Earlier this year I took a long hard look at my collection. There was one section that is no longer of interest to me. Tjhese coins were mostly acquired during my novice years and was focused on New Zealand coins. When I had a hard look at some of the coins I could see how my naive exuberance had seen me purchase not so good coins( I once thought they were great investments) So I decided to sell them all. {Now not all the coins were bad buys some were spectacular rarities}
I live in Europe and Local Auction houses would not serve me well. Spink in the UK might be an option but the issues of Brexit worried me enough to steer clear of UK based companies.
Due to a treaty between New Zealand and Australia that sees goods transferred Duty free, often choose to use a Sydney based Auction House. the aim being to use a larger Auction house that served both New Zealand and Australia. I emailed that firm made the arrangements and followed their shipping instructions. Those shipping instructions included my providing a list of what was being sent. I was not asked to provide lot preferences.
In my communications(Thankfully) I stated that some of coins would be best sold as individual lots while others would be combined in larger lots. The response came back confirming the principle of the firm would assemble the lots and informed me of those lots, Late last week the Auction catalog went live online. I had not received any advanced warning of this. I still have not received a paper copy of the catalog, They sent the paper catalog 8 days ago( my bet is economy post) They had not consulted with me as expected and from what lots I could identify I became quite angry( and am still angry).
tThe Auction house total estimate of my lots ( they informed me only after I expressed my "disappointment") A$14000.00( Just over US$10,000) This was at the very bottom of the range I had estimated myself.
How my anger developed was as follows:
The first of my lots I identified as mine was weird. Listed under New Zealand it was an accumulation of NZ coins combined with two 2018 25 Euro Silver/Nobium coins. The lot estimate was A$250.00. To understand this see this
ebay https://www.ebay.at/itm/Osterreich-...c8:rk:4:pf:0 listing. At the time of posting the bids were up to €67 equivalent to Au$105.00.
Now I know some old hands would be thinking "what did you expect?/ Whats the issue?. Certainly the estimate might just be due to unfamiliarity with the Austrian NCLT and for Aussi is perhaps realistic. The only thing I could say and still say is that the lot formation in that case just "felt off". Those 2 Austrian coins just shouldn't be with the NZ coins in an Australasian Auction house. What I expected was that the two 25 Euro coins would be sold listed under world coins either singly or together. I believe the lot in that case is what I would call a dealers-lot; meaning a lot of coins that most collectors would skip over but would prove attractive to dealers.
Concerned I immediately hunted for the ( I assumed it would be plural but it was a single lot) lots containing some very rare and usually well sort after commemorative medals` from 1865. One a silver example is a R6 medal( between 4 and 10 known examples) and the other a bronze example of the same medal an R5 rated medal( between 11 and 25 known examples) When I saw the single listing I strongly suspected that all my collection collection was being targeted to dealers.
The Silver example had rim damage. When I purchased it (the same Auction house that has it now, It was described as( from their Archives) "medal in silver (64.5mm) (M.1865/1). Rim damage, otherwise good very fine and rare". Here is the current description of the combined lot: The silver badly edge damaged, two edge bumps on the bronze, otherwise very fine or better and rare. (2)
Note the subtle change in the description of the Silver coin( they knew it was sold to me by them). I well know that collectors who might want to compete for the silver will be worried by the word "badly". Online bidders( most of the NZ collectors who would want this item would not fly to Sydney to examine it) would find the combination of the two medals in a single lot bidding hurdle. The impression I have formed is the lot has been created to be attractive to the dealers who have the Tax deductible resources that enable them to fly to Sydney from New Zealand. Yes the change is description is subtle and at this stage you could rightly say I am overreacting please read on=====>
At this point in the process I felt angry and sick. I actually didn't want to look for the rest of my coins in the online catalog and so I sent off a polite but directly worded email expressing my astonishment at what I had seen. I also requested a complete break down of how they were selling my consignment. The reply came back suitably professional but targeted at the wrong sort of collector( meaning it would have settled a naive seller). The reply was "we thought you wanted to combine the medals that way". That reply combined with the lot breakdown supplied as I had requested infuriated me.
As soon as I saw the lot breakdown it was obvious they had made the lots directly from the shipping list. I had never made any indication how the lots were to be compiled. ( reminder what I had stated clearly was that some coins would be best sold on their own and other coins would be combined, they had assured me this would be the case. I had further been told I would get pre catalog communication outlining how the lots were made up( which never happened)
Now to repeat something more explicitly; much of the collection is of interest to NZ based collectors. Those collectors won't fly to Sydney to view the lots, they will bid on line. I had sent many of the coins in two 2X2 coin boxes ( all the coins were in Safflips). Each box is now a single listing and the description for each is only a cursory summary of the contents with no photographs. Only people who visit the Auction house and inspect those lots will actually know the grade and rarity of the contents of those boxes. The estimates provided, definitely for one of the boxes, match the value of 1 to 3 coins within that box. yes the others may be of lower value but those two boxes are bargains!!
The coins that are very high value and well sought after have been listed as single lots. Even then no work has been taken to write selling descriptions. The impression I have is that the majority of the coins I consigned have been bundled up for dealers. I can probably name the NZ dealers who will Fly to Sydney to preview the sale its less than 8 people in total. effectively All I have gained from sending the coins to Sydney is a courier bill( already paid). I have ended up having the coins listed exactly they they would have been in Vienna Austria where I live.
I made my disappointment and anger very clear. I received a short response back that went someway( but not enough) to rectify the situation. They have offered to waive the sellers commission (15%) The BP is higher.
The problem the auctioneer has created for himself and me is that he has to defend his decisions after the fact. It may well be the case that had he informed me in advance of the catalog Description that after some challenging on my part I would have largely accepted what has been done. Simply put I now do not trust that my interests are being well served by this auction house.
A quick relevant digression: almost 20 years ago when I was going through a nasty relationship breakup I needed to sell some items to keep my head above water. The items were three matching pieces of Loetz art glass from the 1920s. I parted with those reluctantly and have always regretted not holding out for a better price. I may have got a fair price at that time however, regret and doubt has nagged at me ever since.
With regards to the consignment that is in Sydney I don't need the money now. The coins have sat in a Safety deposit box for years so a delay of several months would be irritating but not unpalatable. Even though I have lost interest in those coins I gained a great deal of pleasure from acquiring and owning them. I had expected the sale would be an interesting and possibly rewarding end to my ownership. Instead before the auction starts I am regretting what has occurred.
I know almost all the mistakes I have made this time. I certainly will never leave things to trust again. On purely monetary terms It
might be best to accept the waived sellers commission offer. The problem is I know that I will always feel sour and regretful about this sale. So I have decided to withdraw all of my consignment from the current Auction( The Auction house doesn't know this yet). Their next Auction is in March or April 2019. Some may think I am going too far and should leave the other premium lots in the current Auction, the problem with that is two fold. Firstly I loose negotiating power. With the premium lots still in play I have no real leverage to get an effective behavior change that I can trust. the 2nd issue is related. The leading Auction house in New Zealand has their next main auction in May 2019. If I can not gain confidence with the current Auction house. I can simply send the coins from Australia to the other Auction house in New Zealand, which knowing part of the background of the situation is probably going to work harder to keep me happy. Clearly I need the premium coins to make the other Auction house interested.
Edit
Please take note of this: I know some people will be able to identify the Auction house concerned and even the some of the lots I have mentioned. Please do not name the auction house in open forum or link to the lots. I posted this to shared a valuable lesson. What occurred could have occurred with any Auction house. We often post in this forum about how to be wary as buyers this post is from the sellers perspective.
Posted 11/03/2018 10:54 pm
