Stamp Auction Dilemma, This Is Weird But True......

It is common place for auction houses to employ extra staff for a very limited time at auction's end. Mailing is a huge job that most auction houses clear the sales out as quick as to stop extra workers cost.

Just about every auction I have used wanted my credit card details so they could get their $'s as soon as. That never happened. On my mail bids I would always include "pay on invoice only". Soon got my invoices!

KGV,

Yes, before Regency-Superiour failed a year or two ago, I too supplied my credit-card number to several auction firms.

No more.

ESPECIALLY now after I see what havoc can transpire in the mailroom of an auction house. Not to mention hacked servers/systems, dishonest clerks, et cetera.

Still having the EXACT THING happen within a couple weeks, at two different auction firms, I suspect some sort of collusion, co-mingling of lots, SOMETHING just doesn't seem right.

I also have an interested in keeping a good relationship with at least one of the auction houses (the one I've purchased from / dealt with in the past without a problem) thus I won't name names, but it's a big firm. Other firm, not as much but I feel sure a majority of this board has heard of BOTH companies, one of which names a rather well-known person in the stamp world. Not wanting to tarnish both firm's reputation (other than stating truthfully what has been happening in my case) I will of course update here as soon as I get more information/invoices/explanations which I am sure eventually will come.

To reiterate, both auctions ended some time ago, one in February, one in March. Today is May 4th.....I await their responses patiently. As I search carefully EVERY auction catalogue mailed to me for hidden treasures tucked inside

-Jay

As a frequent auction buyer I must say that I cannot recall the last time that I did not sign for a delivery. There are numerous obvious reasons for requiring a signature not the least of which is for insurance purposes. It strikes me as very odd that your lots were not insured especially if the items were actually consigned and not owned by the house. This entire thing makes less and less sense the more I think about it.

I think you need to call the auction houses, explain to them what exactly transpired and let them know in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable.

Auction lots should ALWAYS be sent separately, insured and registered (especially if they are charging extra for shipping).

Also, I assume that there's a buyer's fee. So there's no excuse for shoving your winning lots in a mass catalogue mailing. Oh, and partial lots at that! Not acceptable.

If the houses do not rectify the situation, I would cross them off my go-to sources.

This is bizarre. I've never encountered this... but then again, I'm anxious/impatient enough to never let it get to the point that something might show up unannounced. If the auction isn't on SAN and I cannot see whether I won, assuming I wasn't bidding live, or the auction house doesn't post actual winning bids, I'm on the phone mid-week the week after the auction is held, asking whether I've won. I always know when lots are inbound and from whom.

You mention "registered" mail, so is it accurate that these are auction houses outside the U.S.? Perhaps putting things in catalogs or other normal correspondence a way to avoid customs declarations and thus putting out "STEAL ME!" red flags on the packages.

I only buy from sources within the USA. Every shipment I've ever received from an auction house came via Certified Mail, for which
a signature was required.

Registered Mail paints a target on the item. Folks don't pay the extra registry fee for something of little value when insured and Certified Mail will do just as well.

I've always received a shipping notice from the auction house with the tracking number so I can arrange to be home to sign for it.

I recommend you call both auction houses ASAP, the longer you wait the chances of the remainder of you lots getting misplaced increase.

I recently went through a shipping mess where my $2000 collection ended up sitting on my porch in NY for 2 weeks in spite of multiple instructions to ship to Florida. When I eventually received it there was water damage but I didn't make a fuss because I only have 5 auction houses that sell material I need and I can't afford to antagonize any of them.

Good luck!

Hi revenuecollector

Must admit I have never been in an auction and not rung the auction house to see if I won or not!

I had called both auction houses the first business day after I posted my original complaint dilemma--May 3rd 2019.

The larger firm (with whom I have had previous successful bids in the past, amounting to several thousand dollars worth over the past year) responded, with a bit of disbelief at first, but promised a resolution earlier this week.

