Robert Edwards Auction

[benjulmag]

Originally Posted by Rob D.

If you assume that all of the major auction houses draw from the same pool of bidders, it seems strange that REA is rarely plagued by non-paying customers, yet other auctioneers are forced to resell numerous lots in seemingly every auction they hold because of not receiving payments.

If you look at REA's auction results posted on their website, they will show a letter discussing the origins of baseball purportedly written by Henry Chadwick selling for $310,500 (lot 469 in 2004 auction) and a trophy ball of an 1858 Fashion course All-Star game match selling for $498,800 (lot 1 in the 2005 auction). Neither of these items were paid for and they were subsequently sold along with other material at a private auction in February 2009. So apparently the problem of non-paying winning bidders applies to REA as well, and is more widespread than comments on their website would indicate.