Buying at arm's length

[A. G. Maisey]

By the term "arm's length", I mean "at a distance", and for many people that is the way they normally add to to their collections.

Over the last couple of weeks I have had several discussions with collectors who have in the past bought items that they collect, from sellers in Australia, or are considering buying from an Australian seller at the moment. I live in Australia, and I send items to other countries throughout the world pretty regularly. It has been suggested to me that if I were to pass on to others some of what I know, it might be useful to them.

To begin, here is the "Shipping From Italy" thread

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...t=25155&page=1

this thread has revealed a lot of problems that can be associated with international purchase of the type of things that we collect. Some of the posts to that thread are nightmare material. I believe that everything that has been said in this thread can apply to Australia if the applicable circumstances are not correctly managed.

Then there is the increasing difficulty that we face with ivory.

In Australia the laws in respect of both import and export of ivory are very strictly enforced. I have a reasonably large collection of ivory. Apart from well over 100 ivory keris hilts, I also have a large number of other ivory carvings. Some time ago I decided to downsize these collections and sell off some of my ivory. In theory, this is possible. In practice the cost involved makes both import and export far too expensive for anything other than highly valuable antiques, items that have values into the tens of thousands of dollars.

The problems outlined in the "Shipping from Italy" thread and that refer to the attitude of shipping companies in respect of shipping weapons also apply to shipping companies in Australia. However I have been shipping with Australia Post for over 35 years, my descriptions are always culturally accurate, and I have never had even the smallest problem with a post office refusing to accept a parcel from me. Courier companies such as DHL are just as difficult and as expensive here in Australia as they are everywhere else.

However, apart from the continuing problems mentioned above, there is another problem that is associated with buying at long distance, whether buying in our country of residence, or buying in a foreign country. That problem is the inaccuracy of descriptions offered by private persons, dealers and auction houses --- most particularly by auction houses.

This inaccuracy in many cases verges on misrepresentation, and in my own field of keris and other South East Asian weapons it is a recurring problem. Only last week I had a query from a long time friend who had bought a keris through auction, that I had originally sold about 25 years ago. The auction description was that the pendok was silver, and the "gem set selut" was silver.

This was straight out misrepresentation, because the pendok was silver plated brass, the selut had a body of tin, and the "gems" were cubic zirconia. The keris concerned was worth only a fraction of what it had cost him to buy at auction, and he had bid on the basis of belief that he was buying silver and gems.

Silver does not mean something that looks like silver, and a "gem" according to the Oxford Dictionary is a "precious stone". Cubics, pastes, glass, and bits of plastic are not precious stones.

We can never, ever trust any auction description. Auction houses go to great lengths to try to ensure that they cannot have legal action taken against them for misrepresentation, and include in their "Terms" statements such as this:-

"The description of the goods as presented in any catalogue, published by Smith & Jones Fine Art Auctioneers in any form or format, is meant as a guide to the description of the goods, their provenance, source, the integrity of the source and/or the integrity of the goods, and therefore should not be relied upon, by any buyer."

Don't worry, there is no auctioneer called " Smith & Jones Fine Art Auctioneers ", I made up that name, but this sort of disavowal of anything printed in a catalogue or said by the auctioneer is absolutely typical of the way that all auctioneers try to protect themselves. On the one hand, they describe things as "silver" in their catalogues, then in the small print they effectively say "well, basically we are liars, you cannot believe a word we say"

In my opinion, it is incumbent upon everybody who offers something for sale to ensure that the item offered for sale is accurately described, most particularly so where an inaccurate description will affect value, and where the nature of a material cannot be verified by simple visual examination.

It is all very well to speak of "buyer beware", but when we buy at long distance how is it possible to ensure that we know exactly what it is that we wish to buy, unless we can rely upon the description given by the seller? How can we rely upon an auctioneer's description when he goes out of his way to inform us that we cannot rely upon one word that he prints or says?

It is possible, perhaps probable that what I have written above is all too familiar to many people who will read it, but in view of some of the feedback I have had from people whom I would have expected to know the above, chapter & verse, perhaps it has done no harm for me to repeat it here.