Right before Christmas I received the latest Spink-Smythe catalog. This is a beautiful 4-color catalog offering around 1,800 lots this time. The sale is divided into five sessions, scheduled to take place in New York, January 15 to 17.

This time, the bulk of the lots are coins, currency, and autographs. Only about 348 lots are related to stocks and bonds, and of that number, only 52 are railroad issues from North America. There are a few more lots among the autographs related to railroad personalities including one lot with Gould's autographs and another with William H. Vanderbilt's.

I am especially curious to see how prices will behave. I'd expect to see common and intermediate-scarcity items sell fairly cheaply. Higher-rarity items, though, are complete unknowns. Late 2008 prices from Europe show schizophrenic behavior where some items fetched absurdly high prices in the face of the declining economy. I just don't know what to expect!!