National Book Auctions

This was a very difficult complaint to receive.  We are operating well within the terms of the contract that was signed by Mr. [redacted] and our services have generated a sizable, unexpected return for this client.  This consignment is still in process and settlement has not yet come...

due.  Mr. [redacted] did ask for an early, advance payment to be made against his future proceeds and though not an objectionable request, we have been short-staffed on the admin side over the past few months and keeping up with our core activities has taken up the available staff time.  Special requests for unscheduled accommodations have been difficult to handle during this time.  We are in the midst of a major expansion and staff build-up as a result of that growth.  Some shuffling in the planned staffing of the back office resulted in a bit of a gap in our ability to deliver customer service beyond a basic level during recent weeks as we put all energies into maintaining our core services, the marketing of book collections.  When we agreed to work with these books from Mr. [redacted], he was able to show us only a small percentage of the collection, the balance being boxed and sealed from a family estate, with the contents unknown to Mr. [redacted].  The collection had already been declined by another auction gallery which conducts uncataloged auctions without including online bidding.  In an effort to provide good service, we gambled on the collection and accepted it for our regular cataloged auctions with global online bidding included.  If we had not accepted this collection, it seemed that it would be donated or otherwise discarded.  The valuation of over $12,000 is a result of our work, not an appraisal that was conducted independently nor prior to our taking receipt of the collection. What we do is laborious and our service generates excellent sales results from the worldwide collecting community.  Our gallery is unique in the country and it takes time for us to complete our work in an effective manner.  Collections of this size routinely take several auctions and a few months to complete.  We have every intention of fulfilling the terms of our contract with Mr. [redacted] and have diligently done so in all our work for him thus far.

This client brought in low-value items and in an effort to be helpful we agreed to take some of them in for our auction and see what we could do for this person.  She did not pay us for any appraisals, none were provided and certainly no guarantees of price were offered in any way shape or form.  This client consigned the material to be sold absolute, to the highest bid offered.  The material was sold in one of our cataloged auctions, with global online bidding included.  Any attempt to dispute the price that was paid by the global bidding community is fanciful.  The auction that included this client’s items also contained many items that sold for thousands of dollars; there was no absence of rigorous and attentive bidding by the online bidding community, the auction gallery bidders, absentee bidders and phone bidders.  The merchandise in question simply was not sufficiently interesting or rare to garner significant prices.  In addition, the accordion was broken and other items had important flaws and/or damage.  All our catalog lots include estimates as that is a required convention of the auction marketplace but they are certainly not to be viewed as guarantees of price. Sadly, our efforts to be helpful to this client were not appreciated.  We’re reviewing this incident and considering new intake thresholds as a result to avoid this sort of response in the future.

I have reviewed the response made by the business...

in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.   I have been assured that I will be paid but have not yet received or cashed the check. I will accept the response from the auction house when I do indeed receive the money.  Regards,  [redacted]

Regrettably, this individual has now turned this into a civil matter that will be handled by our attorneys.  All our statements were truthful and are documented and/or supported by testimony.  For example, the following email exchange:11/16/16 NBA to client: "We have not come upon the Fender Stratocaster among the guitars.  It was my understanding that it would be included in the consignment that we discussed, please advise."   11/17/16 client response to NBA:  "Some things got left behind because of space and time."  As this has now escalated to a serious case of defamation, we are unable to comment further in this forum, on advice of counsel.  We look forward to closing this matter and will continue for a set time period, awaiting a response from the client as to his intentions concerning the property we have been storing.

