patrick_y[PuristSPro Moderator]
28404
Buying From An Auction House? Caveat Emptor!
Sep 02, 2021,01:24 AM
Auction houses are often unethical. There. I've said it. Frankly though, a lot of newbie and philistine watch collectors like to buy from auction houses, since these often neavou riche buyers feel that auction houses have properly vetted the watch (when the auction house hasn't really vetted the watch). Some really unintelligent buyers think buying a used watch from an auction house is just as good as buying a new watch from an authorized dealer. Heck, how do you explain why some people pay more for a watch at auction than it retails at the store for? And I'm talking about a watch that isn't that hard to get (not a waitlist watch)! And incredibly, it takes two to bid up a watch, so that means there were probably two people bidding it up!
Some auction houses are worse than others; Antiquorum being probably the worse auction house in the watch world. But all auction houses make mistakes. Sotheby's for instance has made a mistake here. Here they advertise a watch as "Like New" despite it being at least 10 years old (I make that determination because it has a Geneva Seal movement and the Patek Philippe seal came out around 2009, by 2011 Patek Philippe had fully transitioned to the new Patek Philippe Seal).
Notice Sotheby's states this watch is "Like New" and "Year 2020"
Notice in the Sotheby's photo that there is a Geneva Seal at the top of the movement.
Patek Philippe announced their Patek Philippe Seal as their replacement to the Geneva Seal in 2009. Basically, Patek Philippe claimed that their standards were higher than the Geneva Seal requirements and they dropped the Geneva Seal. Critics claimed that Patek Philippe just didn't want to pay the Canton of Geneva the fee for using their seal, but even those critics acknowledged that Patek Philippe watches did usually have higher requirements than those in the seal criteria.
So... Is this extreme negligence on Sotheby's part? Fraud? I'd say yes to all of the above.
But let's not just single Sotheby's out. Every auction house has made mistakes. Antiquorum even seems to sell watches of stolen origins. When a legitimate owner identifies their stolen watch on Antiquorum (serial numbers are often listed on auction catalogues), many auction houses, including Antiquorum, simply returns the product to the consignor and the trail goes cold. I don't have any evidence to say that Antiquorum is intentionally facilitating the sale of stolen watches, but it wouldn't be a stretch to make that statement.
What kind of problems have you experienced with auction houses? What advice and suggestions can you give the community to avoid problems?