Goldin Auctions: 3 Months & Still No Pay
 

I am not entirely certain why I am making this post, but I suppose my motivation is to somehow get GA to fulfill its financial obligation to me........

Several months ago I consigned an item to GA. From the time I contacted them to the time my item went on the auction block the process was very smooth and professionally handled. The service provided by my Consignment Director (Steve) was top notch. He was professional and expeditious in his communication, gave some helpful advice and offered a fair consignment fee which I was happy to accept. The follow up by the Description Editor (Ben) was also very good, and, in my opinion, my item was auctioned expertly. The auction ended on June 4, three months ago this evening.

But I have yet to receive payment.

Six weeks after the auction ended I reached out to GA about my delinquent payment. I was told by Customer Support Specialist (Reginald) that the winning bidder simply had not paid! This was surprising to me as I assumed that an auction house that routinely sells items for five/six figures would have some way to ensure that winning bidders fulfill their commitment. I mean, is it commonplace for people to win an expensive item like a PSA 10 Jordan rookie at GA and then simply balk at paying? Seems unlikely to me. (FYI, my item sold in the low four figures.)

Over the next two weeks Reginald and I exchanged a couple of messages, with the gist being that GA Collections Department was unable to obtain payment from the winning bidder. Bizarre. At that point Reginald told me that as I had been made to wait so long that GA would send my payment anyway, that their Collections Department would endeavour to get payment from the delinquent buyer, but if it failed to do so then GA would simply keep the item.

That was a month ago (a full three months since the auction ended) and I have received no payment from GA. My last communication with Reginald (who is friendly and sympathetic) was on August 25 when he told me he would reach out to the Finance Team and "get to the bottom of this".

I am not angry or upset with GA, the lack of a resolution has left me more discouraged than anything I suppose. Though I would like my money or my item returned. Any suggestions?

D@.vid C@lq.uh@un

3 months is entirely too long to wait for payment. I would be pissed.

I would just go straight to the top and ask Ken to look into it, at this point you are justified doing that. The people you've been dealing with are not taking ownership of the issue IMO.

Bobby: Three months seems a very long time to me, thus the necessity of my post. I believe their website states that payments are issued within two weeks of an auction's end, though I understand that in my case a delinquent bidder caused a delay.

Peter: I was given a customer survey type of thing to complete about a week ago. I did ask that Mr. Goldin communicate with me.

Ask him yourself. If you need his email PM me.

PM sent, Peter.

That’s rough. However, every auction house has been stiffed. It does happen. In my experience (not as a consignor, but as an underbidder and from discussions with AHs and other collectors), typically the AH will inform the consignor and offer to go to the next highest bidder, most often eating the difference between the “winning” bid and the underbidder so the consignor is made whole at the winning bid. Sometimes when the underbidder does not want the item (and I have been that guy before), the AH may go on down the line, or they may offer to put the item in the next auction (often with a larger piece of the BP to the consignor), or, as Goldin offered, pay the consignor and keep the item.

I am sure Goldin will make it right. I agree with Peter, go right to Ken. My guess is he will see this thread and reach out to you. That said, I agree that 3 months is too long and I think you are right to be annoyed at this point.

As an aside, speaking of not taking ownership of issues, I am pretty good at dealing with companies and organizations, but I have met my match in the USPS. They are perfectly defended, never seen anything like it. Anywhere you go, they send you somewhere else, and the somewhere else either sends you back from whence you came, or to yet another place.

+1 agree.

I would also be frustrated and I would go to the top. They are usually good at resolving these issues ( as Ryan stated above).
Odd because Goldin is usually really good at making things right in my opinion and from my experience

Never consigned with Goldin, but did have a similar issue with another auction house that was having monthly auctions (who isn’t these days, right?).

My item sold for about $9k initially, and the winning bidder didn’t pay, so they put it back into their next auction. I think this was around July 2020, so naturally it sold for $12k the second time around, and the new winner paid for it right away.

Of course, today is would probably go for more like $30k.

Kinda sad to be that first winner who missed out. Not sure if they just got scared, or if they never really had the cash to pay for it, and they were just screwing around by bidding on something they couldn’t really buy.

In our auctions around 98% of the lots get paid for and 2% do not. For those 2%ers (sounds like a motorcycle gang) we provide them with a myriad of options ranging from returning the item to re-selling the item or buying the item at what the lot sold for.

What sorts of excuses do you hear from nonpaying bidders?

In my opinion, not a good look for a board advertiser looking for consignments. This is surprising to me, especially since for an auction house as big as GA this is not a big amount.

that's all right about where we're at too. Funny thing is, it's usually cheap stuff that goes unpaid.

I've had issues on two different lots I have won on Goldin.

BOTH issues were taken care of promptly and to my satisfaction.

I came away from both experiences extremely impressed - and will continue bidding in their auctions.

Frankly, I look forward to the release of each auction.

It’s usually less expensive items that are around $1,000. Most of the excuses revolve around job losses or health issues…but that’s usually code for bidder’s remorse. It’s funny that most of the “job loss” and “health issue” people call up for future auctions and wonder why their bidding privileges have been disabled. We did have one bidder who did pass away and our consignor was fortunately very understanding.

I spoke with Goldin auctions and this situation is being worked on. Their accounting team should be contacting the OP....
.

