H & R Auction

Review: I began going to H&R auction house back in 2010 and purchased everything from knick-knacks to tools to furniture. After a year of going to the auction and getting to know everybody I wanted to slowly start expanding into selling sports memorabilia. I would go here every Monday and they would have tons of autographed sports memorabilia with certificate of authenticity going for big bucks. So I started to purchase some sports memorabilia in hopes to resell and make a few bucks. In 2012 I had already purchased over 20 jersey valued at over $5000 and things were looking up until one day I received a phone call from a client that purchased a jersey from me and said the jersey is a counterfeit! I immediately contacted HR auction and told them what happened and began to ask questions. They told me they get there autographs from a lady in Florida who knows the players direct and things just started to look fishy. So I wanted to get some solid proof these were counterfeit, so I drove to [redacted] the best Autograph Authentication company in the world to get my jersey verified. I went back the next day to pick my jerseys up and I was devastated! Every jersey I purchased had come back as counterfeit! So I went to the auction house on a Sunday for their weekly preview and showed them all my paper work from JSA stating they are all fake. They pretty much told me they didn't care and would not give me any money back and told me they would go ahead and resell them for me and give me the money that way. I absolutely said no way if they are fake I don't want anybody to buy them! So the very next day while the auction was going on I called the state police to file a police report. That very night after the police left they went ahead and sold the autographed jerseys they had up that night. They sell over 50 fake autographs every week with fake COA. If you look at all the COA's they are all the same paper and sticker just different sports names. Please look into this place.Desired Settlement: My client would like to handle this outside the courts. We are asking for the requested total below. $5,000 Counterfeit jerseys purchased $2,156 Attorney & courts fees $0,800 [redacted] Authentication Fees Total of $7,956

Business

Response:

ID # [redacted]

Inboxx

7:27 PM (15 hours ago)

to me

May 22, 2013

Hello [redacted],

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your inquiry by email. I received a notice from you dated May 6, 2013. I received your second notice dated May 20, 2013 after our conversation of today's date, May 22, 2013.

I would like to start out with telling you we have been in business thirty-five (35) years and never had a problem. We are family owned and operated, we are honest, we are hard working, we are upstanding individuals in our community, and we try our very best to make both our consigning customers and our buying customers happy with our services.

Our business in an auction. At auctions there are no returns. This is not a retail market. Our policy for every auction is "you are buying the item as is, where is, you are the judge of the product and value". We state that policy on our website advertisement, in any paper advertisement we issue, on the back of each buyer's number that is issued to customers and our policy is announced by the auctioneer at every auction. This is the normal practice of auctions.

We are open to the public six (6) days per week for inspection of products. Our products come from people who wish to sell and use our Auction House to consign items.

Now I would like to address statements in the "Customer's Statement of the Problem" section.

1) Your complaintant very rarely bought any other items than sports jersey and never bought furniture.

2) We never have "tons" of autographed sports memorabilia unless we are holding a speciality auction for sports items, consigned from one or more collectors. Unless it is a speciality auction, we usually have no more than twelve (12) sports jerseys for sale. We do not have sports jerseys for sale every week.

3) The complaintant bought very few of the jerseys, as he seemed to mostly be out bid on them, the number of jerseys and dollar amount in the statement is grossly over inflated. We have never had any problems or any negative feedback from any of the other buyers who purchased sports jerseys, some of whom also buy to resell.

4) The complaintant was never told "they get there autographs from a lady in Florida who knows the players direct", what he was told (by myself) was the consigner of certain jerseys go to the sports shows and have the players autograph the jerseys, as is the information we were given from the consigner.

5) When I was approached by the complaintant he wasn't sure when he had purchased the jerseys, he stated it was between six (6) and nine (9) months prior, he had no receipts from our company, he had no certificates with the jerseys and he had no paperwork from [redacted] stating the jerseys were "fake". He tried to return four (4) jerseys and stated both to myself, my husband and the State Police that he had sold the rest of the jerseys he had purchased. It is questionable whether he even bought the jerseys in question at our auction with no proof of receipt or knowledge as to when they were purchased. Sports jerseys are not a rare item and there are other auction companies that sell them.

7) Complaintant had told me he did frequent other auction companies on a weekly basis.

8) Yes, I did offer to take the jerseys as a consignment if he was interested in re-selling them. I made an offer to contact one of the other buyers that buy sports items at our auction. He was given the offer of no charge to himself for us to resell the jerseys, none of these alternatives was acceptable to the complaintant.

9) Yes, the complaintant did contact the [redacted] State Police, who came to our business during an auction, spoke to the complaintant and spoke to myself as the owner of the business. It was determined, and the State Police told both myself and the complaintant that there was nothing illegal going on at our business, no crimal activities going on at our business and no crime committed. There was no police report written as the State Police officer told me "there was nothing to report".

10) When the [redacted] State Police finished their discussion on the jerseys, they were told by myself that the complaintant had purchased a shot gun several weeks before this date, left the premises with the merchandise and failed to pay for it. At the time I was in a pursuit of payment of this item. The State Police informed both myself and the complaintant removal of the property without payment was a crime and the complaintant was held at the business until the complaintant could find someone to make payment for him before he would be released by the State Police.

11) I had contacted the [redacted] State Police after this incident for follow-up.

I would like to address statements in "Desired Outcome/Settlement".

11) "My client would like to handle this outside the courts". We have never been contacted by any legal representation on behalf of this complaintant nor have we ever been notified of any court dates or fees. The first statement says "outside the courts" and then the ending of that sentence lists court fees, definitely a contradiction.

In closing, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to hear my side of this "complaint". Now that you have had a chance to review the above information, I am confident that we will not be given a negative strike on our business name from the Revdex.com.

If you have any questions please feel free to call me directly at [redacted].

Could you please follow-up and inform me of the outcome of this situation. Thanking you in advance.

Sincerely,

Co-Owner of H&R Auction