Is This Auction Description Fair Or Not?

I just received a collection I won in a public auction. In the catalog the description was;

Worldwide, Collection, 1840-1940, 19th and 20th Century mint and used in two well-filled Scott albums, features a nice run of U.S. with Confederate and other Back of Book, worthwhile British, Latin America and Europe, better Nepal and Turkey, a few of the better items include Albania C1-7, Barbados 8, Bolivia 251-67, Cape of Good Hope 5, 71 (5 shilling), Ceylon 4, China Treaty Ports, good early Colombia, Cook Islands 113-114, Cuba 179, 181F, 199J, Cyrenaica 59-64, C24-29, D.W.I. 40-42, Ecuador Revenues, Egypt 24, 105-7, Eritrea 175-80, C1-6, E2, French Morocco 136B complete booklet, Guam 6, 7, G.B. 108 (five shilling), Grenada 26, nice Hawaii section, Iceland C2-3, Saudi Arabia 75-80, Newfoundland Airmails, Iran 786-94, early Thailand, Sudan Telegraphs, South Africa 64 (pair) and more, desirable old time collection, worth inspection.

When I received the collection I was surprised to find that the pages for almost all the large countries had been removed. There were no pages for Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada,Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain etc. I think the auction description was misleading. What do you think?

One problem I see is that the description states "worthwhile British" yet there are no pages for Great Britain. Depending on how much value is left in the albums, you might want to renegotiate with the auction firm.

My opinion: In stampspeak "British" can be Great Britain and/or colonies. Also, if you don't view a lot before bidding you have to expect some uncertainty or worse.

In days gone by it was safe to assume from a description such as this that most countries would be represented in the lot and that many other countries would also contain "better" issues such as the ones mentioned in your listing. Nowadays many auction houses gut "intact collections" - selling off some of the better stuff on ebay, as individual lots in their own auctions, and so on. I too have been disappointed after receiving a lot and realizing it had been looted.

I'm sure that some collection buyers have complained about this trend; I have noticed that some houses now mention that certain countries are not included when they list collection lots.

Is the listing you show misleading? I suggest that "technically" NO - but within the context of the past experiences of someone who has been buying collections for a few years or more (I assume that includes you) it is misleading, and frankly my opinion is that SOME auction houses are well aware that experienced collection buyers (specifically online bidders) will assume the lot is worth more than it actually is - and bid accordingly. I feel your pain.

The auction listing should have mentioned that they were not complete albums, but like Jenny wrote - are the value of the stamps present worth what you've paid. If not, send them back. I know which auction house sold this lot and they should have been better in writing their description.

I have purchased a few larger collections/accumulations at auction without inspection, and I also feel your pain through personal experience, and would echo some of the comments noted above. Nowadays, broader terms like World Wide, British, Latin America, Europe do not guarantee that any particular country/entity will be represented. Unless the description mentions a specific country/entity, especially if other countries/entities are specifically noted, it unfortunately should not be assumed that that country/entity is included when deciding how much to bid. If it is, then so much the better for a nice surprise. Even if a country/entity is mentioned, there again is no guarantee that the stamps included from that country/entity constitute a valuable sample.

The only way to be sure is to physically inspect the collection. If that's not possible, it may help to make inquiries with the auction firm beforehand regarding the contents of a specific lot.

I checked the other worldwide lots which were sold in this specific auction and they had no problem at all specifying British Colonies in their descriptions.

Send them back. Raise hell if necessary.

(Or keep them.)

The auction house's return policy doesn't sound promising, but, my earlier comments notwithstanding, it wouldn't hurt to demand that they take the material back due to an inaccurate description, if you're not satisfied with the lot at the price paid for it. Not to overdo cliches, but policies are made to be broken and nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Ken

As it was described as a collection in a pair of albums, I think it would be reasonable to expect the words "remaindered" or "some countries removed" to appear in the description. And "Brtish" to me means GB, not far-flung bits of the Empire.

Geoff

Geoff makes the argument.

Also on your side is the first word in the description: it is offered as a "Worldwide" collection. This is not merely a reference to a section of the auction, it is a characterization of the item. Any reasonable buyer would expect such a collection to include at least a few stamps or pages for all country pages that Scott originally included in the albums.

I'd be interested in which Catalog this cat number refers to...
"G.B. 108 (five shilling)" ... as nothing in Stanley Gibbons or Scott applies. S.G.108 is Scott 51a and is a sixpence stamp and not a five shilling.

Agree about "British;" to me this means GB. "Commonwealth" refers to the rest of the Empire.

Great Britain #108 is the Scott catalog number for the 5sh Queen Victoria issue of 1884.

Like different catalog numbers, dealers don't always use the same terminology. You have to know your seller. Debating whether "British" is Great Britain, United Kingdom, British area, British Commonwealth... will unlikely win over the auctioneer on large lots or collections. It's like some dealers equating mint with unused hinged stamps, and then using what many would argue is often a redundant term "mint never hinged". Know your specific dealer's terminology.

Your collection did in fact have a high value Great Britain stamp in it, even if it didn't have the whole set of pages.

But I would definitely be annoyed that the album was missing pages for many major countries and not mentioned. While it is not misleading, it should have stated that the album is not complete. I know my auction houses will state if page sections are missing. I doubt the auction house will permit you to return it for that reason.

I apologize if this comes off wrong, but other than the album not being complete, are you satisfied with the stamps you got for the price you paid? I ask because I noticed the hammer price was roughly twice the estimate. So I assume something in the collection caught your eye and that of at least one other bidder. Are you satisfied with getting what is specifically listed in the description for the price you paid? If so, then the missing pages is a relatively small issue -- you can mention it to the auction house, but chalk it up to a lesson learned in understanding "their" terminology.

I would have complained about this item/description regardless of the price I paid. I bid on quite a few collections and it's great when there are pictures but often I have to bid on the description. An intermediate collection like this should have 160-180 saleable country collections. Based on the highlights metioned I should average $20-30 per item, but this average is dependent upon the sale of the larger countries. If 40 or 50 countries are removed from a collection and this is not mentioned in the description it makes it impossible to bid.

I called the auction house and I think I would have sent the collection back if they had agreed but mostly I wanted to tell them how misleading their description was.

The first man I spoke to listened while I explained the that 40 or 50 countries such as Austria, Belgium and Germany were missing from the collection. Then he said "I don't get it why would you expect stamps from Austria or Belgium, we didn't mention them in our description" I was amazed by this lack of understanding of a Worldwide collection and tried to explain it but he wouldn't or couldn't understand.

He referred me to a second man who had supposedly written the description. He said the same thing "Why should I expect something that wasn't mentioned?" I felt like I was in the twilight zone. We weren't getting anywhere so he referred me to the owner.

The owner listened to my issue and said "You know you probably outbid someone on the floor who had seen the item" I agreed but this seemed to be the owner's pet peeve. He had no interest in my point and eventually told me " I can't stand it when you Internet Bidders outbid my floor bidders and then complain" He finished the conversation by saying "I don't know what you expect me to do about it I'm not running an approval service".

I've been buying stamps at auction since "Gold Medal Mail Sales" and this is by far the worst I've ever been treated by an auction house.

Shown below is the entire Great Britain portion of this collection.