I have just received their response today, Friday, by email (my invoice):



As I suspected, the bill reflects items I won, but have not yet received. The first item, and the last item, were in neither of the two untracked, USPS-sent catalogues they shipped me in the last two months. The FED-EX sent catalogue I received two days ago, which I signed for, contained only their most recent auction catalogue.

As you can see by the date of the email and the invoice (today's date) it took them just under 90 (ninety) days after the end of the auction (early February closing date) to finally bill me.

And I am missing half the value (the first and last times) Am I to assume they might be holding them waiting for payment? Or more likely they might insist they mailed them, but I have not received them.

Three hundred dollars, now, I am invoiced for items I have NOT received. This is precisely why I posted my bizarre experience with their horrible delivery methods (all items were tucked inside two different USPS-sent auction catalogues which I didn't even NOTICE until last week!)

I wasn't able to check my email until after they closed today so now I will have to wait until Monday at the earliest to get some answers.

I'm still quite upset with specifically their shipping methods! And it appears I will be likely suspected of feigning not receiving items that were sent to me. Unless of course, yet another auction catalogue arrives, with pretty US-discounted postage, with the two missing items tucked inside the auction pages, which seem to be standard operating procedure these days for $595.00 shipments of auction lots.

There is no mention of my EXTREME unhappiness with their shipping methods; the ten dollar shipping fee is not that much less than a standard Fed-Ex shipping envelope which SHOULD have been utilized, as the shipment(s) would have been tracked and required a signature.

Comments? Recourse? I'm very frustrated here....

Jay

Wow, Jay I can see you likely are on the hook for all the invoiced items. I'm not sure, but you need to immediately dispute the delivery, if that is the case, of what exactly you received and did not receive.

Good luck keep us posted. I'd be curious to know who the sloppy auction company is?!?

--Jim Wentzell

The above items are from a screenshot of my Stamp Auction Network account (I bid using their system as it's very user friendly) I removed references to the names of the auction firms I'm having trouble with. The green amounts to the right indicate my winning bid (plus buyer's fees of 10-20% or so) in US dollars. You can see the auctions closed in February (one was March, not shown). These represent only some of the items I bid and won, and there is yet another firm I am still waiting to hear from.

So far the last two items (set of Zeppelin labels, and a German Zeppelin cover) I have NOT YET RECEIVED, but am being invoiced for. The first stamp shown, Norway #1 with a socked-on-the-nose cancellation, was one of the loose stamps that literally fell out of the auction catalogue's pages last week, attached only to a small dealer sales card not much bigger than the stamp itself! I definitely have that, and others similarly dispatched, and of course intend to fully pay for those its I end up actually receiving.

I first received and viewed this invoice less than 48 hours ago (it's Sunday evening here) First thing Monday morning I will call, yet again, this time to announce, as my worst fear has been realized; my very first auction lots have not been received by me.

I am obviously very upset at the sloppy negligent shipping methods and overly lengthy time which lapsed since the early February 2019 auction closing. Nearly ninety days.....and counting.

I'll keep you posted!

-J.

Jay,
The original intent of the thread was to ask if others had experienced the same 'odd but true' situation. That question was answered with a 'no' by every response.

What is the intent now? In my opinion there is no reason to not post the name of the company at this point. If the company eventually makes this right with you then this thread will be a 'positive' for them. A mistake was made but if the company responds with a corrective action then it is a sign of a good company.

If they do not respond correctly, then it would be very unwise for you to do business with them again. You asked about recourse; your recourse is to find a new company to do business with if they do not satisfy you issues with this last transaction. And the only reason you had for not naming them has evaporated.

Having this thread to go on without naming the company seems non-productive. Your last post is about being unhappy with the duration of the conflict resolution; this information can be important to others but only if the name of the company is known.
Don

I am in the "never had anything like the OP's situation" in all my decades of auction purchasing.

It is Kelleher - you can tell from the sale # and other unredacted details.