Amen. The cheaper the item, the bigger the hassle. This never fails to prove true. It's certainly always easier to block people who turn a ten cent sale into a problem. Chances are, they're not going to end up putting your kids through college later on, anyhow. These sorts of sales wouldn't even pay for DeVry.

United States Post Office
 

... I think I remember several posts on Net54 from a former USPO higher-up who generously gave advice on many situations like you might have run into. If he is still active on the forum (and you haven't completely alienated him by now) , then perhaps he'll let us know the end-around when getting the run-around. See what I did there ?.............I'll let myself out.

..

LOL. Word for word this is our experience too.

Thanks Leon love the power and support of the Forum

Yeah, certainly gives me pause. I think a month is generous.

Nice move by Leon, but in my opinion it never should have come to that.

I think I know who you mean.

Thank you very much for involving yourself Leon. I appreciate it. :)

From my observations, GA has been responsive when such issues have happened in the past. I imagine they'll fix what needs to be fixed,

Reach out to Ken on IG or Twitter. He’s on IG all the time…


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An update for those who are interested:

Earlier today Steve (VP of Client Partnerships) contacted me. He informed me that the Accounting Department mailed out a cheque at the end of July. Unfortunately I have not received it.

"Reach out to Ken on IG or Twitter. He’s on IG all the time…"

I have no interest in those sort of platforms (though I do appreciate the suggestion).

And yet your multiple other attempts to contact them hadn't pried free that tidbit of information. Riiiight. But, hey at least they finally reached out after being publicly shamed and then contacted by an advertising partner. Can't beat that level of customer service.

This is what being a community is all about; helping one another. Thanks for having our back, Leon.

Totally agree, thanks for using your clout to help a forum member Leon.

I am glad no one take this post the wrong way.... "I won't deal with Goldin Auction again..."

I have consigned and bought from GA multiple times, no issues.

David
First off let me apologize on behalf of goldin co for your issues.

Please note that Leon texting me yesterday was not the prompting to get this resolved, I merely informed him that finance was already working on it .
While there is no excuse for a payment issue taking this long, there is an explanation.
Goldin has been aggressively pushing Consignors to link their bank account to their consignor account, this way when Auctions close, we can simply send an ACH directly to their bank account, which eliminates the need for paper checks, and is a much much faster method of payment . With the volume of business we do, over 100,000 transactions a year at this point, it is far more efficient to electronically process all payments and a much more efficient way for Consignors to get paid. In David’s case, he did not sign up for ACH.
The item in question closed for bidding on June 5. Admittedly in this case the buyer was very slow to pay which delayed payment, and payment by check then was slower than an ACH would have been. A check was sent July 29th to David. What David has not mentioned is he lives in Canada, and moved between the time he consigned his lot to goldin and when it was sold, therefore the address on the consignment contract and the address the check was mailed to, is different than where he is currently living. David has informed steve Lucas , his CD , that he moved August 8th, and had informed CS of this move. I am disappointed CS did not get this info to finance so payment address could have been updated, but that is for an internal discussion at goldin. Once again, I hate snail mail, and I assume to Canada from USA it is much worse, and this is why we have been aggressively pushing to process all payments electronically so Consignors get paid immediately and we do not use the us mail system.
When goldin re opens on Tuesday. The old check will be cancelled and a new check will be FedEx to his new address we now have.
Again, I am sorry for the delay and the miscommunication from CS. The lot was sold and paid for, and payment was sent, unfortunately to an old address. Irrespective, the payment will be reissued and FedEx Tuesday.

This is why Net54 is just a great resource; its' members support each other in situations like this. And I thought Ken's response was measured, thorough and solves the problem.

Great response Ken! Thank you!

It looks like someone tried to throw Goldin under the bus...... how come it wasn't even mentioned someone is based in Canada and also moved in the first place? OMG!!!

Very important facts to just leave out. Thats why I always read these types of thread with a grain of salt.

Ken handled this perfectly.

ACH v/s USPS
 

Yep, I used to go the mail processing route when drawing money from a account, took 20 Days to be processed to receive a check in the mail. Then was advised to set up a ACH which is fast and efficient , now just 3 days to hit my account!

Thank you, Ken. I appreciate your personal involvement in resolving things. While I can certainly see the merits of an ACH, unfortunately setting up a bank account link holds little appeal to me. Too old school, I guess.

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Chris, I strongly disagree that I was trying to throw Goldin Auctions under the bus. As Ken wrote, David "informed CS of this move. I am disappointed CS did not get this info to finance so payment address could have been updated."

I did inform Goldin's Customer Service more than once of my new address. They assured me the change had been passed on to the appropriate department. And Canada is not that far away, is it? Though our postal service sometimes leaves plenty to be desired :)

Anyway, thanks to Leon, Ken and others for their input and help.

Am I reading this correctly? They had the correct address all along…. Failed to communicate in house, mailed to wrong address.

Then proceed to make customer wait until Tuesday to begin the remedy?

Correct?



How about this:

We really screwed up here and I just arrived at my office to cancel/resubmit a new check that will be on the way the moment FedEx Overnight opens Monday morning or if I can’t get it going due to the Holiday it will be put in a drop box for earliest Tuesday shipment.

Wow good to know about link my account to them when I consign(if I ever do since I do not like to sell). But still good to know

And looks like Ken and his time was responsive

Agree


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That all might be difficult on a long holiday weekend when banks and the shipping services are all closed.

I think that Ken's response was appropriate.

Plus, the OP has been waiting 3 months already, what's another day? ;):D