Selling at Auction

[ndg1860]

I have been caught out by auction houses not doing the right thing by me when selling with them and possibly it has been through naivety. At one, the lot did not sell during the auction but was sold privately after the auction for less than I would have conceived. At another, the auction house did not contact me at all prior to the auction and thus chose their own reserve without any consultation, much less than what I would have wanted which meant I almost lost money on the lot.

Some of us do sell through auctions and a few are quite naive when it comes to this assuming the auction house will look after you when, in fact, it is them they that only really care about. So, it is important to discuss your items with the auction house. In other words, tell them what reserve you want and also that they can or cannot sell the item after the auction through a private sale.

Just thought I'd bring this topic up as I am sure I am not the only one who has lost out when an auction house has taken an action that goes against what you thought they should do.

Is there anything else that sellers should be aware of when using an auction house?

[martino]

Interesting. I was just reading in Stacey's catalogue for next week that

"under no circumstances will unsold lots be available for sale following the auction"

The reason given is that they "do not wish for either ourselves or our vendors to be compromised or put in an awkward position."