We are in receipt of your correspondence dated February 19, 2016.  In accordance with the requirements listed in that letter and our interest in resolving this matter, we are releasing your settlement proceeds on March 7, 2016. Our policies do not govern in this case as there is a federal statute of limitations on business transactions, prior to the expiration of which either party can seek to unwind a transaction.  We currently feel that the likelihood of there being any such action taken in the future on the part of the buyer concerning these items, to be small, though not impossible.  Accordingly, we are following the odds and advancing these transactions to a completed status. As has been noted, this material was presented to us by an agent.  Such relationships are common in our trade and it is our practice to limit our interactions to being with the agent, unless requested otherwise.  It is usually the case that the client is using an agent for the express purpose of relieving themselves of the tasks relating to the transaction and prefers to not be contacted directly.  We responded promptly to all inquiries put forth by the agent and admittedly, we might have been more proactive in updating the agent but to the best of our knowledge, we did address all submitted inquiries excepting the letter of January 12th which was delayed in reaching us.  As we have explained in earlier writings, we are brokers to transactions.  Accordingly, we are not able to definitively state a time frame within which transactions will complete as we cannot control the actions of the parties to each transaction.  We do not state that sales will be complete within a set time frame, as it would be impossible for us to do so.  Our staff do routinely inform consigning clients what time frames are typical, but such information is always presented in that context of statistical likelihood, not certainty.Until this most recent writing of February 19th, we were unaware that any authentication for these items had been conducted by the client or the agent.  This information would have been very helpful to our process if it had been provided at the time of consignment.  Additionally, it obviously would have been of high value if it had been offered when we made the agent aware that authentication issues were delaying completion of the consignment.  These tiles were delivered to us as part of a large pile, the vast majority of which we were compelled to reject due to the items being very low in value.  It is bewildering to us why the agent did not provide the existing provenance at the time of delivery of the items nor call attention to their value being much higher than all the other items in the pile. We are pleased that we were able to generate an excellent return on these items and wish that communication had been more effective, including our own.  We will certainly continue to improve our customer service elements and look forward to delivering an ever-better level of communication for our clients. Regards, National Book Auctions.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. If you check your files you will see others have gone through the same thing with this arrogant, patently dishonest person. There are so many lies in his response! He hasn't accepted a message or phone call from me in two months. I did not send the guitar because of a doubt about its authenticity and never, ever said it was because of time or room. Nothing was ever misrepresented as I sent photos which he saw and agreed to, and the remainder was handled by his employee and as we looked at each item I asked if this should go or will you take this! After getting all of this material to his facility he says he will not offer it after all and I need to use my expense to remove it. Then why was it taken?? The decision to take the material was tantamount to a contract. If he feels he needs to change the terms than he needs to get the material back to me!  Furthermore, he STILL hasn't paid me one cent!! And he needs to do this now!!! And he needs to include full payment including all interest collected!!.   Regards,  [redacted]

We do guarantee our descriptions to be free from error, but it is not possible for us to identify all flaws in all the books we handle.  More valuable items receive more intense scrutiny than lower value items.  Our refund policy is stated in our auction terms, as follows:“We offer a full...

refund guarantee that our descriptions are free of false information.  Where we have identified particular faults or damage to items it must be understood that reference to such faults does not imply the absence of others, nor does the lack of such a reference imply that an item is free of faults. Prospective purchasers must satisfy themselves as to the suitability of lots before buying.  To qualify for a refund, such false information must be clearly and indisputably incorrect, using a reasonable person standard.  Subjective differences of opinion do not constitute false information.  We cannot and do not claim that our descriptions are complete, as such a standard is a matter of subjective definition.  Any details or criteria beyond what we have provided are the responsibility of the buyer to estimate or establish.  Our staff are eager to answer any questions prior to auction and we strongly encourage all bidders to preview items in person before bidding.  All items are sold as-is, where-is with no warranties or guarantees of any kind, express or implied. All items are available for examination at our gallery, prior to auction. Your bidding will signify that you have examined the items as fully as you desire, or that you have chosen not to examine them.”Mrs. [redacted] accepted this term when she registered to bid online at our auction.  We have also covered this same issue with Mrs. [redacted] on a previous occasion, about a different item.  We have done our best to clearly convey our refund policy to Mrs. [redacted].  The simple reality is, we cannot sell lower value material and fully collate those items.  Our only alternative is not to sell this material at all as it does not justify the labor cost to collate.  There is no perfect substitute for attending the auction and personally inspecting items of interest, which Mrs. [redacted] has done on numerous occasions.  Bidding remotely online or through other absentee methods requires some assumption of risk on the part of buyers who wish to use those methods.We are the only book and ephemera book auction gallery in the country that catalogs lower value material, including online bidding, along with higher value items.  This is a very valuable service for consigners and makes available to international bidders, material that would otherwise not be available.  This breadth of service does carry fiscal realities in the form of how much labor we can commit to that lower value material.  We are proud of the service we offer and have a long list of satisfied consigners and bidders.  We look forward to including Mrs. [redacted] in that group, now that we've explained the unavoidable realities of our business model and the marketplace.

