BUYING AT AUCTIONS AND ON LINE IS DOMINANT THESE DAYS
We do most of our business on line these days. We trust the sellers, we pay them good money and expect them to protect us from obvious fraud or mistakes. Even though in art we advise all perspective buyers to go and see the items in question, check them and ask questions, that becomes impossible when something you are interested in is selling thousands of miles away.
I viewed this auction because I was interested in a couple of lots. I watched the live sale too because I was interested in one of those two lots that had a serious issue in its description.
No, it was genuine and in good condition. The problem was that the size of the lot and the description in the catalogue on line was far away from reality. It was plainly wrong for any of the buyers on line and all those bidders who were carried away in bidding because the item in question was about three times smaller than described and that had nothing to do with the frame that was also wrong in any case.
Now, you can imagine the problems such a mistake deliberate or not will create, because we are talking about an item that should have sold under normal circumstances for about £1000, whereas it sold for £6000.
As I said, I followed the auction on line and there was NO correction of the dimensions error prior to bidding.
What can one do in such a case?
We try to inform our readers and protect the good name of any business!
Pray the auctioneers are honest, pray they return the moneys the buyer has already paid and when he/she received the item realised the error. I am talking about thousands of pounds not a few pennies and that is because we are all used to shopping on line and trusting who we buy from.
I do not wish to mention the name of the auction, describe the item and cause issues they probably had no intention of creating. Without trust in the sellers, the buyers wont come forward. Be more careful auctioneers!
Peter Constant
