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Permalink Reply by eddy 7 hours ago

Regarding this particular auction house (IAA Europe), this is found their "terms and conditions":

4.2. The Purchaser shall take all lots in the condition in which he finds them. It is the responsibility of all intending Purchasers to satisfy themselves by inspection or otherwise as to the authenticity in the authorship, date, age, period, condition or quality of any lot.

5.3. .....  in the event of a dispute as to authenticity of any lot(s) the item or items in question should be returned to the Auctioneers within 21 days of receipt by the Purchaser of such lot(s) together with a formal statement by a recognised expert The Auctioneers shall at their option and without admission of liability reimburse the price paid by the Purchaser in respect of such lot(s). This does not constitute an approval service.

So there are no teeth in these conditions for the bidder?

Full disclosure:  I'm personally interested in this because I was also a successful bidder on two lots in this week's IAA Europe auction. From my study of the lots before the auction, I'm satisfied that both seem to be what the descriptions represented them as.                         I do realize I've been critical on here publicly about some lots that IAA Europe have offered previously (eg. the Goulliard collection & some other assorted pieces from the film/cinema categories).  

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Permalink Reply by Findbooks To eddy 7 hours ago

As a citizen of the US, Eddy, you may not be covered but my instinct (I would have to look into it more) is that the law applies to European retailers regardless of the physical location of customers.

If you use eBay at all - I’m sure most forum people do - you will be aware that they offer a 30 day guarantee for returning things. Most sellers mistakenly believe that if they register as a private seller then this does not apply to them. They are wrong about that even if they are private sellers then eBay’s guarantee covers their products.  eBay, here, are not acting out of benevolence for their customers, they are simply acknowledging legislation around the world.

Getting back to Europe, those terms are you quote are  very clear but I fancy they were written many years ago and have not been updated to reflect current consumer law. And this is what they want you to believe and I would not even call them unreasonable terms. But the law nowadays favours the consumer and not the provider. They have to suck it up at the end of the day.

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Permalink Reply by X Karl yesterday

Thanks all of you who shared your opinions here. Now I decided to decline the further payment of this item due to authenticity problems. Placing a bid Before reading the description  carefully is such a stupid thing, and I will never make that mistake again. This event have given me a lesson. 

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Permalink Reply by eddy To X Karl 6 hours ago

We've been bouncing around our speculations about what IAA Europe might or might not do in a case like this post-auction.

X Karl shares above that he's decided to decline payment for the lot he was the successful bidder on after receiving feedback here on Autograph Live about the situation.  Would it be out of line to now ask X Karl what IAA Europe's response to this is? 

I'm simply curious as an occasional bidder with them.

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