Sold Item at Auction, lost money in the transfer

IsabelleJ

The bank charging to change currencies is absolutely normal, and nothing to do with auction house. Unfortunately it's not their job to advise you of this - it's just a fact of life when dealing with different currencies and banks.

However, if you were expecting to receive the money in sterling, then they would be at fault. As above, look at the paperwork, but I suspect they will just send the money from one place, and in this case it's their US office

Isabelle

Ausernamenotinuse

Dear All

. Apologies about my daft username but after 10 attempts at not wanting to use my real name and trying various other names I thought I'd call myself "a username not in use" however this question can be public domain and I hope somebody will reply to me.

I discovered this string because the word auction was mentioned.

Over the past 20 years for various reasons I've tried to auction contents of my house. Twice I've been seriously ripped off by the auctioneers

One was a company in Lymington, Hampshire who took a load of stuff from my house including several rare framed banknotes and when I got the results of the auction -- the three rare banknotes had been sold at 50p and actually wrote on the bill of exchange "picture frame 50p " ( ironically I could have taken them to the bank and cash them at their face value )

When I complained about this the auction house said - well it wasn't worth it was it ? I said - they were rare banknotes worth hundreds of pounds !! Just fobbing me off - I couldn't do anything or have any proof

Another time I tried another auctioneer in Andover they came and spent a day clearing a lot of objets d'art purchases that we'd acquired. Some rare antiques worth hundreds of pounds . They sold them and when I got the list back there was a about hundred items all listed and sold between 2 & 4 pounds each !

Now you may say a fool & his money are soon parted and I have been monumentally naive and yes I have been duped. I don't want it to happen again

So my question in short can anybody recommend

a genuinely honest UK auction house that I can trust ?

Where I can ask " This is what I want removing from my house. ( We are retiring I live in a large country house and we need to de-clutter - I don't believe the objets d'art are all rubbish ) I will happily accept the auction house decision if it is catalogued and professionally auctioned

I look forward to hearing from anybody with any suggestions :-) Mike

ballisticbrian

well when you go on amazon or ebay do you expect to lose money on a currencey exchange? or any other multinational company?

Yes, I agree with soolin you pay when selling over seas for the currency conversion.

Ausernamenotinuse

PS - It would be totally impractical to use eBay, which I have an account, and gumtree to sell individually

mgdavid

Ausernamenotinuse wrote: »

Dear All

. Apologies about my daft username but after 10 attempts at not wanting to use my real name and trying various other names I thought I'd call myself "a username not in use" however this question can be public domain and I hope somebody will reply to me.

I discovered this string because the word auction was mentioned.

Over the past 20 years for various reasons I've tried to auction contents of my house. Twice I've been seriously ripped off by the auctioneers

One was a company in Lymington, Hampshire who took a load of stuff from my house including several rare framed banknotes and when I got the results of the auction -- the three rare banknotes had been sold at 50p and actually wrote on the bill of exchange "picture frame 50p " ( ironically I could have taken them to the bank and cash them at their face value )

When I complained about this the auction house said - well it wasn't worth it was it ? I said - they were rare banknotes worth hundreds of pounds !! Just fobbing me off - I couldn't do anything or have any proof

Another time I tried another auctioneer in Andover they came and spent a day clearing a lot of objets d'art purchases that we'd acquired. Some rare antiques worth hundreds of pounds . They sold them and when I got the list back there was a about hundred items all listed and sold between 2 & 4 pounds each !

Now you may say a fool & his money are soon parted and I have been monumentally naive and yes I have been duped. I don't want it to happen again

So my question in short can anybody recommend

a genuinely honest UK auction house that I can trust ?

Where I can ask " This is what I want removing from my house. ( We are retiring I live in a large country house and we need to de-clutter - I don't believe the objets d'art are all rubbish ) I will happily accept the auction house decision if it is catalogued and professionally auctioned

I look forward to hearing from anybody with any suggestions :-) Mike

I believe it's normal for the seller to discuss and agree Reserve prices with the auction house at the time of requesting them to sell.

It sounds like in the past you've agreed for them to 'take this stuff and get what you can for it'.

Almost all auction houses are good at what they do - but you have to tell them what you want done, and how you want it done. Always remember you are the customer and they are providing a service to your specification.
Similar to putting a car into a garage for work to be done.

