Record Price

Poe book sale tops itself A rare copy of Edgar Allan Poe's first book sold Friday for $662,500, smashing the previous record price for American literature. The previous record is believed to be $250,000 for a copy of the same book sold nearly two decades ago. The copy of "Tamerlane and Other Poems" had been estimated to sell for between $500,000 and $700,000 at Christie's auction house in New York City. The 40-page collection of poems was published in 1827. Poe wrote the book shortly after moving to Boston to launch his literary career.

A 1909 Honus Wagner baseball trading card was sold Saturday for a record $2.1 million in a public online sale, according to Goldin Auctions, which did not identify who purchased the rarest of collectibles. The New Jersey-based company closed bidding on the T206 card of the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop early Saturday. The sales price eclipsed the $1.62 million the same card fetched in 2008. The record price for a trading card is $2.8 million in a private sale in 2007. The card is graded as an Excellent 5 by Professional Sports Authenticator and is exceptionally rare because it's part of a jumbo series that is larger than the normal trading card.

The El Royale apartment tower in Hancock Park, a magnet for celebrity tenants since the Jazz Age, has sold for nearly $30 million in what may be the largest price-per-unit sale in Los Angeles history. The 12-story building at 450 N. Rossmore Ave. was built in 1929 for the Hollywood crowd and early residents included Clark Gable, William Faulkner and Loretta Young. It was designed in a mix of Spanish and French Renaissance styles by the same architect who created the famous Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood.

Californians had the worst year imaginable for gasoline prices in 2012, averaging a record $4.028 for a gallon of regular, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. That shattered the old record, set last year, by a whopping 21.3 cents a gallon. The jump was so big that it even surprised people who review fuel prices on a daily basis. "I can remember when the California average for the year in 2008 was $3.525 and we thought we would never see it go that high again," said Marie Montgomery, spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California.

A Russian businessman paid a record price Wednesday for an 18th century violin that had not been played in public for more than 70 years. Maxim Viktorov, who bought the instrument by master violin maker Giuseppe Guarneri, paid "well in excess" of the previous world auction record for a musical instrument of $3.54 million, auction house Sotheby's said. It said Viktorov bought the violin privately, and did not disclose the price. Viktorov promised that the instrument, dating from 1741 and at one stage owned for 15 years by Belgian composer Henri Vieuxtemps, would now be played regularly in public.

A leaded-glass lamp designed by Frank Lloyd Wright has been sold for just under $2 million, a record for a Wright piece at auction, Christie's auction house said. The lamp, created around 1903 for the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, Ill., was acquired Tuesday by a telephone bidder who wished to remain anonymous. The double-pedestal lamp, designed in shades of green, yellow and amber, was one of a pair of lamps that stood in the library of the house, which was also designed by Wright.

The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel is on the market and may fetch a record price for an Orange County hotel, industry observers said. Its owner, Chicago-based investor Strategic Hotel Capital, is selling off its assets, including the Dana Point property and the Park Hyatt in San Francisco, said hotel consultant Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality. The sellers hope to get close to $400 million for the 393-room hotel, according to Commercial Real Estate Direct, a real estate news service. -- Roger Vincent

The top price at dockside auctions was $7.95 a pound for scallops, which have been in short supply because of rough weather and holiday demand, said fisheries specialist Paul Swain. He estimated that the scallops would retail at about $9.50 a pound. The old record, $7.86, was set Friday and the previous high, $7.75, was recorded in October and December, 1983. The 1986 high was $7.60, paid Dec. 17.

Artist David Hockney's 1966 painting "Beverly Hills Housewife" sold for a record $7.9 million at a New York City auction after fierce bidding Wednesday, a sign collectors are eager to buy rare and high-quality works despite the recession, the Christie's auction house said. That shattered the artist's previous record of $5.4 million for "The Splash," sold in 2006 at Sotheby's. A Claes Oldenburg sculpture "Typewriter Eraser," from 1976, also set a record, selling for $2.2 million at the auction.

