Collectors' and dealers' gripes are usually valid. Many of the complaints center on outrageous experiences with dealers or customers, flawed condition reports, buyers' premium (just what do we get for it?), and the incredible cost of shipping, especially from the UK. So if you want to get it off your chest, this is the place. Email myrna@schkolne.com to tell all.
Important Fake Alert.
Tale of Diminishing Restoration
I’m addicted to your blog. Here’s a tale of diminishing restoration you might be interested in.
In June 2009, Toovey’s listed a Crimean Victory figure. This is what they said about it:
1650. The top flag section has been broken off and restored back, this includes the neck of the central British sailor and the cup on his head. The restoration is more visible to the reverse on the crazing is covered, but it has been professionally executed. The soldier with the purple sash has been broken around his waist and down his left side, similarly professionally restored. The torso of the other soldier also shows signs of restoration. There is clear spraying and some light staining to the base. The gilding of the raised title is totally rubbed. The white sections of the group overall display light staining.
The guide price – and so I guess the reserve – was high (around £700). It didn’t sell.
It appeared at Nicholson’s a month later. This is what they said:
129. Restoration to back of both flags, otherwise ok.
I e-mailed Nicholson’s the more complete Toovey’s condition report and asked them to confirm from the description of the damage that the figure was one and the same. I should add that the figure has very distinctive discoloration to the back of one of the soldiers’ orange jackets, so there was no doubt it was the same one. Nicholson’s didn’t respond to my e-mail. The figure sold for £460.
Myrna adds the pictures below--and read blog entry for August 16. Look like the same figure to you?
LEFT: Lot 1650 RIGHT Lot 129
Illegal Possession?
Well armed with everything including a blood sample, the friend set off to pick up the item. Stuck in traffic, he called the auction house....only to learn that the figure was gone. It had been sent off with the 'recommended' shipper. A call to the shipper was futile. They were rude and hung up.
The dealer insisted that the 'recommended' shipper return the item to the auction house, so her friend could collect it another day. The shipper demanded GBP10 for this service! Outrage? They should have toddled back super-fast to the auction house, as I see it, because they were in possession of goods without authorization.
The matter dragged on, and it seems the shipper finally returned the goods to the auction house on a day when no special trip was required. Suited their convenience, but the dealer's friend had to make yet another trip.
If you think this was a rinky-dinky auction house in the backwoods of the UK, forget it. This auction house is quite close to London--in other words, close enough to standard business practices to know better!
Seller's Loss
April 08, 2009.
Yesterday, Woolley & Wallis, UK, had an interesting bust of Minerva at auction. I had asked for a condition report in March. On March 25, I received this reply.
Thank you for your enquiry. I'm afraid we are unable to provide condition reports until next week. However, your request has been logged and we will be in touch before the sale. I hope you will bear with us.Kind regards Clare Durham.
Well, that was very nice. Trouble is, I waited and waited. I checked my Junk Mail folder in case the condition report had been diverted. But the sale came and went without my getting it. So why didn't I ask again? Frankly, I am tired of asking again and again. If the auction house can't be bothered, I shan't be bothered. Of course the seller is the loser, as is the auction house. As for me, well I have my money to spend another day.
PS. Posted May 7. Have just received this explanation from Clare Durham at Woolley and Wallis.
I would like, if you wouldn't mind, for you to pass on our apologies to this person. We receive hundreds of requests for condition reports prior to a sale and have every intention of dealing with them all. Sadly, almost inevitably, one or two get buried and we think we've responded when we haven't. There have also been occasions when e-mails have bounced back to us or even when we think they've got through, only to be rung by the client and told that they haven't. I fully understand your correspondent's attitude of why should they chase us, but I'm afraid the answer to that question is that we may be under the impression that we have fully answered their query. I assure you, nobody is deliberately ignored, no matter how long their list of requests or even, on occasion, how bizarre or demanding! Please, to all your website visitors, if they haven't heard back from the auction house, do pick up the phone and chase them. They would far rather have a chasing phone call from you, than find that your request has inadvertently been missed.I'm very sorry that we disappointed the person in question on this occasion and hope that they will return to us for future sales and demand better service!
How nice of Clare to reply, and I think we can all learn from her positive response.
A Tale of Two Auctions.
January 13, 2009
Today, I encountered experiences at both ends of the auction spectrum. The bad news: Bonhams Chester, where I left a bid via online registration. The figure sold for less than my bid... so I thought I had it. But when I called to pay for it, I discovered I was not the winner. And why not? Well, the system had not recorded my bid. “A glitch” they would investigate, I was told. I was beyond furious. I am sure the seller would have been too…but he will never know!
But perhaps I should thank Bonhams. Had my bid not been hit by a ‘glitch’, I would instead be writing about the miseries of shipping from the UK. Bonhams, like most auction houses, will not handle postage/shipping. And for the buyer it is costly, and slow, and tedious to arrange with a third party shipper.
BUT ON THE OTHER HAND….
Today also left a bid at Keys, Norfolk. The level of service was so good that I am almost in shock. Each email request was answered very promptly. Believe it or not, I got the figure for a fraction of my bid, so the auctioneer was clearly honest. And to top it all, Keys will mail the figure to me. Easy. I supplied my details and now await a parcel. Don’t we all love those parcels! But often my heart drops when I win at auction in the UK because of the hassle of getting the item home. Keys made the experience a pleasure.
