sotheby's/scp auction

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Posted By: mike

i have a friend who recently consigned a 1913 polo grounds honus wagner (psa 8)to their latest auction. the final bid did not reach his reserve price, but sotheby's sold it anyway. does he have any legal recourse?

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Posted By: Marc S.

if there is a formal contract with the reserve price spelled out and agreed upon by Sotheby's -- it would seem like there is potential recourse. Of course, I would further imagine that the contract might have specified process for dealing with disputes.

What was the reserve price? There was a PSA 8 on Ebay about two months back that only hit ~$500. I can't imagine that we're talking about a huge amount in dispute here...?

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Posted By: Red

Your friend should still be paid based on the reserve price he set. The SMR is $700. Say your friend had a reserve of $650 and had a zero % seller's premium deal with them. The card hammered for $627. It was only $23 away from hitting the reserve. What an auction house can do is go ahead and sell the card for the $627 and pay the consignor the $23 out of their pocket. They tack on $125 of 20% buyer's premium onto the $627 and collect $752 from the buyer. The consignor gets the $650 reserve he set and the house scrapes by making only $102. If they didn't go ahead and let it go at $627 they stood to make nothing at all depending on what their deal was with the consignor.