Online bidders...be ware.

Each year there's more and more auction houses popping up, all competing for your money. For the most part there are a lot of honest people that can be trusted, but if you’re a first time bidder…look out. Liveauctioneers and proxibid have hundreds of people auctioning items on their sites. I've been very fortunate lately with the buys I've made. As a rule, don't expect to make a profit buying online and then trying to sell later. With some buyers premiums in the 20% area, taxes, unreal shipping charges and insurance, a $100.00 bottle can end up costing you close to $200.00. But as a hobby you can find some really nice stuff out there. After years of bidding with a few auction houses I just recently ran into a problem with Jeffery S. Evans and assoc. on liveauctioneers and thought I should mention this. Of the eight lots I won, one was given to someone else, and three others were very shabby to say the least. I contacted them several times by email and by phone to complain about cracked and scratched items and was asked to send them pics, which I did. Jeff stated that he’s been swamped with thousands of items to inspect and may have overlooked a few. He’s been in the business for quite some time and probably like a lot of other businesses, has had to downsize in order to make a buck, or probably many, many bucks. He agreed to refund me if I returned the items that were damaged, except I would be out the $15 an hour for labor that they charge for packaging. So now I’m ecpected to repackage and fill out forms, take the boxes to the post office, when all he had to do was hire one of the thousands of people out of work in his area and have them help him inspect the items properly. I purchased a group of books and one was so water damaged that it had formed mold and mildew all over it, but you couldn’t see it in the picture, sandwiched between the other books. I have all the emails admitting to the oversights. All I heard was “we’re only human, we’re allowed to make mistakesâ€. Sorta reminded me of BP and their oil problem. Haste makes waste….plain and simple. I’ve mentioned before, Jeff over at American Bottle Auction is as honest as they come. You can buy there with confidence. There are others I’ve been very pleased with, but every once in a while someone pops up and doesn’t run things like they probably should and can create a waste of time. Just be careful when bidding with online auctions, especially with Jeffery S. Evans and associates. For the records, I’ve been a “top rated†power seller on ebay since 03 and have never, ever tried to sell and item that was damaged or do anything underhanded as my perfect feedback shows. It’s all about the Golden Rule. Good luck and take care all.[/i]

For what it is worth I have had numerous business dealings with Jeff and Beverley and they have all been positive and pleasant.

Just a follow up to my previous post. I in no way am implying that this person is a scammer. I had mentioned to the administrator that it would be a good idea to create a category for online auctions. Maybe my first post should be moved to a different category. The reason why there were multiple mistakes like cracks and scratches on glass that was advertised as mint or undamaged was because of a shortage of staff. Jeffery himself told me that he doesn't have the time to fully inspect each of the hundreds if not thousands of items listed in his auctions. As of January 1st, 2009 he and his wife/co-owner withdrew their auction division from Green Valley Auctions and launched their new company, Jeffery S. Evans & Associates, Inc. I found it a little hard to believe, as he stated, that I was the only person that mentioned there was a problem with any of the lots won in his last auction. Two of the eight items I won, which were listed as (undamaged), had noticeable cracks, scratches and one book should have never even been put up for auction due to the amount of mold and mildew on it, which I have pictures of. As mentioned, I ended up keeping the items rather than repackage and send them back. The moldy book was tossed. I reported a different auction house in Canada to the BBB and posted a message at a different forum about them. But believe me when I say, not every single dealer, regardless if it's antiques, used cars or whatever, is on the level. Just as with ebay, you can find sellers with feedback in the 70's or 80's with tons of negative feedback and people still buy from them expecting some sort of deal. There are online auction houses that I still visit and feel comfortable with, and will probably continue to do business with, but it won't be with him. Nothing personal, he just needs to hire more staff, which I mentioned to him. If anyone here runs into a problem with a seller, like the incident with Glassworks Auctions, please post it and save someone from a headache. Take care all.

Congrats.

Thanks for the heads up.[]

I in no way am implying that this person is a scammer.

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I would ask the admin to move the post. As it is , it does imply the auction company is a scammer or fraud and I dont beleive you meant to do that.
You can post stuff like this in General Chat about bottles.

I moved this post to general chat about bottles.

Hey glassyeyed,

Why did you choose to dredge up this old post as your introduction to this place?

RE: readers of this post beware...its old

thanks Woody, I didnt realize it was that old.
very odd indeed.

RE: readers of this post beware...its old

Many members here New and Old don't realize there are dates to the posts, I've seen 7 year old posts replied to recently.....Jim