The eBay auction for the fancy autographed and Kelly-Houle-illustrated edition of Faith Versus Fact is almost at $3000, which means $6,000 in donations for Helen Keller International as the friends of the charity are doubling all donations. (Every penny of the proceeds goes to that estimable and efficient charity.)
But that’s not nearly enough, I think, since an illustrated copy of Why Evolution is True, with fewer autographs of notables, fetched over $10,300. Most of us are too poor to bid that much, but if you know a gazillionaire who wants a unique secular item, this would make a swell acquisition.
You can see a fuller description of the book here, and below are two of its pages: one with an illustration and another with some of the signatures. Kelly and I have signed it, along with 28 secular notables, including three Nobel Laureates and the three living “Horsemen” (horsepersons?) I didn’t schlep this book around for five years to have it go cheap!
I love that the Ebay post recites “Aside from multiple inscriptions, autographs, and graffiti, in very good condition” suggesting that the very things that make it valuable are detractors!
I think Kelly wrote that as a joke.
As an in-joke, fine. But when I read it, I thought that might have been something eBay thought it had to add.
Best of luck with this. No way could I make a bid.
Does Ebay allow you to set a reserve price, just in case you have the chance of a better price in more promising times vis-a-vis the economy? (Though I suspect the folks who can afford more than $10,300 for a book probably aren’t hurting as much, even now.)
I don’t think they allow reserve prices for charity auctions; I asked Kelly about this earlier and that’s what I recall, but I may be wrong. At any rate, we couldn’t set a reserve price. Or maybe we could have, but there’s a pretty stiff fee to do that–even for charity auctions.
If you can convince my PI to adjust my research assistant salary a tiny order of magnitude, I’ll bid right away.
Beautiful item, I hope you’ll get a lot more for it in the final moments.