AND NOTE that Bonhams’ buyer’s premium is 20%; Keys charge 15%. Bonhams will not take payment by credit card; Keys does.
No record? Ouch!
Nov 2008
Denham's had an auction today with a few Staffordshire pieces. One of them was a modest piece which they did not recognize as Royal and greatly undervalued at only 20 to 30 pounds. While restored, it was attractive and provided a needed match to a single I have. I phoned last Friday, got a telephonic condition report, and left a bid far above their estimate. I provided my contact information and confirmed the bid. Today I called and found out they had no record of my bid. The lot sold in the room for 42 pounds, well below my offer. Ouch!
Anyone at the other end?
This was a bad auction day. I got up at the crack of dawn to bid at Gorringes, UK, on line. I know how to do this. I have done it lots of times at various auction houses. When my lot came up, I bid right away at GBP 180 and I kept bidding very quickly. The whole process couldn’t have taken 3 seconds, and I clicked my mouse at GBP 340. I thought I had it. No, instead another bidder “won” this lot at GBP 320. What a start to my day!
Seems to me that if an auction house is going to take online bids, it should TAKE them!
Again, that ominous rattle when the box arrived...
A couple of years ago I purchased a pair of horse head wall brackets, I'm sure you know the ones I mean, quite large, 12" tall or so. I purchased them from Richard Winterton Auctioneers in England via a bid I left for them to execute on my behalf. Well, I won the pair and what a surprise it was exactly the top amount that I would pay. This was when the fun began. I paid promptly with a credit card for which they charged 3% for the privilege. They then advised me to contact someone else for shipping as they do not do shipping. They gave me a name which I cannot recall and I contacted them and paid for shipping. After three weeks I had no shipment and no contact from the auction house or the shipper. I contacted Winterton, they were very nasty and told me to contact the shipper which I did. About two weeks later I finally received the pair. They were packed in a file box like you would use to store records. I knew immediately that they were broken. I opened the box and there was one small piece of bubble wrap loosely entwined around the figures. They were not packed for a trip across the street much less a trip across the Atlantic. I could go on and on but I wound up not getting any reimbursement from either party. Since then I do not bid at an auction unless I am going to be there. I don't trust any of them and feel they are all lazy. They own nothing and not only do they get ridiculous commissions from the buyer they also get it from the seller!
I'm sure every collector could tell a horror story about auction houses. It's unfortunate really because it should be a pleasant experience. You are buying something you would dearly like and it turns into a nightmare.
Mike.
(Mike Smith, Texas)
Too late...
Today, October 9, I received the condition report I requested from Bonhams, Honniton, for a lot on the AUGUST 28 sale! Better late than never? No. Late means too late to bid! The seller's loss, I guess.
Shipping stops shopping
Dear Myrna
You will get a kick out of this one. McTears Auction Room in Glasgow had two small 18cm x 15cm prints for sale and whilst they collect 20% premium once the hammer falls they do nothing, rip you off and hand you over to Mailboxes.
The charge for shipping within the UK was FORTY POUNDS.
I shall put them on my list with Mellors & Kirk, Cheffins, Christies AND Cadogan Tate,
as rooms to be avoided at all cost!
regards
Elinor Penna
PS from Myrna. Conversion to metric: these light little items only measure 7" by 6 ". Pity McTears couldn't just pop them into a tiny box. I shudder to think what postage to the US would have been, but I am guessing at least GBP 80--possibly more than the hammer price of the lot. I was stung last year, when the shipping cost more than the figure.
Tragic tale
Every collector's nightmare--a tragedy that shouldn't have happened.
Above: views of a Sherratt style COURTSHIP group. It had a full bocage and was in ONE piece when bought.
Left: When the buyer got the box, it rattled and this is her first peep inside her costly box.
This Sherratt style group was sold at auction (Cheffins, UK) earlier this year. Cheffins, like most UK auction houses, do not do their own shipping but recommend MailBoxes. The buyer engaged MailBoxes to ship this figure along with a smaller one for the enormous amount of GBP 149.68 (around $300). I can write forever about the cost of UK shipping...but not now! Buying at auction internationally takes time and effort: perhaps setting the alarm to bid in the middle of the night, arranging foreign payment (auction houses in the UK that do take credit cards usually add another few percentage points for doing so!), and finally arranging shipment--all so time consuming and frustrating. In this case, the buyer spent a lot of money and I am sure she was waiting for THAT box with childlike anticipation....at least I always feel like that.
Can you imagine how the buyer's heart dropped when the box arrived and it rattled???? You can see the rest for yourself. COURTSHIP is damaged to the point of being valueless, and the smaller figure in the box also suffered breakage. The buyer contacted MailBoxes, only to find that her significant shipping cost did not include insurance. I am told that MailBoxes had shipped through UPS and enquired as to whether UPS would cough up. If you were UPS and you saw this "packing" job, would you accept responsibility? Where was the bubble wrap and peanuts we all routinely use? How about boxing the two figures within the outer box so one couldn't bash against the other?
I am so sad at the loss of this figure. I know the collector who sent it to auction, reluctantly. A new collector purchased it, and she is even more upset by the loss of the figure "on her watch" than by her considerable financial loss.