Spink'slatest Bond and Share Certificates of the World catalog (sale #8027) is out and should be in the hands of most established bidders by now.

The sale offers 703 lots. 95 lots represent United States collectibles with 24 lots being related to railways. Because of the current weakened state of the dollar, collectors may find it a little hard to get excited about bidding in pound-denominated sales. However, the pain will be greatly lessened if you are willing to bid on multi-item lots. I count 10 multi-item railroad lots and I know from experience that they tend to go for very competitive prices.

If you don't already receive this catalog, make sure you contact Spink right away. The sale takes place in London on September 18.

Unlike the Spink Smythe catalog reviewed a few days ago, this Spink catalog one has many full-color images of individual certificates. I did not count, but it looks like about 15% of all lots are illustrated by full-color individual images. Remaining lots of individual items are fully illustrated online. This format (all lots illustrated online and a good selection illustrated in color in catalogs) is the standard format for European auctions. Because of low U.S. prices, I am not sure sales can fully justify color printing for American sales. However, I fail to see any good reason for not showing all auction lots online, including multi-item lots.