The owner of a failed savings and loan is selling his Newport Beach mansion for "close to the asking price" of $14.5 million, reportedly the highest price ever paid for a residential property in Orange County, the broker on the deal said Thursday. Leroy Carver III is in escrow on a deal to sell the 18,000-square-foot house, still under construction on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, said real estate agent William F. Cote. The three-story structure, scheduled for completion in eight months, is being built mainly from a $7.9-million loan Carver obtained two years ago from his Carver Savings & Loan in Escondido, according to Orange County recorder's office records.

The average price of a gallon of gasoline in California dropped by the biggest amount yet for a one-week period after the recent new record, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. The state's average declined 26.3 cents, to $4.164 a gallon. That's the good news. The bad news is that California prices remain far above 2011 levels. The state's average has dropped 50.7 cents a gallon since reaching a record $4.671 a gallon on Oct. 9. But that's still 32.3 cents a gallon higher than it was on Oct. 29 last year.

An 85-unit apartment complex atop shops and restaurants will be built near the main entrance to Paramount Studios by California Landmark Group. The project called the LC will be on Melrose Avenue across from the north end of Larchmont Boulevard. California Landmark expects to start work as soon as March and complete the $40-million project by January 2015. The price tag includes the acquisition of a 55,000-square-foot vacant lot split by an alley. The project will be built above the alley, which will remain in use, said Ken Kahan, chief executive of Westwood-based California Landmark.

Record gasoline prices got you down? Honda thinks it has a deal for you. Honda is offering a $3,000 debit card good at Clean Energy natural gas filling stations with the purchase of a 2012 model year Civic Natural Gas vehicle. That is about three years' worth of fuel for most drivers at today's natural gas prices. PHOTOS: The top 10 gas misers There are about 40 Clean Energy filling stations in Southern California and about 160 nationwide. Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas and Electric Co. operate another dozen stations in the region, but the debit card isn't good at those facilities.

The El Royale apartment tower in Hancock Park, a magnet for celebrity tenants since the Jazz Age, has sold for nearly $30 million in what may be the largest price-per-unit sale in Los Angeles history. The 12-story building at 450 N. Rossmore Ave. was built in 1929 for the Hollywood crowd and early residents included Clark Gable, William Faulkner and Loretta Young. It was designed in a mix of Spanish and French Renaissance styles by the same architect who created the famous Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood.

As the worst drought in more than 50 years continues to bake the nation's breadbasket, soybean futures have risen to record prices. The unrelenting heat has damaged the country's soybean crop and fields are in their worst condition since 1988, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said this week. Soybean futures for November delivery rose Thursday 1.8%, to $16.49 a bushel, at the Chicago Board of Trade. The previous record price was $16.37 in July 2008. Soybean-meal futures for December delivery also rose by almost 2%, to $487.80 for 2,000 pounds.

In 1938, after voters recalled L.A.'s crooked mayor, Frank Shaw, it's said that someone planted a sign on the City Hall lawn: "Under new management. " The new ownership of the Dodgers needs no sign. The purchase, by a Chicago financial service company at a record price, has been heralded in every way but skywriting. Many people made a run at buying the Dodgers. One of them was Peter O'Malley, who got his own record price for the ball club 14 years ago. Son of Walter O'Malley, who brought the team from Brooklyn to L.A., Peter wanted back in the game, but like so many others, was outbid.

The record price for Hollywood memorabilia was smashed Saturday when pop star Michael Jackson paid more than $1.5 million for producer David O. Selznick's best picture Oscar from the classic film "Gone With the Wind." Jackson, bidding in the Sotheby's auction via phone through an agent against another phone bidder, paid $1,542,500. That obliterated the previous mark of $607,500 set in 1996 for the Oscar Clark Gable won as best actor in the 1934 film "It Happened One Night."

What do I care how much someone paid for the Dodgers? What's the difference to me if they sold for $1.1 billion, $2.15 billion or $3 trillion? I hear that a lot. I hear that too much. Hear it from knowledgeable people. The public should care what the team sold for because somewhere down the line, it will pay the toll. Not this year. Maybe not next year. But eventually, the price being paid out on top, filters down to the fan. Eventually, it always does. One of the first things Guggenheim Baseball Management is going to do is figure out what it wants to do with its next media rights package.