patrick_y[PuristSPro Moderator]
28381
"A POX on both your houses," allow Me To Quote Mercutio from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet
Jun 22, 2022,21:19 PM
In general, auction houses are often not discerning and unscrupulous places to do business. Think about the operations of an auction house. You've got a very small staff (they need to keep costs low) for instance in New York City office the entire watch department of Christies was once run by two people. Then these two people who run multiple major auctions per year need to borrow cataloguers, description writers, and photographers from the art department exactly 2 months before the auction to get the catalogue out. These photographers are not interested, they're art photographers. The writers don't have a clue what they're writing about - they normally write about art. And the small watch team have to inspect 100 watches in a very short period of time. There's a huge rush to get the catalogue out, and in that rush, lots of mistakes are made. Then, another huge rush for preparations leading up to the sale, and then another huge rush to ship everything after the sale is over. With small teams working in such a compacted rush, it's no wonder why so many mistakes are made, client promises are forgotten, people are burned or scorned, etc.
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Nico’s horrific treatment?
By: BigFatPauli : June 22nd, 2022-20:21
Is there a link to this story? And I am sorry to hear about your bad experience... Can you share what happened?
Here are some links...
By: patrick_y : June 22nd, 2022-21:14
Here's Nicolas' fiasco... Basically auction houses help transact stolen property. And when confronted with the fact, auction houses generally side with the seller, helping protect the seller and shielding the seller's identity. This is because finding se...
Thank you for taking the time; I really appreciate it.
By: BigFatPauli : June 23rd, 2022-11:43
Nico's story is appalling. I wonder how things would have gone had the watch been insured and the rightful owner would have then been the insurance company. I assume they would have sent their legal team after this.
LOL!!!
By: amanico : June 22nd, 2022-21:38
And your situation was especially egregious...
By: patrick_y : June 22nd, 2022-21:24
The auction house specifically sided with the seller. Likely because they had done a lot of previous business with this seller. This seller might have even been a front for stolen and questionable timepieces. But the auction house protected this seller. W...
All auction houses are sketchy
By: openworked : June 27th, 2022-19:34
Occasionally you can find a bargain at the auction houses even after premium but most of the time they are just driving market hype with ever-increasing record bids. I swear I've seen shill bidding from the big houses (Antiquorum, Christie's, Phillips, So...