Read on and we might find an explanation.

In a recent book review in Collectables Trader - a magazine with no family or business connections to me whatsoever - the reviewer made the following observations with regard to the Furphy/Carter's price guide, 2010 edition:
"Pricing in this publication is supplied by the contributors listed with the item, and is based solely on the contributors' experience in their markets."
It was further stated that:
"All items and descriptions are supplied by the dealers identified with the items."
This is also stated in the books themselves.

The reviewer then states that:
"The prices are not entirely firm," and "There is no independent authentication of descriptions, nor of the items in this guide."
So, according to the reviewer, the prices and descriptions of the items included in the Furphy/Carter's guide are the domain of the dealers.

According to Furphy/Carter's themselves, "A small amount of editing is carried out."

That's good, isn't it? Here's a book with an 'editor' who by his own admission does just a small amount of editing. And here's a company that produces books that are edited by the contributors to those books. So who checks to see if their prices and descriptions are in the ballpark?
Apparently nobody.

Is there any other book in the world where such practices are allowed? Would dealers in any other country support such practices? Probably not. Maybe that's why large numbers of dealers in Australia are not co-operating with Furphy/Carter's photographers.

And you have to ask the question: "What's a Price Guide for?"

In my opinion it's a book that contains as many items from as many categories as possible, each bearing as accurate a description and current value as possible, to enable both the trade and collectors to easily identify and value items. There will always be some errors and conflicting opinions in such a book, but diligent work by the publishers will keep these to a minimum. I think that sentence bears repeating:

Diligent work by the publishers will keep these to a minimum.

Abdicating that responsibility to the dealers who contribute to the book would be laughable if it wasn't so serious. Now, you may be reading this and thinking, "Well, he's just having a shot at Furphy/Carter's for his own purposes," but that's not the case. It's not the practice of anybody in the Carter Family to have anything to do with, or to say anything about, their publications. We can't be bothered with them. But this is about how the trade in general, and antiques and collectables are represented to the public, something I'm absolutely passionate about.

The reviewer of the piece in question is not identified, but in my opinion he or she has revealed the key to the reason behind the continued inferiority of the Furphy/Carter price guide. And that is an almost total lack of control of descriptions and values of the items displayed.

The Carter Family are, and have been for 26 years, at pains to ensure that the descriptions, information and values that appear in the publications we produce are as accurate as we can make them. We do not use items from amateur dealers, we check EVERY single item for accuracy, we employ the services of experts and we check dates and descriptions.

I (and from now on, my daughter Christine) travel all over Australia selecting items we wish to include, and we check every item for merit before it is included. Items with incorrect descriptions are rewritten, prices are checked against current trends, suspect items are removed, as are obvious marriages and reproductions. We pay very detailed attention to every aspect of our publications. We are also not prepared to turn over the job of laying out the artwork to computers, using key words that decide what goes where, because even though it's a cheap and fast method, it's also shoddy in that if a dealer gives a wrong description, that description is taken at face value. The item can (and probably will) appear in an incorrect category, with an incorrect description and incorrect value. What price that kind of price guide?

And on top of all of that, we take pride that our books are presented in such a way that the subject matter is shown in the best possible light, as vibrant as possible. For, that's the other side of the coin isn't it? The LOOK of everything.