Another guy and myself are selling quite a few trailer axles from 3500lb. to 10,000lb. from the trailer shop he works at. The owner just wanted them gone. Called the auction and the guy came over and said they should sell, well at least a good portion of them. Anyway he allows you to put subject to on lots you want a reserve on. Because it's online you can also bid on your own items. I don't like to do this but I'm not letting them go for peanuts. Just finished 1 auction and I bid up 6 heavy steel racks to $100. Several axles with subject to had bids but didn't meet my minimum. No problem they can notify the bidder he didn't win the lot but could buy the lot for my reserve. Kind of a win win for everybody. The minimums I wanted were really reasonable from about $100 to highest was $300 for a pair of axles with brakes and suspension. Several axles were torsion axles as well worth a lot of money and some axles were new and unused. Some axles that were supposed to be "subject to" weren't listed as such and I had to manually bid on them. Apparently even though it was their mistake they won't call the 2nd highest bidder to see if they want the lot for my minimum. They said that doesn't look good for them. I went on Friday to pay for a few items I bought and they were a upset I didn't come on Thu. the day after the sale to let them know if my reserves were met. Why didn't they ask me what the reserves were when I told them which ones had a reserve?? OK, this got all straightened which ones were subject to and the minimums I'll accept. Apparently after all this and highlighting the ones that were subject to and the minimum they got it completely wrong. I looked at their current industrial sale and see most of the big ticket items clearly state subject to consignors approval in the full description. I look at the axles in the sale and none of them say subject to that should. The only axles out of all of them to have subject to were 2 10,000lb. bare axles with no hubs or anything that I would take $2 for. I don't want to have to haul all these axles away because the guy is mad at me for pointing out there huge mistake in not listing them subject to. I was just there on Friday! Maybe they can add the subject to as the auction runs another 6 days but if not how do I tell them they're incompetent without them being mad and telling me to haul the axles away? Seems it was pretty easy for the bigger items so why is it so hard for the axles? I am totally baffled! It's comical that their web site says they put 110% into everything they do. Do I not matter as a consigner with only a few thousand $$$ worth of items?? What's the best way to "politely" confront them to explain how simple it should have been when I was just there?
Sorry, Dave, but I don't think you're going to get much sympathy out of us for an auction company that basically condones a consignor shill bidding. Sorry, not sorry.
I don't like it, that's why I listed the items to be subject to. Originally he didn't seem to like it when I said I want to put subject to on some of the expensive axles. When it didn't look like there was much interest he told me I can bid on any lots I think are too low. What, that's really shady. Subject to let's everybody know in advance and he states on his web page they will put subject to on lots prior to them being listed. I've never dealt with this place before but now that I have I realize they're rather shady. Tell you what you want to hear and then just drop the ball. I don't want to have to bid on my own items or any other items that seem to keep going up in price. I'm finding this out after I've spent several days hauling all the stuff to the auction. Apparently online auctions don't have to follow the same or any rules that public in person auctions do. I'm looking for suggestions on how to deal with them not putting subject to on the lots they highlighted? If I didn't know better I'd almost think they did it on purpose to force me to bid up items to my reserve. If that's the case he can go fcku himself. I just wanted to sell some axles and not give the best ones away. I certainly won't be dealing with this place anymore.
It's my impression that "subject to approval" is usually a formality if a public entity is selling bigger items that they don't want to give away, but probably would sell as long as the result is realistic. Why they screwed up the items to have reserve on is harder to explain. If you thought online auctions didn't allow/encourage shill bidding, have you ever sold through online consignment auctions?
