IFICAH funding sale at Czerny's

[mariusgmioc]

Originally Posted by Jean

I know the case of a reputed journalist specialized in fine Asian art who dared to write an article in his newspaper accusing the most famous Auction House to sell fake antiques at an auction. What happened? He was fired!

Of course he was fired! He was threatening a multi million business.

However, reputed auction houses do not hesitate to fully refund a customer that was grossly misled by a wrong description, even if this is disclaimed in the fine script, as their reputation in the business is way more important than a one time purchase. But, these "reputed" auction houses are very, very few...

Anyhow, in the end, Alan is pretty much right when saying that bidding online is like betting. In some cases you may win, but you are most likely to loose.

And it is understandable since we are dealing with asymmetric information.
On one side is the auction house who has the item in their hands, can get all the seller's information and can have the item professionally expertised.
On the other side is the prospective buyer who only has the description in the catalogue and a couple of photos to make an educated guess.

This said aside, among the plethora of auction houses, from my experience, Czerny's is one of the finest. Not only they are providing many high quality photos that are very helpful for your decision process, but they a also refunded me for a couple of items that arrived damaged.