Quote Originally Posted by kingjammy24 View Post
do most auction houses pay consigners if payment on their item is not received?

do most keep the items and re-run them?

thanks,

rudy.
Rudy,

I think the policy differs from house to house. I have ran into a couple of interesting scenarios out there where the item wasn't exactly re-run but sold after the auction completed.

For example, Heritage lists items that didn't sell in prior auctions at fixed prices after the auction has completed. If you are interested (which was the case for me on an odd occasion), you can simply slick the button (like "buy it now" in ebay) and the item is yours for that price. This would imply that they have cleared an acceptable price with the consignor and that the consignor is continuing to allow the auction house to try to sell on their behalf. You probably would need to check what is really happening behind the scenes -- I never really gave this any second thought.

Recently I purchased an unsold item from Premier. They told me that they would first need to check with the consignor if I can purchase it at the starting bid, and then got back to me with the clearance. They also told me that if the consignor did not agree, they would get it back... hence, one of two scenarios -- either they don't re-run the item or it has already been through their auction house more than once. Again, you'd want to check.

Haven't had any experience with this at any other auction houses... but interesting stuff anyway.

Nick