I had no idea but when I saw you can put subject to figured it was the best way to go and everybody knows up front. My reserves are very reasonable. I chose bargain auction prices not the same if I tried to sell them private. IE/ new 7000lb axle with brakes and drums for $200, new 3500lb axle with brakes and drums $125-$150 depending on the axle. The most expensive are 2 new 10,000lb torsion axles with hyd. brakes but no drums $225ea. The last axles are a few thousand each to buy new. I'm not prepared to let them sell for the $10 that was bid in the 1st auction. They were listed as subject to in that auction. They aren't listed in the current auction so maybe the bidder wants them for the reserve or they didn't hear back in time for listing them in the next auction? I think it was stupid to have the auction end and a new auction start 2 days later, with some of the same items, before you contact bidders on the subject to lots. Hopefully they add the subject to and don't tell me oops it's too late to change the listings. Not 1 of the lots subject 2 was listed as such. Only 1 lot says subject to and it's something somebody could basically take. It was also stupid to expect me to just drop everything and be there to see if my reserves were met. The guys wife who I mostly dealt with calls me up the next day and expected me to just know if I'll accept any of the bids of the top of my head. I said I'd have to look at all the lots and the bids. I think there were 15 subject to lots. I said I'd come the next day. I get there and guy says where were you yesterday. ***? I didn't know I was expected to be here. I figured they'd be busy processing everything from the sale. I told him I had some stuff to do and a Dr's. appt. I dealt with the guy in good faith. I can't say the same about him. I think he was just looking for things that might sell. If they screw me around I should get on the internet and let everybody know what kind of shysters they are. Hopefully they can fix it.
I think you're dealing with a bunch of incompetent business people. I'd pick up my stuff and go somewhere where they show a far better level of competent business practices.
I have always been told and live by it that a auction is a place to get rid of stuff no matter what the out come is . They are having a consignment auction here next week end i really hope i can take some stuff there to get rid of.
This is not a complete unreserved auction like Ritchie Bros. I have a strong feeling he doesn't want reserves/subject to on all the lots of decent value even if that decent value is $100. It's not a big auction but has some high dollar items like a drilling rig with a starting bid of $100,000 and a couple skid steers, etc. Everyone of these lots states very clearly *** Subject to consignors approval ***. I don't get it. If there is any interest in the axles they have to call the high bidder to let them know if their bid was accepted or not. If it wasn't they tell the bidder the price they could buy it for. This is how most auctions with reserves work including the Mecum car auctions. They try to help the seller get a sale and they make money too. It would be in their best interest to say it's a good deal because it instantly puts money in their pocket. Like I mentioned above it's win, win, win for the buyer, the seller and the auctioneer. Pretty easy way to try and make some extra cash if you ask me. It's their policy to allow reserves and reserves generally mean it's not junk someone's trying to get rid of. I have no issue with having reserves on the better axles. It's up front and the buyer knows in advance. I can pick up the axles if need be but it's winter now and including the bare axles that could sell for $5 or $10, there's about 50 axles. That's a few trailer loads out to my property an hour away. Another thought is we have a contract. I take away the 10 or so axles with a reserve and stick him with all the bare axles to try and sell no matter how long it takes. The money is in the axles with a reserve. He knew from the outset we wanted a couple thousand dollars for them. We gave him the opportunity to buy the whole works and he declined. He could have easily made at least a $1000 profit. He did say however they should sell and said some should go for 2 or $300. Those are the ones with reserves from $100 to a max. of $300 for a pair of 7000lb. axles with brakes and springs. Next highest reserves are $225. I wouldn't even net 10% of what it would cost to buy the axles new after he gets his 35%. Even before his commission I'm only looking for 10-12% of replacement. I don't think that's asking for too much. I will see tomorrow. I really hope they do the right thing and put the subject to on them. If he says it's too late, I guess I put a proxy bid on them and likely take them all away. I'm not letting them go for $10. Some bids in the 1st sale weren't far off the reserve. I thinks it's likely some of those bidders would spend a little more if they wanted the axle.
Usually bidding on your own stuff will result in being blacklisted.
It's illegal in public auctions but not in online auctions. This is not a complete unreserved auction. They allow reserves(subject to) but they didn't post subject to on the lots I discussed in detail with them. The guy encouraged me to bid on my own items in the last auction but most of the subject to were listed as such. Not all but most. This current sale none of them are listed as subject to. I am NOT happy or comfortable bidding my own items up.
You could have listed some or all of them on facebook marketplace
Why not list them here for sale?