RFW

mgdavid wrote: »

I believe it's normal for the seller to discuss and agree Reserve prices with the auction house at the time of requesting them to sell.

It sounds like in the past you've agreed for them to 'take this stuff and get what you can for it'.

Almost all auction houses are good at what they do - but you have to tell them what you want done, and how you want it done. Always remember you are the customer and they are providing a service to your specification.
Similar to putting a car into a garage for work to be done.

This is quite a good assessment. The less work the auction house has to do the better the vendor result. So if you're clearing a house our a room our just one box, itemise everything as accurately as possible. List all the items yourself as you would have them sold.
Also find out if the auction house is used to selling your items. Ask them questions and Google them. Also try and attend an auction before you sell with them, that's the best way of finding out how good they are, also check their online presence.

hollydays

Ausernamenotinuse wrote: »

Dear All

. Apologies about my daft username but after 10 attempts at not wanting to use my real name and trying various other names I thought I'd call myself "a username not in use" however this question can be public domain and I hope somebody will reply to me.

I discovered this string because the word auction was mentioned.

Over the past 20 years for various reasons I've tried to auction contents of my house. Twice I've been seriously ripped off by the auctioneers

One was a company in Lymington, Hampshire who took a load of stuff from my house including several rare framed banknotes and when I got the results of the auction -- the three rare banknotes had been sold at 50p and actually wrote on the bill of exchange "picture frame 50p " ( ironically I could have taken them to the bank and cash them at their face value )

When I complained about this the auction house said - well it wasn't worth it was it ? I said - they were rare banknotes worth hundreds of pounds !! Just fobbing me off - I couldn't do anything or have any proof

Another time I tried another auctioneer in Andover they came and spent a day clearing a lot of objets d'art purchases that we'd acquired. Some rare antiques worth hundreds of pounds . They sold them and when I got the list back there was a about hundred items all listed and sold between 2 & 4 pounds each !

Now you may say a fool & his money are soon parted and I have been monumentally naive and yes I have been duped. I don't want it to happen again

So my question in short can anybody recommend

a genuinely honest UK auction house that I can trust ?

Where I can ask " This is what I want removing from my house. ( We are retiring I live in a large country house and we need to de-clutter - I don't believe the objets d'art are all rubbish ) I will happily accept the auction house decision if it is catalogued and professionally auctioned

I look forward to hearing from anybody with any suggestions :-) Mike

I've never been to an auction that auctions 50p items?
You need to be present with a valuer while they catalogue each item-then you can explain what each item is. If you have valuable items that require expert knowledge like stamps, coins, books-you ask them to be referred to the specialist for valuation as a general " fine arts " type valuer will readily admit he's not an expert on everything.
I took an item for valuation the other day. I noticed while they were listing items for auction , they often didn't give the seller an idea of what it might fetch( probably because they didn't want to keep having the same conversation about how certain things go out of fashion) .
The best thing to do is to gather together the valuables you think are worth more and take them to a valuation day. You will need to phone ahead to check which days particular specialists will be present .Then , be sure to ask what they would start them at,or insist on a reserve, and if there's a fee to pay if they don't sell.
An auction house should have different types of sales eg fine arts, general and other things like" toy sale" . You need to make sure your auction house has different categories they can use.

RFW

hollydays wrote: »

I've never been to an auction that auctions 50p items?
You need to be present with a valuer while they catalogue each item-then you can explain what each item is. If you have valuable items that require expert knowledge like stamps, coins, books-you ask them to be referred to the expert for valuation.

I'd guess that they list several items together and sell them each. So a box of 20 items would be sold at 50p each. It works for some when the porter holds up an item that is worth £20 and the box is full of useless tat that isn't worth a penny.

hollydays

RFW wrote: »

I'd guess that they list several items together and sell them each. So a box of 20 items would be sold at 50p each. It works for some when the porter holds up an item that is worth £20 and the box is full of useless tat that isn't worth a penny.

I've seen boxes sold, but never individually priced items within.

RFW

hollydays wrote: »

I've seen boxes sold, but never individually priced items within.

Some do it, it's getting rarer as it's harder to incorporate with online bidding.
As an auctioneer I'd be less inclined to do it in mixed boxes. From what was said they didn't sound much like an auction house who were used to dealing with valuables and collectables. Some who will collect "house clearances" will be more used to selling second hand fridges than oil paintings. So it's always wise to know who you're dealing with beforehand. Any old idiot can open an auction house.