Bill Langs Passed Away

Ah, but did Kelleher actually buy the stock or did the estate merely consign it to them?

Sounds like they have asked the estate to, but the items in the auction are not being removed on eBay/Hipstamp. Can't really be a workload issue, it literally takes 2 seconds to close an item on either store, and due to the sync in place, it is automatically closed on the other one at the same time. An awkward situation, to say the least.

either way there is a lack of transparency and full disclosure going on. some one dropped the ball on this one, and no one wants to fess up.

I'm not so sure about that. You are assuming the estate knows which item is which. That would require that each item selected for Kelleher was marked with some sort of id that linked it to the listings online. If the inventory doesn't have that linkage they would have to search through the venue for the matching items one at a time. It may be easier to find an item in inventory once it's sold than to do the reverse - take somethin out of inventory and find it online.

ebay and hipstamp should be able to tell who is selling what by name or handle and be able to suspend or delete the items en mass if they wanted to.
to paraphrase an earlier statement:
Ah, but did Kelleher actually buy the stock or have it consigned? the answer my friend is blowing in the wind and if forthcoming would help to clear up this mess.

m and m - why on earth would Kelleher change their business model and actually buy stock? I assume (no confirmation, obviously), that the lots are simply consigned like most auctions. Why would you think otherwise?

A lot of auction firms buy outright, including Kelleher. That way they make extra money on percentages.

"That way they make more money on percentages" ... only if they're buying at a very low price point. Plus, when they buy stock, they carry all the risk of the lots actually being sold, that the lots are actually "as described", and carrying / inventory costs. Granted carrying costs these days with the cost of money close to 0 may not be a huge problem, but still seems funny to me.

i don't. please see my prior post answer as to removals.
it appears that some one was/is not on the same page with regard to who has the right to sell the items. the house ought to talk to the other venues about the removal of the listings if the entire estate was consigned.
i hope that this all gets straightened out.
it should be used as an object lesson by all to leave very clear instructions as to the dispersal of ones holdings along with good records.

They buy stock and then sell it at auction. Since they own it, they can set a base price for a lot, and still get the 15% on top. If it doesn't sell in one sale it will sell in another eventually.

Auction houses have always done this, it's not remotely a new idea.

I have worked for a number of auction houses - they all had their own 'stock'. Of course, they also accepted consignments.

Other than the Langs' family, and Kelleher, I don't know that anybody KNOWS whether the stock was purchased or consigned. Anything we say is conjecture.

Another possibility is that only a portion of the entirety was sold/consigned to Kelleher. I doubt it, but that is certainly a possibility.

The idea of having items for sale online AND in an auction catalog certainly smacks of shenanigans. If something is in an auction catalog, I expect the auctioneer is doing his darned best to sell it to the highest bidder on the day of the auction.

Or you could operate like a certain revenue-focused auction house that shall remain nameless. Take your high-priced online inventory offline temporarily, mixing the lots in with actual consigned material at a live auction, starting the lots with ridiculously high openers, show them all as "SOLD" on SAN, and then once the auction is over, put the lots back for fixed price sale online.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Or you could operate like other auction houses that remain nameless that have book and phone bids that mysteriously pop into action, outbid you, and then 9 months later the same item goes on sale yet again and the same thing occurs. Knowing the trend, and not falling for sudden "interest" in your seemingly random tracked item, and knowing the bid pushes it into a bad price is key. It helps to read through auction archives, exactly why the houses are running from SAN...

That is one of the benefits of the house owning the items.