- This topic has 9 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
I know many of you source for inventory online. I was wondering if anyone here has bought on the LiveAuctioneers.com site?
I tried to purchase something for myself (not to resell) this week through one of their auctions and encountered a shill bidder situation. I was willing to pay full retail but was “outbid” on an item with no reserve mentioned. The item ended up not selling and was relisted the next day with a BIN purchase price well over retail.
I am pretty annoyed because as a seller on ebay i have always honored final bids even when they are ridiculously low!
The item I want to purchase shows some recent lower sold prices on that LiveAuctioneers.com and on Ebay sellers have inflated prices and the item just sits.
My husband told me the site is a scam and to stay away. Was this a one time bad transaction or is it a dishonest site?
What do you think? thanks! Liz
-
I have not bought anything on that site but I’m familiar with it because an auction house that was used for a family estate sale is on the site. It is a legitimate site, but it’s only a platform, like eBay. The auctions on liveauctioneers are all independent live auction houses, whose business practices have historically ranged from crooked to shady thoughout the country. Most states regulate auctioneers for improper practices but enforcement is spotty. Shill bidding may or may not be illegal in the state where your auction was located. In some states where it is illegal if undisclosed, it is legal if the auction house discloses it somewhere that they reserve the right to shill bid; typically in the fine print of its terms and conditions.
If you wanted to pursue this, you could file a complaint with liveauctioneers, the Better Business Bureau (liveauctioneers is BBB accredited), the auction state’s Attorney General’s office, and the auction state’s department of profession and occupational regulation if auctioneers are regulated in that state.
-
Agree with Temudgin. It’s just an independent platform. If the website does not have technical solutions to spot and punish shill bidders, its basically the wild west.
eBay has an entire enforcement division to keep its auctions clean and fair, but I doubt these smaller sites have that.
Looks like Liveauctioneers is just a platform with individual sellers who list their items. So I assume your issue is with that one seller.
For instance, this bracelet is being sold by “Jasper 52”.
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/80832457_chic-retro-14k-yellow-gold-and-aqua-bracelet-circa-1940s
I bet there’s a way to flag individual sellers you think are shady.
-
-
Thank you so much for all of the info! Like I said, I was more than willing to pay full retail on this item. The seller was Jasper 52!
-
-
Just checked their list of UK auction houses signed up to them. Interesting. That’s interesting as in “Oh, so you’ve just come back from holiday in Wuhan?” interesting.
-
You know it’s all your fault Antique Frog, right? Although the Greeks invented auctions (to sell women off for marriage) you Brits refined it to the shyster art form it is today for selling people’s old stuff. If you hadn’t done so, we’d be going through everyone’s junk put out on the curb (or kerb, for where you drive on the wrong side of the road) instead of having to always check whether we still have our shorts after leaving an auction house.
-
-
-
“An auction of rare and desirable goods, sourced from the most prestigious curbs, kerbs and pavements of His Majesty King George’s possessions in the Americas. In addition a most marvellous lottery, the prizes being capacious shorts in tweed and tartan, recently removed from certain rebellious colonists.”
-
I get a lot of stuff to resell on that sight. Usually from the same couple auction houses. There are glitches and I have thought I have won stuff but then for whatever reason it turned out that I did not. It’s always been a problem with the auction house tho and not the site.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.