auction house experience

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

The reason I have not bought collectables or art works from ebay is that I do not buy from very poor photographs nor inaccurate descriptions. I do not like to gamble.

If I bought and I found that I had bought a dud, I am not in the position where I can simply recycle the item and resell through ebay, as so many people do, thus, a bad buy for me is absolutely, 100% dead money. I'm stuck with it.

The big difference between ebay and a live auction is that at a live auction I can go to the viewing and thoroughly examine the items to be auctioned. I would know exactly what the item is that I'm bidding on, and I will also know the market value of that item at several different levels.

I do not buy from on-line auctions either, for precisely the same reason I do not buy from ebay.

Many Ebay items are very well photographed and often sellers have no problem providing additional photos. Many sellers on Ebay allow you to return items (unlike auction houses) and Paypal protects sellers quite well if an item is not accurately described.

Unlike the "old days", anyone can search auctions all over the world now and bid without leaving home, not risk free of course but the alternative was worse. I remember when there was no Ebay and professional antique dealers scowered the auctions and you had almost no alternative other then buying from them unless you were able to personally attend a live auction were you lived.

[ariel]

I use eBay extensively. This is the only place where a reasonably educated collector can spot sleepers of excellent quality and get them for a song. I have quite a lot of those in my collection.

Several of my Caucasian items were shown in Kirill Rivkin's book: all from eBay, all for ridiculously low prices.

Is there a risk of ending with a dud? Of course. But in the majority of cases one can return it ( swallowing the expense of shipping back, of course), or just accepting the reality of "cost doing the business."