I have some better news. Apparently the guy that listed them didn't put the subject to on but says I'm covered on those lots. Maybe when bids are entered it says subject to or reserve not met? It would have been nice to let me know so I'm not panicking that I have to take them out of the auction or bid on them. Looking at the bids, most of them will sell and met my reserves and even exceeded some by a $50-$75. Looks like will have sold $2000 worth, a few on the brink of my reserves at $725 and a few that are just too low worth about $600. We also sold the racks in the 1st auction for $600. I'm happy with this and hope some of the bids come up a little or a lot for a few. There's still 4 days for the auction to run and it's common to get last minute bids so I'm hoping a bunch come up. We initially wanted to get $2000-$2500 for the axles and we're right there but we didn't really know what all we had because they were put in a big heaping pile. I've got a bad head cold that I might have got from the lady at the auction house because she is sick today and wasn't in. This sucks but at least the auction is going good.
I fully agree. Before running to a stinking auction place (I don't like any of them). First be prepared to not get the top dollar you think you want, just like can happen at a stupid auction. And offer what you have to sell in forums like this, or on places like Craigslist, also road signs or what ever. An auction place should be the last desperate move to sell something. Pretty much everyone in a certain business has different contacts, and maybe they know some poor old retired guy that is looking for another project, try that as well. Just like what happened here about a year ago. I was going to go talk to the folks that owned some machines that were sitting for a long time at a close by storage yard, but I thought why bother they will want too much for what I was interested in. Didn't know till it was too late they had an auction and a few of what I was looking at sold very low, I would have been very happy to pay exactly what the seller got out of the deal for one of them, as I'm sure the auction place gets their percentage of the sale. Yeah can't stand auction outfits.
I was really pressed for time to get the axles moved. The shop owner was going to send them for scrap and he needed the room where they were stored on the racks. I didn't want to take 8 trips or so out to my property an hour away and unload them without forks. That would be a real pain having to wrap a strap around them to pick them up. The auction was a quick, easy and convenient way of at least getting them moved. I have no idea about selling stuff online if the buyer is out of town, same with shipping them. They are meeting my reserves now so we should get a little over $3000 for the ones that sell.
Someone here always said you get screwed in the auctions. Who was that guy?
It's looking pretty good and I'll keep the lube hidden.
Holy crap, the axles are up to almost $7300! The auctioneer screwed up. LoL We would have sold them all directly to him for $2000-$2500. We asked him to make an offer. This is good though and we'll both take home over $2500 each after the commission is taken off. There's still 3 days left on the auction so I'm almost certain a few will get some last minute bids to try and steal them from the current highest bidder. Other than having a terrible head cold I'm doing fantastic this week. I sold the welder for a quick $300 profit and will be getting another $2500+ next week. I hope I don't drop dead now. You know the song "Ironic"... He won the lottery but died the next day.
How much are they worth new? I didn't think they would be worth much.
Some are brand new, some are pairs with brakes and a lot of them are torsion axles. There's also a lot of bare axles that are selling for $10 but that's OK because they'd be hard to sell. Currently around 40 lots will sell. On the better axles with brakes, suspension or pairs, the bids run from around $125 to $475 for a pair of 6000lb. axles with springs. I have no problem not letting go of any of the axles in the 1st sale that didn't meet the reserve. It's quite obvious my reserves are a bargain for an auction. Some of the axles run from about $650 to over $1500 new. Two 10,000lb. torsion axles with hydraulic brakes are worth a few thousand each new. I'm not letting them go for $10 which I think was the bid in the 1st sale. I had a reserve of $225ea. on them but should have went higher. If the high bidder doesn't want them for $225 I'll put them in another sale in spring with a higher reserve or try to sell them private. I'm delighted this sale attracted the right buyers. Too bad the racks and all the axles weren't just all put in the 2nd auction. I think I would have got more than $100ea. for the heavy racks. This auction doesn't have a lot of items but it's clear the axles are making the most money. Unless people are waiting till the last minute to bid it's not looking like the big ticket items will reach reserve. Some of the axles are bid higher than a light tower. A couple good skid steer buckets are under $100.
