OK, sort of.

The idea of portfolios is OKish- if you want to exchange money for prints.

But these are not original prints. They are not printed by the photographers who took the photographs, but them, it's your money, not mine, fortunately.

I do believe though that the print being obsolete, that there needs to be a set of UHD scans corrected for viewing on screens- surely the ideal way to see photographs?

I know reputable people who have laboured all their lives to try to overcome the dynamic range limitations of paper
( around 12:1) and cannot suceed in improving on it.

Good scans from negatives and slides can, and they should accompany the prints. OK?

Incorrect information in comment

The comment by Peter Harrap, that the prints being auctioned are not printed by the photographers who took the pictures, is incorrect. In every case, either the photographer or, if deceased, then his/her estate has made the prints. All prints were gifted to the Fund by the photographers, individually, in support of its objectives. Money raised through the auction might support precisely the kind of large-scale, archival scanning suggested by Mr. Harrap, among other worthy projects.

John Jacob
Magnum Foundation/New York

in an estate?

John Jacob's reply makes no sense. An estate cannot reproduce the work of a dead photographer and legitimately pass it off as his/her own work, and several of these guys never printed their own photographs, but had Magnum in-house printers, or others do it for them.
And a dead photographer cannot gift images to a fund that did not exist prior to his/her death.

So I think it only fair to purchasers to actually state WHO in fact printed which images, as if you are going to treat infinitely reproduceable images from negatives in your archives as items of value, then that value is surely modified by the provenance of the item.

Henri claimed he hated printing-like me- and never printed his own work at all

As to the idea that it is expensive to scan negs and slides and put them on a CD to accompany the print(s) for viewing on monitors, etc, one cannot resist a chuckle since Magnum itself insists on such files as a mandatory requirement when you apply to join them (albeit at a much-reduced resolution), but are unwilling to provide same even to a purchaser who has paid for the print!

And it would also surely be good business sense to provide online an illustrated list of the images for sale (itself requiring scans, etc) . You have to do that even to sell an old LP or book on Ebay.

Print obsolete?

Prints may not have the dynamic range of other media but they are useful for framing and hanging on walls.

Magnum Photos book

For all Magnum Agency fans I point out this book: http://www.ebay.it/itm/Magnum-Photos-60-years-Celebrative-Book-Out-of-commerce-Rare-New-Sealed-/110975226155?pt=Fotografie_Guide_e_Manuali&hash=item19d6a3912b&_uhb=1#ht_500wt_1288