Buyer beware for new(and old) collectors

I am a new collector, I am of the younger generation, but I am very experienced in online transactions with businesses and so on.

What I had no experience with, was non ebay auctions.

I found a website, called Auctionzip.com, it gave me a great resource to find auctions without having to drive. Cool!

So I bid on a few things, some bad decisions, some seemingly good.

I had some simply terrible experiences overall, I participated in 3 different auction house auctions online through this website and I experienced: fakes, poor item condition/description/photos, poor communication, lack of communication when billing, and an overall lack of professionalism when dealing with a business transaction.

2 US auction houses, 1 from Quebec.

For companies that deal in antiques, the packaging was atrocious, I had stickers placed on my items at times, and the shipping prices and handling fees were simply out of this world in many cases.

Here is my blog which details the situations in full


Now to be fair, the items I received from 2 of the 3 auction houses were legit, they were as described. But it wasnt the items that was the problem, the problem was finding out what they billed me without email confirmation....

So for those of you who are debating auctions, be aware of some critical points:

Buyers premium makes your bid go up a bunch, if they charge tax as well, you can be looking at up to a 30-40% price increase. But what is unjustified, is the price of shipping/handling can up your purchase price by 50%!!!

You end up paying as much in buyers premium, tax and shipping/handling as you do your items.

In my latest blog post, the hats were won for $120, I ended up being charged $199.

On ebay, you know what you are paying, you have buyers protection against fakes, and you have a way to complain... these online auctions, you do not have any of those. The same thing applies to in person auctions. You put massive amounts of trust on these companies.

***please note, i am generalizing in some instances, each auction house had different issues, detailed on my blog posts, for more specific information please review them. This is why I did not name the auction houses in this post.

Good Evening Nobel.....

Sorry for blowing our own horn but maybe you would like to read the following article......

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Mike

Manions was really bad for this. They seemed to pull random fees out of their butts for most of the things I purchased. Being up in Canada, they were probably salivating knowing they could rip me off. Not sure what it is like there now...haven't bought from any auction house in almost ten years.

That was a great link, Im going to keep that one and share it around!!

I just think it's very strange that its accepted how auctions run their business. Charging my credit card without my approval, that is illegal! And yet it appears to be accepted practice?

Its very strange to me.