The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Recently I have been scanning auctions around the country and have a few observations:

1. Live Auctioneers has a relatively new "shipping service". When bidding, they will quote you a price for "fully insured" shipping. Good luck with that. I recently bought a music box and it arrived broken and irreparable. All I get from LA is the runaround. I've resorted to a credit card chargeback and will see how that plays out.

2. Some auction houses are not allowing local pickup, and will not quote shipping cost in advance of bidding. So, if you win any items, you are at their mercy. It seems their 25-30% Buyer's Premium is not enough profit margin for them.

3. Some auction houses practically make it impossible to preview any of their lots.

4. eBay is looking like a better option, from both the buyer and seller's point of view. I've recently sold items in excess of $15,000 each and the overall commission rate was less than 6% to me, and of course, zero to the buyer. And there are a lot of protections for the participants, as opposed to most auction houses that have multitudes of Terms & Conditions disclaiming any and all responsibility.

5. Stanton's seem to be the one and only exception to my disdain for the other internet and live auctioneers. Plus, we get a free turkey dinner in November!

Just my thoughts and opinions.

Raphael

I've also come across auctions, (for antique cars & parts), that only allow on-line bidding, and at the same time, demand removal of all items on the day of sale. How on earth do you arrange that??? You can't be there to bid in person, but you better show up to haul off your winnings.