But probably back before the internet age; auction houses were more "gentlemanly" perhaps? Fewer mistakes were made? When mistakes were made, the auction houses took care of the customers better? Who knows... But I know this much, since I started buying at auction, shortly after I left my college years, I've had problems left and right. Sometimes, you'd buy something, get the item, think you were happy with it, and you wouldn't know you had a problem until you brought it back to the original watch factory in Germany/Switzerland and the factory told you there was a BIG problem. When you realize how big these problems are, you realize, the auction house was totally negligent, they didn't even open the movement to check anything. The serial numbers printed in the catalogue were completely fiction, because they didn't even open the case back. It's such negligence that it is tantamount to fraud.