Auction House won't pay

[treant985]

Did anybody else happen to have consigned an item for the Historic Auctions August auction? It ended on 8/27. I had sent a few baseball bats that were auctioned off.

Anyway, after more than two months (and about 7 emails and 2 phone calls), Historic Auctions won't send me payment for the bats. They've only responded twice and have given a run-around both times, saying that they thought they'd sent it out.

Now, I just tried calling their 888 number, and it's locked my phone # out and won't let me leave a message. I called the same number last Wed at the same time (6pm) and it worked fine.

Just wanted to see if anybody else had gotten payment from them. Obviously, I recommend that everyone steer clear of these guys.

[Tay1038]

Sorry to hear about this. Hopefully everything works out for you. I heard a lot of people had the same problem when they operated as Mastro Auctions.

[treant985]

Considering they only make money by having some repeat sellers, it doesn't make sense for them to be so irresponsible with me (I'd dealt with them once before and didn't have too much of a problem, although they were slow sending payment then, too).

...but I guess that's how it goes.

[kingjammy24]

Sorry to hear about this. Hopefully everything works out for you. I heard a lot of people had the same problem when they operated as Mastro Auctions.

historic auctions has never operated as mastro. you're thinking of legendary auctions. historic = james brown and brad wells. legendary = doug allen and a couple of others from mastro.

rudy.

[JMJ24]

I've had the same trouble - I sent off 4 bats for them to auction off back in MAY and have only received payment for 2 of the bats........and that was after at least 10 e-mails and 25 phone calls (I'm not exagerating one bit). Everytime you call amazingly Brad and James are never in the office and the gal who answers the phone never seems to be able to access any account information other than to tell me that the "check is in the mail".

BEYOND irritated and trying to figure out how to get the rest of my money out of them!!

[cohibasmoker]

I've had the same trouble - I sent off 4 bats for them to auction off back in MAY and have only received payment for 2 of the bats........and that was after at least 10 e-mails and 25 phone calls (I'm not exagerating one bit). Everytime you call amazingly Brad and James are never in the office and the gal who answers the phone never seems to be able to access any account information other than to tell me that the "check is in the mail".

BEYOND irritated and trying to figure out how to get the rest of my money out of them!!

I just don't get it. Why is it that auction houses (not picking on Historic or any auction house in particular), go through all the trouble to get a company going and then do something stupid like NOT paying their consignors. Is it me?

Jim

[allstarsplus]

You know the old saying about playing too close to the flame, sometimes you get burned!

You can usually read horrific stories on the Forum about a few auction houses on a consistent basis (no need to re-hash) and read good things on this forum about 7 auction houses (there are probably more).

In no particular order, Robert Edwards, Lelands, Huggins & Scott, GUU, Heritage, Sothebys-SCP, and Hunt.

Then there is the ole reliable eBay which allows you to hang on to your items until you are paid!

[treant985]

I guess another question would be: has anybody consigned items to them since the August auction ended? I always wonder if they respond to questions about consigning items but just ignore people to whom they owe money.

I tried calling again today at different times but nobody picked up. Considering their website says they're doing another auction next monday, I figured that somebody might actually show up for work today...to actually get work done. Obviously I figured wrong.

[treant985]

I just don't get it. Why is it that auction houses (not picking on Historic or any auction house in particular), go through all the trouble to get a company going and then do something stupid like NOT paying their consignors. Is it me?

Jim

Age isn't everything, but according to this article (http://www.tampabay.com/sports/baseball/ml/article477330.ece), Wells and Brown are 27 and 26 yrs old, respectively, so maybe that's a factor.

[suicide_squeeze]

You know what I have trouble with?

Understanding why some people here continue to do business with these third rate auction houses. Why not stick with the guys that have been mentioned over and over again (the latest being here, by Andrew) as being reputable? You KNOW you will be paid by them, so why risk it with these other chumps?

I am truly sorry that you two guys are struggling to get paid.......but man, if the AMI stories didn't do it for you, I don't know what will. Keep pressing them, get your funds back ASAP, and make Historic Auctions historic, if you catch my meaning.

A sincere good luck to you both.

And by the way, posting this info here works wonders.....you may get paid sooner rather than later as they obviously want to avoid the negative press.