Posted October 10, 2000.

Lawrence's Dealer Print Prices Annual, 2000-1992 CD-ROM, published by Gordon's Art Reference, covers seven years (2000-1997 and 1994-1992) of retail dealer print prices gathered from print dealer catalogues from around the world. This year's edition contains over 200,000 entries for prints by more than 15,000 artists and is excellent for researching retail prices of Old Master, modern, contemporary, Japanese, decorative, topographical, historical, botanical, sporting, and natural history prints. Additional features include worldwide directories of fine print dealers, photography dealers, and auction houses; extensive print reference book bibliographies; a how-to instructional section for using the disc; abilities to search for prints by artist, title, or catalogue raisonne number (when one exists); and capabilities for "free text" and "Boolean" searches. New this year are many images of prints, some in color and others in black-and-white.

Whether you buy, sell, or collect prints, retail prices are important to know because they give you additional information that auction records cannot provide. For example, two different prints might sell for approximately the same amounts of money at auction, but one might sell for twice as much as the other one at the retail level. If you're selling the one with the higher retail price and you only know what it sells for at auction, you can easily underprice it and lose a substantial amount of money. By the way, don't waste your time searching the internet for retail print prices-- you won't find any. Only print auction records are available online.

Lawrence's can also be used by print collectors as a catalogue of sorts because many prints listed have not yet been sold. Since all entries include the names of the dealers who are selling them, collectors looking for specific images can contact dealers offering those images and inquire as to their availability. For appraisers, Lawrence's is the perfect tool for determining insurance or replacement values for prints-- it eliminates having to call around to print dealers for advice or guessing at retail values from auction records.

For those of you who prefer hard copy art reference books to CD-ROMS, Lawrence's Dealer Print Prices International 2000 contains over 30,000 individual entries of print prices taken from print dealer catalogues from around the world during 1999. The book also contains names, addresses and contact information for all listed print dealers plus an extensive bibliography and catalogue raisonne information.

Gordon's Art Reference is the leader in print price reference publications. No other art price publisher comes close. Whenever you're researching print prices, either wholesale or retail, make sure you check Gordon's before you buy, sell, or trade.

Lawrence's Dealer Print Prices Annual, 2000-1992 , CD-ROM, Gordon's Art Reference, Phoenix, AZ, 2000. $595. Subsequent annual updates are $195 each.

Lawrence's Dealer Print Prices International 2000 edited by Lisa Reinhardt. Gordon's Art Reference, Phoenix, AZ, 2000, hardbound, 842 pages, 8 7/8 by 11 1/4 inches, $145.

Both references are available from Gordon's Art Reference, 306 West Coronado Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85003-1147 or call 1.800.892.4622. You can also order directly from the Gordon's Art Reference website, www.gordonsart.com .