Giving Consignments to Auction Houses That Send Stuff Back
 

The question is...

Are you less likely, or not, to give an Auction House Consignments who have returned stuff to you that they didn't want to auction?

Less likely seems like a logical answer here. Or yes.

Not that I definitely wouldn’t consign with them again. But I would factor it in to my future consignment decisions, and directionally it wouldn’t be a positive factor for that AH and my future consignment decisions.

Don't you usually have contact with AH and tell them what you re considering consigning before just mailing off?

Maybe send it back because it didn't sell?

I went with depends on situation. If I sent them stuff they agreed to take that was accurately described and they returned it I would never use them again. Now if I sent along some extra stuff or gave a less than accurate description I would take it back because it was my fault and hope they wanted to deal with me again.

I have very little actual AH experience. I have bought and sold with Scott at Collector Connection and I can't recommend him enough. As a first timer he walked me through everything when I auctioned a 55 Bowman set, some T210s, and a few other things.

I voted "Depends on the situation" because if I have sent something that I feel fits into a particular auction house format based upon the type and condition of items that have previously been included in their other auctions, and my item gets rejected, I do feel like I have been snubbed.

Fortunately it has only happened once to me, because I do try my best to gauge what an auction house is looking for before submitting, because I don't want to feel like I am junking up their auction with some of my compost material.


Brian

The question should have been items that were sent, never tried to auction, and just sent back.

I am not sure anyone would have a big problem with getting something back that didn't sell. (of course there could be an extraordinary circumstance)

I'll jump in here (I've sent stuff back to Leon, actually).

There are a couple of reasons why we send stuff back, and these are probably typical of most auction houses. It's usually not a case of "meh, I don't feel like selling this."

• We didn't know it was coming and it doesn't fit our auction for some reason. We like to sell things, we don't like to return things, nobody makes any money when we send it back to the consignor but if it's not right for the auction, it's not right for the auction. I know this can feel almost insulting, but it shouldn't. It helps all the other items you consign if they aren't surrounded by things that don't fit.

• When we receive a thing, it's in much worse condition than we expected. This happens a lot. I just returned a World Series program - the consignor sent a scan that looked very nice, but when we received it, about half the pages had been torn out.

• I can tell the consignor has expectations that aren't realistic for the piece. I recently returned a piece once I realized the consignor thought it was much more valuable than it is - I don't want to sell something when I know the consignor is going to be disappointed.

• It's rejected as inauthentic, or we can't get it into a holder. I'm about to return an item to someone who was pretty proud of it, but unfortunately it's a modern re-strike of a vintage photo and has very little value. I can't sell that.

• To us, it just doesn't make sense to have multiple examples of a thing in the same auction. We'll do it on items that are very common, or when the items are dramatically different in grade, but if I think something that comes in is going to split the bidders on something else that's in the auction, I don't think it helps the consignor to sell a thing just because we have it. In this kind of case, we usually ask the consignor if we can run it in the next auction, and if the consignor isn't comfortable with that, we return it. It's important to note that in cases like this, sometimes we don't realize we have multiples of something until we get them both entered into our system - with 1,000 lots (give or take), it's hard to remember everything we have.

I'd say # 1 and 2 above are the most common, and I would hope that wouldn't impact someone's decision about whether to consign with us again. I like to think that at least some of the reason people like LOTG is because of the kinds of material we offer, so I try to make sure we're on brand as much as possible.

-Al

Now that I've heard Al's side, I'm ready to change my vote to "it depends".

Above
 

Great answer from Al…. logical, well considered, and reflective of “good customer service”. Just FYI I’ve never used his AH but sounds like the kind of place you’d want to consider….

That was my first thought as well. If I want to consign something I send clear photos and detailed descriptions up front, and there's always a signed contract before I ship anything.

Hey Al
Great explanation. This thread wasn't directed at you specifically. I have gotten returns from lots of auction houses :). I just wanted to get the general sentiment.
As for the small piece you and I spoke about on the phone, I looked at it again, and after selling my Horner, I might put it in a frame and on my office wall.

I went with "It Depends". I've had items sent back from a couple AH's and frankly, I am typically pleasantly surprised with some of the garbage that I have that they are willing to run.

-
I've used Al and LOTG for quite a few consignments and been very satisfied with the results.

Definitely some good information. Thanks, Al. One question I have is what you mean by something not fitting your auction for some reason. Can you give an example of something like that?

Hi Jay:

There are a lot of items that just don't work for what we do. Most of the time it's related to value, or condition, or simply the cost to get it into the auction. For instance, lots of low-grade Topps and Bowman commons. 1960s and 70s partial sets. Old newspapers. Magazines (i.e. Street & Smith's, Sports Illustrated). Most sports books. Ticket stubs and programs from less important, more recent games.

In the case of LOTG there are lots of things we sell that aren't particularly high-dollar, but I like a large percentage of them to be interesting, or things you don't see very often. Things that a collector can get excited about.

Essentially there are two factors at play here: first, the desire to ensure that the stuff you want people to see is not drowning in less interesting items. Second, the economics of producing an auction and focusing on the material in it (writing quality descriptions, producing a beautiful, effective catalog, taking clear photography, effectively marketing and focusing on the individual auction lots) is such that we have to be careful that we don't spend more money making the auction than we can make selling the items in it!

Hope this makes sense, I've been writing all day!

-Al

I would refer everybody to the job you did recently with your women in baseball auction, heavy lift to present that properly and I was impressed by the presentation.

What Al said is 100% right in both of his replies. I never want to return items, but sometimes things just don't fit or not right for the venue.

Hi Al. I appreciate the additional information to answer my question. I guess I'm surprised that people would send you items without first making sure it's something you would be interested in including in an auction. Shipping isn't cheap these days.

Your last one is one of the ways that I believe LOTG stands out among auction houses. I don't know of any others (though they may exist) that will warn a consigner about other items in the auction. It's a question I ask a lot, especially since my items tend to be a bit more unusual and I definitely don't want to get unlucky and there happens to be another similar item in the auction.

It's always refreshing to get answers from auction houses.

Great insights Al that is appreciated

I especially appreciate not wanting to sell like items in the same auction. I have sent items to auction houses and several similar items both the grade and similiar grades and in each case I did not do as well as I believe I could have if it was the only one in the auction