The first section of April 2009’s Maine Antique Digest presented at least 3 separate articles relating to intentional seller deceptions: 2 auctioneers and one dealer/appraiser. Here in Phoenix an additional auctioneer chose not to pay his consignors. He is currently in jail awaiting trial.
These days you can Google someone to see if they have a criminal record.
You can double check descriptions and values by having the item appraised by an Accredited Senior Appraiser of that type of property found at the American Society of Appraisers’ website www.appraisers.org or call I 1800 ASA VALU. Have it appraised immediately though. You are looking for substantiation of the value of the item as close to the date of purchase as possible.
Once you can trust individuals with respect to their correct representation of what you are buying, coupled with appropriate pricing, you can enjoy the process of falling in love with the object.
Corinne Cain of www.SavvyCollector.com
PS One of the crooked auctioneers died in the back of the police squad car that apprehended him. We can’t plan on a greater power eliminating the non-trustworthy dealers in time.
PPS One auctioneer company sold reproductive prints as original prints, collecting amounts of money to correspond with original prints. According to the article, the victims are in the process of receiving refunds following litigation.