I'm going to the auction house tomorrow to get a cheque. I want to be there in person to make sure their numbers match my numbers. I'm kicking myself for not talking to the guy from the trailer shop before I went to see how the most expensive axles were given away. It will be a big problem if they try to screw me out of $100's or $1000's of more $$$$. An auction house's primary responsibility is to the consignor. Winning bid is a legally binding contract. There's something I'm curious about. In my contract it says that any items not paid for will be returned to the consignor but put in another auction. I have a problem with this. Shouldn't the buyer's contract with the auction house take precedence over a buyer not paying for items he was the high bidder on? You have to provide your credit card info in order to register to bid. It's also almost impossible to bid by mistake. From what I could find the only way to get out of an auction is if it's before the auction ends or the seller agree's to it. Letting a winning bidder get out of paying and putting the loss on the consignor seems like the auction house is just being lazy because they have legal avenues they can take for non payment including the bidders credit card info. Am I wrong in my thinking? I shouldn't be at a loss because the auction house doesn't enforce their contract with the buyer and I shouldn't have to be the one getting legal advice. If I get paid at least $400 less than I should be what's the best course of action? I can get a free consultation from a lawyer, maybe up to 3 lawyers through the lawyer referral service. They give you the names of 3 lawyers that handle your type of law and provide up to a 30 minute consultation.
The time to have a problem with the wording in the contract is before you put an item in the auction, sounds like that horse already left the stable. That said, can explain exactly what happened? Did the item sell or not, if it didn't why would you get a check? I might just be slow, but I can make sense of what happened?
I apologize for this being so long but it's hard to get the whole story without all the details. I'm questioning what has precedence, a binding legal contract the buyer agrees to or a clause that let's them out of it? There is no clause letting buyers back out in the registration to bid. I had 67 lots in an auction. 6 were large storage racks for axles made out of rectangular tubing. The other 61 lots were trailer axles. About 1/3 of them were either unused or like new take offs. I put "subject to" on these lots which is basically a reserve price. Their were 2 auctions back to back. The racks I let go for $100 each in the 1st auction and there wasn't much interest in the axles. Not all of the lots were listed as subject to that should have been. Because it was an online auction I could bid on my own items. I don't like this policy but I wasn't letting the lots that were supposed to say subject to sell for literally $10. Three lots that just happened to be the most valuable out of all the lots were mistakenly sold despite them actually saying "subject to". It said in the initial description and in the more detailed description said subject to consignors approval. I didn't think I would need to worry about these 3 lots being sold for either less than my reserve or a price I agreed to. Originally no value was put on the subject to lots. I put a basic reserve price on them because the auction was upset I wasn't there the day the auction ended to let them know if I accepted the high bids on the subject to lots. Back to the 3 most valuable lots that clearly stated subject to. There were 2 unused 10,000lb. torsion axles with backing plates and hyd. brakes. They were matching but in 2 seperate lots. About $3500ea. if you had to buy them new. The other lot was 2 matching 7000lb. torsion axles with electric brakes and brake drums. Used but in very good condition. Probably at least $2600 to buy new. An idiot at the auction sold the the 2 10,000lb. axles for $10 each!!! and the pair of 7000lb. axles for $30!! I only found out when I called the auction house to see what happened with them. The owner said they would work something out. They asked the buyer to return the axles but he refused. Same buyer for all 3 lots. I had a chart and I was keeping track of the bids on all the lots. The reserves I had on these 3 lots was $750. Should have been higher but every other reserve lot sold for quite a bit over the reserve price in the 2nd auction. The 2nd auction started on a Sat. and I noticed that none of the lots that were supposed to be subject to said it. The auction was closed so I called on Mon. to ask why. I was assured I was covered and they wouldn't do that to me. I have to back track a little here. I didn't know about the 3 lots given away in the 1st auction at this point and the guy made no mention of it. He's the one who did it. It was later in the week I found out his huge screw up. I had thought maybe the 3 lots were sold for my reserve prices. I went on the following Monday to find out what the hell happened. The guy that did it wasn't owning it at all. He seemed to think because the rest of the axles did pretty good it wasn't a big deal. When trying to come to an agreement he thought he should still get commission on the