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  1. #11

    Re: Auction House Policy: A Comparison

    Quote Originally Posted by Eric View Post
    I would also extend the above questions to Chris Cavalier and GUU Auctions. I will add them to the grid.
    Hello Eric,

    Thank you for extending the questions to GUU. Here are my replies:

    Does your auction house list items in which you have a financial interest? (Either you own it, or have a stake in?)

    If the answer is 'yes,' are these labeled in any way? (For Example "House Lot")

    I have actually read some of the previous replies and the GUU policy is most analogous to REA auctions in this regard. In fact, I think Robert Lifson did a nice job identifying some of the existing problems in the industry that GUU also hopes to address. GUU will be as transparent as possible, something I believe we have already shown collectors. There will be no GUU “house account” where items can be sold by the auction house with the bidder thinking they are coming from an outside consignor.

    As with REA, those involved in any capacity with GUU will have the ability to personally consign items. However, these items will be subject to evaluations other than that of the consignor and the identity of the consignor will be explicitly disclosed. Personally, I don’t think we should penalize those involved with GUU from consigning items to our auction if they believe in our model and business practices. However, the bidder will always know who the consignor is and the consignors will not be allowed to bid on their own items.

    Do you allow your authenticator (one who's services you pay for) to consign items to your auction?

    I believe this is covered in the second paragraph of the response to question #1 above. I also think the transparency and outside evaluation components mentioned above will be very evident when we launch of our first major auction in July.

    Are members of your auction house allowed to bid on the items in your auction?

    Given the stage our company is in, we may be set up slightly different than other existing houses. To be very clear, no one with access to bidding information will be allowed to bid in our auctions. Those peripherally involved with GUU may bid in the auction if: a) they do not have any financial interest whatsoever in the item being sold, and b) they do not have access to any bidding information that could give them an unfair advantage in the auction.

    So that people understand our commitment to ethics, in the small pilot auction we conducted on the forum, 5 of the 11 items we sold in the game used section had ceiling bids that were not reached because there were no other bidders willing to bid higher amounts on those items. I think a few of the winning bidders even mentioned this fact in another thread. In addition, 4 of the 7 autographed baseballs also had ceiling bids that were not reached for the same reason. In fact, there was one ceiling bid that was over twice the amount of the opening bid for one of the baseballs and the winning bidder won the item for only the opening bid. I hope this, along with everything else we have done as a company, shows our commitment to putting the collector first and doing the right thing.

    Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions about these responses.

    Sincerely,
    Christopher Cavalier
    CEO – Game Used Universe

  2. #12
    Senior Member Eric's Avatar
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    Re: Auction House Policy: A Comparison

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    Always looking for game used San Diego Chargers items...

  3. #13
    Senior Member Eric's Avatar
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    Re: Auction House Policy: A Comparison

    Thanks to the following auction houses who have answered the questions about their policies

    Grey Flannel
    Game Used Universe Auctions
    Lelands
    Robert Edward Auctions
    Vintage Authentics

    Can anyone help get answers from the others?
    I have written American Memorabilia twice- Dave O'Brien- can you help?

    Same for Chris Ivy at Heritage. Does anyone know him?

    James Brown at Historic Auctions responded to an account problem I was having with their website, but nothing about their auction policy after repeated attempts. Is there anyone who talks with him regularly?

    I had good luck with Doug Allen at Mastro talking about the Kellen Winslow helmet, but he did not return emails about their policy. Anyone?

    Two attempts at Memory Lane and SCP Auctions went unanswered.

    Let's see what we can do here.
    Eric
    Always looking for game used San Diego Chargers items...

  4. #14
    Moderator TNTtoys's Avatar
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    Re: Auction House Policy: A Comparison

    Quote Originally Posted by kingjammy24 View Post
    do most auction houses pay consigners if payment on their item is not received?

    do most keep the items and re-run them?

    thanks,

    rudy.
    Rudy,

    I think the policy differs from house to house. I have ran into a couple of interesting scenarios out there where the item wasn't exactly re-run but sold after the auction completed.

    For example, Heritage lists items that didn't sell in prior auctions at fixed prices after the auction has completed. If you are interested (which was the case for me on an odd occasion), you can simply slick the button (like "buy it now" in ebay) and the item is yours for that price. This would imply that they have cleared an acceptable price with the consignor and that the consignor is continuing to allow the auction house to try to sell on their behalf. You probably would need to check what is really happening behind the scenes -- I never really gave this any second thought.

    Recently I purchased an unsold item from Premier. They told me that they would first need to check with the consignor if I can purchase it at the starting bid, and then got back to me with the clearance. They also told me that if the consignor did not agree, they would get it back... hence, one of two scenarios -- either they don't re-run the item or it has already been through their auction house more than once. Again, you'd want to check.

    Haven't had any experience with this at any other auction houses... but interesting stuff anyway.

    Nick

  5. #15
    Senior Member Eric's Avatar
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    Re: Auction House Policy: A Comparison

    Dave O'Brien-

    You're close with American Memorabilia- any luck getting them to answer about their policy?

    Eric
    Always looking for game used San Diego Chargers items...

  6. #16
    Senior Member Eric's Avatar
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    Re: Auction House Policy: A Comparison

    Well, Historic Auctions did not respond to my questions about their auction house policies. In reading their catalog that came with my SCD, I noticed an interesting line in their policy listing

    "Historic Auctions, LLC reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids by any bidder and execute any bid on our own behalf."

    Does that suggest they are allowing themselves to bid on their own auction listings?

    Eric
    Always looking for game used San Diego Chargers items...

  7. #17
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    Re: Auction House Policy: A Comparison

    can someone explain this to me:

    "We don’t make a point of disclosing them because we didn’t buy them to sell for profit, we pay the consignors whether their items are paid for or not (as long as the item sells for reasonable market value) and just re-run the items that don’t get paid for"

    as i understand this then; someone consigns an item to vintage, the item technically receives a bid above the reserve and eventually the auction closes. if the buyer does not actually end up sending payment to vintage, vintage will still pay the consigner?

    if an item is not paid for, vintage still pays the consigner and keeps the item. the item is then re-run, but the original consigner has already received payment? is this is the case, then it seems the vintage has bought the item from the consigner and becomes the new owner. if they are the owner and they re-run the item, then they're offering items in their auction that they own.
    Wow. If this is how it works, people could really play games with them. Someone consigns an item, two of his buddies from the office, who don't particularly care about memorabilia, register as bidders, and outbid each other to the moon. The winner doesn't pay and is blacklisted (and he doesn't care,) and the consignor gets huge bucks for his item.

    Kind of hard to believe an auction house would leave itself open to this type of scam.....

 

 

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