Problem with Auction house
 

I won a lot of cards from CSauctions, a 1970 Topps lot of 565 different autographed cards. Before the auction, I reviewed the lot over the phone with an employee so that I would know what deceased/tough cards were included in the lot. When I received the lot I received 3 unsigned cards which I was told were included in the lot, Jim Hardin, Zollo Versailles and Jim McGlothlin. I called the auction house who now is refusing to take the lot back. I asked Steve Verkman to either send me the signed cards or take the lot back. He said he will look for the cards but he is not hopeful of finding them and that he definitely wont take the lot back. He said to him its $12 worth of cards based on the hammer price of $1800 and because those players were not specifically mentioned in the catalog he has no liability, despite the fact that his employee told me and others who called that the signed cards of those players were included. How should I handle this?

St,an Pietr.uska

First of all I added your name per the rules...nothing personal. Have you asked Steve to make a fair deduction in the final price for those 3 cards? I know you said, he said "$12" but maybe that was just an off the cuff quote. That being said you want to return a 565 card lot because of 3 cards that were verbally said to be in it and aren't? I have to ask, did you really want the lot?

All that said, I can't speak for Steve, but if we make a mistake in our auction (I help run) I can't imagine not offering a refund....but then too, I don't know all sides of the story.

Of course I dont want to return the lot, but I did ask steve to just simply make good on the lot and get me the three signed cards. I bumped it up an extra 3 bills just because there were about 20 guys in the lot that I really needed, including these three. His response was 3 cards divided into the lot is about $4 per card. I explained to him that was certainly not a fair assessment and that I could not get replacements for that obviously. His reasoning was that I didnt really lose anything as other bidders who didnt call had no idea that those three signed cards were available in the lot and therefore he would feel justifed giving me $12. I explained HIS EMPLOYEE WENT OVER THE LOT WITH ME and he said it may be a simple mistake and in the whole overall picture its a small percentage of the lot which in his mind was 99% accurate.

How difficult is it to find those 3 cards signed? What would be the cost to purchase then from say Ebay, assuming they are available?

Approximately $200 to $250 for the 3 cards. I mentioned this to Steve and his response was "you know ebays overpriced, you can probably find them for $25 bucks a card." I said if thats the case, I would appreciate you finding them for me and sending them if you can get them that cheap.

If you can show him a recent record of sales of these signed cards, the pricing should stand on its own. I think that a price discount that comes close to what it would cost you to replace each card is the least an AH can do. After all an employee of the AH provided info that misled a bidder. AH, IMO Should stand up and eat the $250 to make this right with a buyer. Would get far more goodwill than that if he had done it in the first place (with the knowledge that his employee goofed) and you had thanked him for it here, publicly.

Heck, I have refunded more than that to buyers on Ebay when they identify a description error or shipping mistake I have occasionally made and I am certainly no AH.

I am in agreement with Chris, right above. However, I would caution that "a" sale doesn't always give an accurate indication of market value. That being said, hopefully Steve will make it right with you.

Honestly, if it were my auction house, under these circumstances (I won 't make a blanket statement on this kind of situation :)) I would ask you what you think is fair to both of us and that would be my decision.

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This just happened to a client of mine in a commercial transaction where a bank verified [in writing] terms of a loan payoff, my client acted in reliance to refinance another property for the money needed to pay off, and the bank now says "whoops", you owe us another $20,000; the client is suing. You are absolutely in the right here: you did exactly what you were supposed to do, i.e., ask the AH for specific information on the lot, and you bid based on what you were told. There is no debate that you were entitled to the correct items. The effort to lowball you for the missing items is appalling and you have every right to be pissed.