axles he basically stole! I don't care how much you spent on advertising or how well the other axles did. Debi was me and asked, isn't there a sheet or something with all axles listed? The guy went away for about 20 seconds and came back with the hand written list I went through with the owners wife. All 3 of us were looking at the list. The guy asked what lot numbers and is obviously fumbling around when Debi says, are the highlighted lots the ones that are subject to? We both saw the guys head drop like he had an oh **** moment. He not only let them go for $10 and $30 but also never checked the list before loading them and letting the buyer take them. Unbelievable and no else must have been paying any attention either. We were getting nowhere. The owner came from the back and was more understanding. I think he was making the guy that screwed up have to deal with me before he stepped in. I said get the axles back but he said he wouldn't do that to his customer. He'd let me get screwed but let a customer get the axles almost for free. I finally agreed to a $550 dollar penalty but forgot to say it was in addition to the $50 they received. That's my fault if they use the $550 as the total. (A couple days after I told the guy from the trailer shop what happened and was almost sick. Right next door is another trailer shop and the owner would have paid at least $800ea. for the 10,000lb. axles. He even commented the backing plates and brakes were wirth $250 a corner) After we agreed he said the "subject to" works both ways and sometimes a buyer won't want the item(s) and can back out of the sale. What? That's the biggest load of BS I've ever heard. It's why I don't want a cheque in the mail and want to go through every single lot making sure I get paid the amount I'm owed. I also want to know the reasons if any lots weren't paid for. If any of the axles that sold for higher dollar amounts or if multiple axles weren't paid for and the auction let's it go I have a problem. A couples questions I have are, Did the guy that gave the axles away know the buyer and plan to slip them through? and Did they let winning bidders off the hook as retaliation for me calling them out on the major screw up? That's why I'm wondering what takes precedence, the fiduciary duty to the consignor or letting a winning bidder back out of what is generally considered a legally binding contract. It may be that what my contract says has no legal merit because it is superceded by a breach of contract.
I sure didn't expect it. That's why I went to what I thought was an established "reputable" auction house. Reputable: a word that doesn't apply to an auction house. I must add that I have had excellent service from a few other auction houses.
Yea that's a mess. I have to believe that an auction service must have insurance that covers mistakes like this. How you can get access to that, I have no idea. You would need to figure out how much money your out and decide what if its worth going to court over. Your best bet is to try to come to some sort of resolution with the auction company.
I thought you already settled this whole thing up with the company?
You guys just keep pulling the string bahaha
We did come to a resolution but I'm not real confident they're going to pay me all that I'm owed. They already screwed me, should they be trusted? I know that another trailer shop would have paid at least $800ea. for the 10,000lb. axles. I'm sure they could give a value on the pair of 7000lb. axles as an expert witness if it went to court. They're a 3rd party in the trailer business and wanted to buy at least the 10,000lb. axles. What I'm worried about is a bunch of axles not being paid for and I'm the one who's out despite the buyers agreement being a legal contract. An auction's primary duty is supposed to be to the consignor but if buyers can back out without any consequences that's just wrong. The auction has legal recourse for buyer's not paying. The consignor shouldn't be the one who's out of pocket if a buyer backs out of their contract with the auction. I know some may think it's not a big deal but they aren't the ones on disability trying to get by on $1100 a month. It's not very much. The axles were like a big Christmas bonus for me but I never figured I'd get screwed by the auction house.
I wouldn't hang up on the axles "value" because clearly the value is what they sold for. You need to hang up on the "subject to" part and if you have that in writing you need axles back, as in the subject to part, or you need the subject to part in money as if it sold for that much. This is really cut and dry or it has be represented differently.
I wanted the axles back but the auction said they tried and the buyer refused. When I went in person I asked again and said the auction has a legal right to get the axles back because of a clear mistake. You don't $3500 axles for $10. Some other idiot then sprouts off they aren't worth $3500 and starts to break it down, $3500 would be $2100 auction value and then he's kind of mumbling and changed the topic. I was waiting for him to keep going and see how he'd get to them being worth only $10. If I have an expert witness that wanted to bid on the axles and would have paid at least $800ea. for them should establish a good value for them.
