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HOW TO CONSIGN COVERS FOR AUCTION
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Some useful advice for the cover
vendor
Every week quite a few auctions, every day
catalogs in the mail - the market is bustling. But the decision
on how and where to sell one's treasure - or a part thereof -
isn't all that easy, especially, if you're looking for the right
auction house. There's many a question that can be discussed
and largely must be discussed prior to making a consignment,
in order to avoid any trouble later. We just try to give an overview
on questions you should ask yourself and the auctioneer of your
choice - and we also supply the answers right away...
Is it adviseable to consign to a company overseas?
Most definitely. The world has become a village, and many auction
houses - especially those, that, like us, are active on many
markets and able to communicate in a variety of languages, do
not restrict themselves to just one country. Goods will have
to clear customs. It's not much of a hassle on this side, and
any fees payable will be taken care of by the auctioneer, since
he can offset VAT / Sales Tax paid at the point of entry from
his own tax bill. Just the customs procedures vary from country
to country. We have prepared a small page explaining the details
for shipments to Japan which will
probably answer some of your questions.
And in Japan, things like postage & printing are not that
expensive, and taxes are much cheaper than in other countries,
which decreases the pressure on us!
A super luxury color catalog - it it really THE thing?
No! Let's look at it from the other end -
top notch items in superb condition can also be sold at top prices
without "representation" ! All that's needed is a database
of wealthy and keen buyers (which we have...), and a few well-placed
ads in philatelic magazines. Things will move automatically then...
Of course, a color catalog looks nice, and you will like to add
it to your library. But a color catalog also means heavily increased
cost pressure, and this factor shouldn't be underestimated!
Is the quantity of catalogs mailed an important factor?
Only partially! Of course, it sounds nice if one can claim to
mail some 12,000 catalogs to philatelists worldwide (and with
a direct dial fax number for clients from Japan, it sounds even
nicer...). And also, if one can claim to receive some 3,000 bid
sheets on those 12,000 catalogs. Nice? Well, these figures would
also mean, that 75% of the catalog's print run would be wasted,
and another, more important figure can be calculated, the return
quota. Only 25% of the catalogs' recipients have mailed bids,
i.e. it took four catalogs to obtain one bid sheet, only one
in four reacted - a return quota of just 25%...
For us, things look different. Though the total number of catalogs
mailed remains our little secret, known only to us and to our
printer, we can claim to have a return quota of 36% as per March
25, 2000, and still rising!! This is due to our policy to mail
catalogs only to seriously interested philatelists, regular buyers
and those we estimate to be regular buyers. Statistically, it
takes us less than three catalogs to obtain one bid sheet. And
about half of our bidders are regular bidders, submitting bids
for every single sale! Thus we ensure, that we don't waste thousands
of catalogs...
What about the charges?
Steadily rising printing and postage costs have their bad influence
on buyers' and vendors' commissions. Adding up to the problem
is the growing number of "circular lots" being sent
around by their owners from auction house to auction house and
remaining unsold due to their condition or to exaggerated limits.
And every single lot is a cost factor to the auction house. Let's
do some maths. Let's assume, a company produces and mails a catalog
with some 5,000 lots, many on photo plates, some even in color
photo plates. Total printing is 10,000 catalogs, and each catalog
costs $16 for printing and mailing (not unusual for Europe, at
least), a very conservative estimation. Just the net costs for
printing and mailing, excluding office rent, personnel, phone,
fax, office supplies, car etc., add up to $160,000! And this,
before even the first bid sheet is in, not to talk about payments...
This kind of money has to be put up by the auction house upfront!
This translates into per-lot costs of $32, whether sold or not,
whether just a "BID" lot, or a $10,000 item - every
lot causes $32 expenses just for printing and mailing!! Ever
thought about it?
At this point, it might become understandable, that auction houses
are not necessarily interested in small lots, they even can't
be for obvious reasons! Those expenses have to be covered somehow!
If the auctioneer takes 12.5% fees from each side, then he'll
have to achieve a turnover goal of about $640,000! Well, it's
quite obvious, that just a bunch of small lots won't achieve
this goal!
To sell top notch items at top notch prices (provided, all lots
are genuine and in superb condition) isn't really much of a problem,
as we could see earlier. Most German auction houses know that
and are able to charge between 15% and 18% buyer's premium. In
other countries, premiums are lower, sometimes even non-existent.
Some US houses do not charge a buyer's commissions, some only
10% vendor's commissions - on the other hand, lots are rarely
limited, so everything sells, whereas in Germany, the vendor
usually has the opportunity to set a minimum starting price.
This also has a negative influence on the total percentage of
lots sold, but might prove useful as a protection against selling
off items below value. Especially US vendors are well off in
Europe, since most business is done in Germany with its high
level market prices. Some other houses in the US and the UK charge
no buyers' commission, but a hefty vendors' commission, in order
to discourage from consigning and encourage to sell for outright
cash - which leaves the risk, but also all the profit in the
auctioneer's hands...
Up to you to decide. But watch out! "No vendors' fee!",
"Low vendors' commission" etc. might prove as disappointing
as those $10,000 Scott CV lots for $298. Cheapies ain't always
goodies... What if the turnover necessary to cover expenses isn't
reached, just because a couple of regular & wealthy bidders
had spent their money elsewhere? Only $400,000 instead of $640,000?
Bad news for vendors! The Post Office won't extend any credit
for postage, and the printers will want to see their money real
fast, especially, if the auctioneer wants dated catalogs printed
in time! This leaves the vendors...
Well, don't get laid just by "super terms" for vendors!
Try to estimate instead an auctioneer's expenses and his ability
to cover them with his commission charges.