This auction house sold items for me back in September 2017 and still has not paid me for the items sold,

This has been very frustrating for us and this complaint is at best, audacious.  This client contracted with us to sell a collection of personal property.  The material was grossly mis-described by the client and the central item to the group was a guitar that the client described as...

worthy of a top estimate of $12,000.00.  The guitar was not provided when we picked up the collection, after traveling several hours in each direction and offering a substantial discount on our standard pick-up charge.  When asked why the guitar was not included, the client placed the blame on a lack of room in the vehicle and a shortage of time, both of which are patently untrue.  Further, upon receipt of the property, much of it was not as described and/or in seriously damaged condition.  However, we proceeded with our work despite these deceptions.  After launching an auction, the client demanded that we withdraw a print he owned, from the sale because he had since arranged a private sale of the item.  This is not a practice that the auction industry can embrace without risking its viability.  Once an item is consigned, a serious commitment has been made.  We were troubled by this request but were further astounded when after making the client aware that we are legally entitled to collect our foregone earnings for a withdrawn item, he threatened to pull all his material from our auctions if we enforced this right.  At that point, we had reached the end of the material that was saleable from his consignment and we remain unwilling to do any further business for this client.  His behavior has been outrageous in this and other ways.  Many months have now passed since we first began notifying this client that his unsaleable material needs to be removed from our warehouse.  It is too low in value to qualify for our auctions and we are not prepared to engage in any further business dealings with this individual.  We have thus far, provided free storage for these items and have had many, many conversations with him about our not conducting any further sales for him and the need for him to remove his property.  There has been no lack of communication from our end.  Such a claim is utterly unfounded and in character with the balance of our dealings with this person.  We are now sending official notice with a deadline for removal of the property.  Upon completion of these arrangements, we will close the client’s account.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.  In their response they made no offer.  All they did was claim that items I brought to them had no value.  This is an out right lie as I know that the books they sold in the first auction (October 22, 2016, lot #'s [redacted] and 1137) went for $325 and for $50.  My daughter was with me when I brought down the other items for the second auction (November 27,2016, lot#'s [redacted],[redacted],[redacted],[redacted],[redacted],[redacted]) and the employee who dealt with us was grabbing items out of the back of the vehicle, telling us how much he could get for the items and how valuable the items were.  Regardless of their views on the value of my items, they have never given me any payment for the items that were sold.  I have received nothing in compensation.  So right at this point all that is being offered is a slap in the face as they laugh their way to the bank as not only did the have my things they sold them an kept the money.  Regards,   [redacted]

Thank you, that is helpful.  We wrote a response to this complaint but apparently it did not post.  Here is a replacement follow-up response:  This client was paid in a timely fashion and in accordance with the terms of our contract.  We did not include an offer to pay her more than the fair market value of her items, as determined by the global online bidding during our auction, nor will we be able to entertain such a request.  This auction was well promoted with many high-value items also sold on the same day; there was no lack of bidder attention.  In addition to bidding in our gallery, our catalogs are simulcast over eBay, Invaluable and LiveAuctioneers.  We regret that we do not seem to be able to convince this client that her items were well promoted, and that the service we provide is exceptional.  We can empathize with the client wishing the items had been more valuable, but it is difficult to find that we are being blamed for that clearly established fact.

Took verbal clarification from consumer: he received his check and deposited it- it has not cleared yet.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
The response does not address the issue of the complaint, which was not about the authenticity of the signature, but rather the long delay in receiving payment. The book was sold on August 26, 2017, and I have still not received payment -- nearly 3 months later! My repeated emails and phone calls were never answered during that time.
Regards,
[redacted]

Admittedly, there were some lulls in our responding to emails from this client and we did openly acknowledge that to him.  His consignment was sizable and varied and we spent considerable time sorting it and selling it over several auctions.  As in all our work, we earned him a terrific...

return.  We were able to provide global bidding not only for his better items but also for material that falls well below the minimum value threshold for the other book galleries in the country and we completed this consignment well within the terms of our contract.  Our gaps in customer service merited criticism but we believe this client ended up pleased with the results of our labor, in spite of some missteps with correspondence along the way.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.  I accept with the proviso that what is offered is actually delivered. The letter of March 4 says "we are releasing your settlement proceeds on March 7, 2016."  To date, (March 11) I have not received payment and accounting of the sales of my property.
Regards,
[redacted]