Well I got some good news but the people at the auction house are a bunch of bumbling idiots. I talked to the guy that issues the cheques on Friday. He said the cheques are ready and asked if I wanted it mailed out or if I'd rather pick it up. I said I'll come and pick it next week. We just got hit with a cold snap and a bunch of snow. Debi was off so we drove across town to the auction house. We go in and the same guy remembered talking to me but said the cheque was mailed out yesterday. I just talked to you on Friday! I asked if all the lots were paid for and they said they were just waiting on 1. They're sure the buyer will pay, he had some business out of town during the holidays and is in the trailer business. This is good news. I asked if the penalty was included and he said it's on the cheque for the 2nd auction but it's not ready yet. Argg. The cheque for the 1st auction is only about $450. Why didn't the guy tell me this on Friday?? A wasted trip in crappy weather and even if I would have got a cheque it was a very small percentage of what's owed. Just bloody ridiculous in my opinion. Why didn't the guy tell me all this over the phone?? Yeah, bumling idiots seems appropriate!
The saga continuous unfortunately. I haven't received the 2nd cheque yet so I called the auction house. I talked to the owners wife. She said some of the cheques were sent out last week. Then she asked my name again. After some apparent humming and hawing she said oh, I'll have to get Ethan to give you a call to tell you what's going on. Not sure why she can't tell me but OK. 3 hours till they close and I don't get a call. Ethan is the moron who gave the axles away. There's been ample time for them to get paid for the last axle they said was owing. If I don't get a call tomorrow I'm going to request a meeting with them with the owner present. This is %$#@! ridiculous! If he's worried about his reputation he probably won't like my exact experience posted all over social media when people search his auction. I've heard that posting negative reviews on social media can have a lot of impact on some businesses. It's not slander if it's 100% true. It can be better than going to court and won't cost much at all. The whole thing is just so unbelievable. All I wanted to do was sell some axles at what I thought was an established and reputable auction house. Instead it's a bloody gong show! They owe me over $6200.00 so it's not trivial.
They let people take stuff without paying for it?
They are broke, rob peter to pay Paul Axles back or the cash as they were sold subject to, hold firm as they will try to low ball you. My brother has a 10% rule, what something costs a business is the same as 10% costing a regular person, so it's like if you had to pay someone $600, which is peanuts, the fact they cant just pay you off is very telling.
No, but they basically gave away 3 lots worth over $1000 for $50 that clearly stated subject to consignors approval.
I still haven't got a call. I'm sure "Ethan" is playing games with me. He didn't show much remorse for his epic screw up and figured it wasn't a big deal since the other axles sold for decent money. He even thought he should get commission on the axles after we agreed on a value of them. Not knowing a trailer shop next door to where the axles came from would have paid at least $800 each for 2 of the axles, I agreed to a $550 penalty. I went with my other half to pick up a cheque but it was sent in the mail and only for the 1st. auction. At this time Ethan said all the axles were paid for except 1. The buyer had some family business in another province over the holiday season but owned a trailer shop so payment wouldn't be a problem. Ethan didn't give an exact amount but said it was $500 something that the buyer owed. I accepted that but also had a funny feeling in the back of my head. It appears my suspicions have merit. The penalty for his screw up just happens to be $500 something! Yeah!! Perhaps going to court and suing for the full value of the axles that were given away is in order. The owner of the trailer shop that would have bought them for at least $800 has no problem being my expert witness on what the axles are worth.
You will not get more than subject to price in court.
The only reason there was even an amount was because they were upset I wasn't there the day the 1st auction ended to say if I would accept the high bid on the subject to lots. Most of the lots that should have said subject to didn't. When the subject to lots did sell in the 2nd auction all of them sold for considerably more than the amount listed. It wasn't a reserve price. It was more the absolute min. price I'd consider selling it for but would be based on how the other lots sold. If there was no interest in the other axles, I wouldn't have accepted any bids at the price listed. I'd put them in another auction or take them back. I was a little curious why it wasn't listed as a reserve but instead subject to. Reserve price would have a more definite meaning. It meets reserve or it doesn't. Sometimes a seller will lower the reserve or let something sell below it. Subject to doesn't normally have a value assigned. I also accepted less than the subject to amounts as the penalty. Just way too much BS to have to deal with.
I advised you previously of my opinion that this auction house is totally incompetent, and shouldn't be in business. My opinion of them has only got lower as your saga progresses - and it is a saga. No-one should have to get involved in a saga when it comes to selling items through an auction house. This company is heading for bankruptcy because of total management incompetence. It seems like no-one in the business is prepared to take any responsibility for decisions made in their operations, their auction software looks like it's flawed or badly run, and the simple fact you still haven't been fully paid after all this time, should be ringing an alarm like a fire bell to you.
