Do Auction Houses Have The Right To Withdraw Current Lots?

I have been following a general collectibles auction that closes on March 11. There are a fair number of stamp related items, but one lot that I was watching has now vanished. There were bids in excess of $200 when I last looked at it, but now it's gone. Is this one of those fine print conditions where the owner can change his mind and keep the item? I would be mad if I had actually placed a bid. I was waiting until the last day to see how things were going.

i would say that it is an unethical move once a bid(s) has been placed. especially if there is no explanation or of why either in the terms or after. if I were a bidder I would e-mail the seller and ask for an explanation.

Every auction house that I am aware of has the right to withdraw clearly stipulated in their Terms and Conditions and a withdrawn lot is not a rare occurrence.

Ye old double standard.

Massey Auction Service Inc. may add or withdraw any item/items at any point during the auction process.
During the Auction you can check the status of your bid at anytime. Note that no bids can be withdrawn after the auction for any reason.

I will have to let this one go. I was banned from a certain Auction house in Toronto for simply telling people in a public review, to read the rules carefully. They can buy any Lot themselves, and they did it quite often. The same Jubilee stamp was for sale every week and sold every week for about $400. They wanted more, so they put it back in until a real bidder paid what they wanted. This went on for over a year. The Lot had one poorly exposed photo so you could barely see how good the perfs were. The Lot number was even the same, they didn't bother changing it. They kept saying the cat value was $1600, so I wonder what actually happened to this one...

Double standard? More like a double-edged sword. And it is NOT unethical.

The rules clearly state the terms. You don't know the reason for withdrawal. There are many reasons why a lot is withdrawn. That could include badly described lots, forgeries, lots where the supposed seller did not actually have clear title to the lot. Pulling items like that protect the buyer, not the seller.

So what do you think of general auction houses where items are sold "as is, where is". No expertizing afterwards is possible as a basis for a return, it's all up to you and your knowledge. And with the exception of some but not all mail sales, auction houses do let you inspect lots before the sale. It falls on you the bidder to do just that.

We see repeat appearances of the same item over and over on ebay also. What's the big deal? Lots are reserved all the time and nobody puts a gun to your head to buy it at whatever price someone else thinks it is worth. I suppose you'd rather enjoy buying property at bankruptcy sales for pennies on the dollar while complaining about having to have the local sheriff eject the residents.

There are all sorts of reasons to withdraw a lot before the auction. It (undoubtedly) has nothing to do with a lack of interest - most bids are received on the day of the auction, so they wouldn't know a few days ahead whether or not it was coming up short. It may be as simple as they found something wrong with the description of the lot --- maybe the high-values were fakes/damaged. Maybe they found a rarity in there and thought it best to sell it separately, at a later date. And I've seen this myself: there may be serious questions about the ownership of the lot. Until it sells, the previous owner is still the owner (well, that sounds funky, but you know what I mean) and can do anything he cares to with his own property. Sure, there is a contract between the owner and the auction house, but there are many legal (and other) matters that would supersede the contract.

My advice is to keep an eye on the auction house's future sales. Maybe whatever caused it to be yanked this time will be resolved and make it available again.

This auctioneer is in the league of general estates and misc. items. Not stamp specific by any means. That is a key point here. There are many of them out there and they typically only post a few random pictures because they don't know any better. I bookmark a lot of these small operations just to see what comes up. There are a few dozen stamp lots in the March 11 auction. Mostly unremarkable stock books full of what collectors already have. The lot that was pulled was a FDC style binder with dust jacket. It claimed to have covers with C13, C14 and C15 among others. The one picture of the contents did show the blue $2.60 air mail on cover. Not enough pictures to show what else was really there. I think it would have made a nice return as is. Maybe they got a tip that it would be better to sell parts separately. Either way, I don't agree with pulling the rug out on something that is publicly posted and has received bids. Bidders are taking a chance so why not play by the same rule.

There are plenty of fakes out there of C13-15. Perhaps they got a tip that this was a bogus set. How would you like to be the buyer of that lot now?? Remember, when you flip a coin, there are two sides.

In the end, whether this is a stamp-specific auction or not, the auctioneer has wide discretion. Doesn't sound like anything unethical is going on. There are multitudes of reasons to withdraw a lot. Believe it or not, the auctioneer may have had the bidders' best interests at heart by withdrawing a problematic lot (see above).

If I had bid on a lot, and it was yanked before the auction, I wouldn't feel slighted/cheated in the slightest. I WOULD feel slighted/cheated if it had been 'withdrawn' after the gavel fell and I was high bidder. Gavel falls = auction over. Gavel didn't fall = don't count on anything until the gavel falls.

Sorry if you feel cheated/slighted, or if you feel there are shenanigans going on, but this is completely normal auction behavior.



I don't see any double-standard here. I interpret the 2nd sentence to say that if you bid, and are successful, you may not withdraw your bid AFTER the auction. Again, gavel falls = auction over.

Actually there is 3
I saw it occur recently at a football match, the coin stood on it's edge.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch...-the-edge/#x

Haha. I stand corrected.

ethics aside I agree there are meany reasons to withdraw lots. that said failure to reach the desired minimum is a legitimate reason to withdraw/pass a lot. house rules protect the house first, the seller and others must wait in line. without seeing a lot in person you are at the mercy of the describer no matter who the house is.

"failure to reach the desired minimum is a legitimate reason to withdraw/pass a lot"

There is a difference between withdrawing and passing a lot. Withdrawing a lot before the sale does not constitute failure to reach the desired minimum because the lot has not been auction yet.

Hidden reserves are disingenuous IMO.

As a seller I appreciate an auctioneer that is not going to give away anything. On the day of the sale there could be really bad weather or a key floor bidder missed his/her flight and so on. That being said, realistic openers can cure that problem to some extent. Some firms just play games with ridiculously low opening bids that they know they would never hammer on.

i understand the difference between withdraw and pass. imo withdrawing lots without a reasonable explanation to potential bidders is not a good practice. I agree with rogdcam about hidden reserves and ridiculous opening bids.