REA Shipping Issues

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Posted By: Aaron M.

I saw that there was a thread last week with some complaining (rightfully so) that they had been charged exorbitant shipping costs for their winning lots in last month's Robert Edward Auction.

While I also felt that I'd been overcharged ($70 for 2 programs and 1 small pinback for about $5,000 in winning bids), I neither participated in the thread nor contacted Rob to voice my complaints. I basically felt that if my items shipped quickly, then I wasn't bothered by the shipping charge (plus all my dealings with Rob in the past have been extremely favorable, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt).

Sure enough, Fed Ex delivered my package exactly one week after I mailed a personal check (so I got my quick ship). What I didn't expect to find, and at first didn't even notice is that Rob took the time to a check for $40 and an apology letter stating that some bidders had been inadvertently overcharged for shipping.

To me this once again shows that Rob Lifson is in a class by himself in terms of both his ability to "do the right thing," but also the ability to think outside the box and go the extra mile when it comes to solving problems. He was never going to hear from me about the shipping charges, and he could have kept my money with no negative impact on my eagerness to participate in his auctions in the future, yet he rectified the situation anyway. That's the kind of guy he is.

On a related note, I think the results from his auction affirmatively answered the question of whether or not REA's realized prices could match or exceed Mastro's. Now, if he can bump up to two or three auctions a year and increase his lot volume (without suffering in quality), I think REA surpasses Mastro as the premiere auction house in the business within a year.

This is one of the reasons why.