OK, I never heard anything from Ethan. I was talking to Debi and she called to see what was going on. Ethan answered the phone. Now apparently it isn't 1 axle but 5 axles the same bidder won that amount to $500 something. So that was a lie about only 1. They have tried and tried to get payment and the bidder keeps saying he'll pay but doesn't come through. Apparently they've asked other bidders if they're interested too. The high bidder is being banned from any future auctions. The owner and his wife are away until next Wed. I'm supposed to decide if I want the axles back or want to put them in another auction. I have a problem with putting them in another auction. Not so much because I think they'd screw me again (I would sue them if they did) but because they could sell for less because of various reasons. I could put subject to on them for the same they sold for or bid them up but I don't like doing that. Maybe I could get an agreement that any losses they go after the original high bidder for the difference or they cover it but that's really doubtful. What I'm thinking is going and talking to them in person. I'd ask them why they require credit card info in order to register to bid if they can't use it for this exact reason? The bidder entered into a legal contract agreeing to pay for won items. They have a legal right to go after the buyer. Letting them off the hook and only banning them is too easy and lazy in my opinion. They could take legal action. I would suggest they send a demand letter asking for payment, possibly from their lawyer with a time limit. If they don't respond will take legal action (whether they would or not). Maybe it would be enough to intice the buyer to pay rather than go to court. Going to court is a big hassle most people don't want. The auction has a fiduciary duty to the consignor and that is their main responsibility. Instead of just asking for payment, press the issue aggressively. It makes them money too. Does this seem like a good plan?
Winning bidders who don't pay are a huge problem for all auction houses and they threaten all kind of heavy-handed actions if a winning bidder doesn't pay. But at the end of the day, I have seen very few auction houses pursue non-paying bidders - it's not worth their while. They still retain ownership of the item/s, so they just put them up for bids again.
It's seems lazy to me and not looking after the consignor. There is nothing in the bidder registration mentioning non payment. Even though it says items not paid for will be retained by the auction house and resold in another auction on the consignors agreement, I'm curious if say a big dollar item worth 20K plus, if legally the buyers contract (breach of contract) would take precedence over the sellers clause that items not paid for will be resold. Especially since everything I read says the auction's main responsibility is to the consignor? Would the auction take a buyer to court over non payment of an expensive item? I've read major auction houses have had million dollar items sell and the buyer backs out and the item later sells for substantially less. The original buyer is then sued for the difference.
The gong show continues. I'd called last week and only Ethan was there. He was busy and couldn't let me know what lots weren't paid for. He said everyone's back on Mon. I called yesterday (Tue.) and there was a some delay and they didn't get back until really late Mon. so weren't in. I called today and talked to the owners wife. I said I need the lot numbers that weren't paid for. I asked what they normally do when someone doesn't pay. She said legally we can take them to court but we're not going to pay $10,000 to go to court for $500. $10,000?, I said it costs $100 to file a small claims. We'll block them from any future sales. I suggested a demand letter because the buyer has no idea if you have a lawyer or what steps you'd take to get payment. It couldn't hurt and is better than just asking on the phone. She kind of agreed. I said it's been kind of a gong show already with the most expensive axles given away. She said she thought was resolved. (it was but it still happened and cost me some money) She said she'll have to talk to Ethan and will call me back with the lot numbers. Ethan is f#@&king useless and has never called me back even when they asked him to call me in the past! He certainly never called to tell me he gave the axles away. Three hours later and nothing. What is so damn hard about looking at the sale sheet and getting the lot numbers that weren't paid for?? Maybe it's not a coincidence the unpaid lots are around the same value as the penalty for giving the axles away?? Sure makes me think something is up. It's unbelievable how incompetent this place is. I think I need to schedule a meeting with the owner since it's his name on the door. I'm holding off making a complaint to the auctioneers association and the gov't. agency that governs online auctions. If they knew I made complaints they'd just stall me longer and make up some ridiculous excuses. It just boggles my mind! There shouldn't be all this drama just to sell some items at an auction.