Interesting PR release from Heritage

[Rob D.]

On a separate note regarding Heritage, after years of ignoring their auctions primarily because of their clunky Web site, I was prepared to bid in their upcoming auction because of item 81967, a 1920 Cleveland Indians American League champions pennant.

The one question I had was whether, as the item description reads on the Web site, the pennant really is 20 inches long. Given auction houses' propensity for having typos or inaccurate information in their descriptions, I wanted to make sure of the size of the pennant. Also, Heritage lists an estimated value of $4,000-$6,000, which, if the pennant really is only 20 inches in size, is quite, quite a stretch. So I figured there was at least a chance that maybe they got the size wrong and this is a full-size pennant (or at least three-quarter size).

After finally reaching someone in the sports division on the phone just a few minutes ago, I said I had a question and gave him the item number.

"Just a second and let me call that up," was the response.

I said that I read on the Web site that the size of the item is 20 inches and I just wanted to confirm that. At that point I can hear him reading the description to himself and am following what he's reading because I'm looking at the same text on my computer. He gets to the part of the listing that says the pennant is 20 inches in length and says, "Yes, it's 20 inches."

Without explaining again to him that, yes, I know the online description says its 20 inches and I was hoping for actual confirmation -- as in something more than re-reading what I've read -- I simply thanked him and hung up.

Now I can return to ignoring Heritage for a few more years. And if that pennant is more than 20 inches in length, Heritage's lack of customer service likely cost their consignor a considerable amount of money.