Unsold lot fees or lotting fees in general - more and more companies,
ours among them, charge a certain fee for each and every consigned
lot, whether sold or not. This is to ensure, that at least a
small fraction of the expenses is covered, and to make consignments
exclusively consisting of small lots (which will cause the auctioneer
comparatively large expenses without any return) unattractive.
As a "small consignor", one might critisize this, but
it's at no point greed, that is behind this decision! It's the
all-present pressure to cover expenses! An auction catalog is
not a price list for US MNH, where each stamp is quoted once,
but sold a dozen or even a few hundred times until the next list
appears. Pressure to cover expenses for a simple price list is
much, much lower than for an auction catalog. Just a simple mail
strike, as it happened in Germany in summer 1994, would show,
how vulnerable auctioneers are! If catalogs are delivered too
late, they're worthless for the auctioneer - he might as well
make a donation to the IRS...
Our postage and printing expenses are very low, compared with
other companies! On one hand, low overall expenses in Japan,
on the other hand, a strict policy putting practical considerations
above "representative" considerations. Our catalogs
contain an average of 1,000 lots, with about 25% of them on photo
tables (using hi-tech equipment, we are able to trim reproduction
expenses to the absolute minimum!), and each catalog has a gross
weight of 100 grs. (10% more lots would mean a postage bill increased
by a good 25%!!). Correct & precise descriptions and prompt
mailing of photostats requested by seriously interested philatelists
are of much more importance to us than expensive photos on top
quality luxury paper, and thus our printing & postage expenses
per lot offered are just around US$3!
What about the sales quota?
Sales figures, especially for the total number of lots sold,
are to be looked at with care! Such kind of figures, especially
for mail auctions, are extremely difficult to check! We don't
advertise huge figures for good reasons - it's not because we
can't sell, but because it's difficult to compare! We don't offer
stamps & sets, neither job lots. Those would have a positive
influence on the number of lots sold. We also allow, in accordance
with the way this is handled in Central Europe and Japan, our
vendors to place limits on their lots, which further lowers the
chances of a lot to get sold. For postal history, it's a completely
different ballgame, since they can't be jugded with "percentage
of CV". You love it, you bid on it. You don't like (or you
even overlook) it, you ignore it. There's hardly any comparative
method of calculating in % of CV. A well-known German journalist
confirmed, that our sales figures compare very well to other
companies, but we'll keep it for ourselves. But - we can say,
that our vendors sell up to 100% of their lots, depending on
what they consign...
What is suitable to be consigned?
And this is one of the main questions you should ask as a vendor!
Everything, that is outside the scope of standard material is
suitable to be consigned to auction. This concerns high value
or unusual frankings, rare postmarks, scarce rates, hard-to-find
destinations, postal markings, and items of historical interest.
It should be noted, that material of your country sells better
in your country, than elsewhere. A US collector should consign
his US covers to us only then, if they bear any foreign markings,
such as censors or due markings. His German and Japanese covers,
however, sell much better here than in the US!
Also, rather common items, collector-made covers etc. are not
suitable for auction and should be sold for cash. Absolutely
unsuitable are covers with heavy faults (i.e. graded lower than
F-VF) which cannot be excused with "usual tear and wear"
to be found on postally used covers. Also, you should refrain
from consigning items that have been altered, repaired, or partially
or entirely been faked. The latter are for the garbage bin, the
former for low-level auction houses - not for us! Our strict
refusal of such inferior quality material has lead to one of
the lowest return quotas among auctioneers worldwide - several
auctions without any lot returned by the buyer, and the others
with far less than 1% of lots sold returned by the buyer (usually
between 0.3% and 0.5%!!). Each lot returned by the buyer means
trouble and excessive administrative work for the auctioneer
(and - more important - means a dissatisfied customer, who will
eventually spread the word...), and such returns are one of the
main reasons for quarrels between auctioneer and vendor, which
are thus avoided before occuring, thanks to our strict refusal
of 2nd choice lots! It's also one of the main reasons why we
don't offer job lots or collections - such lots would sell more
easily than single items, but many bidders are inconsciously
hoping for the "big find", or assuming that a certain
job lot will contain certain items. Whether this is wishful thinking,
or a justified assumption, can't be said, but those assumptions
and hopes are more often than not followed by heavy disappointments,
and disappointments mean trouble, and trouble we don't want...
As we have now seen, what is suitable to be consigned, and what
is not, let's discuss another important question:
How to fix start prices?
Before asking this question, another one needs to be answered
- well, it's well understood that you will want to sell at the
highest possible price, but: Do you really want to sell, or do
you just want to see what happens, to "test the market"?
If the latter is the case, you may comfortably set high limits
- if you don't mind selling just a few lots and having the rest
back with just expenses on both sides... If you are seriously
thinking about selling with the goal of turning over as many
lots as possible at real market prices, then you should set your
limits low, or even leave it to the auctioneer. A lot with a
high start price (i.e. close to or above market value) will make
bidders refrain from bidding, but a low start price will draw
many bids above start price and eventually be knocked down at
a price the vendor wouldn't have dreamed of... One more piece
of advice: You shouldn't hope for selling at a "minimum
profit" plus interest for the time the lot has been in your
possession. Even real (=full-time) professionals have a hard
time doing so, since a lot of time goes into studying literature,
auction results, market movements etc. - it's about as easy as
making a fortune on the stock market... Only a handful of professional
auction vendors ever reached the stage, where they could make
a living out of buying and selling stamps and covers at auction...
And if it's speculation, you should also be prepared to take
the pain in case of a bad deal (you overpaid a lot, an auction
house goes bankrupt etc.etc.). And if you're really calculating
on the basis of your purchase price plus minimum profit plus
interest for the investment, you should consider an outright
cash sale! Anyway - the lower the start price, the higher the
incentive for bidders to place a bid!
What about the results?
Phantastic results are in 99% of all cases possible only for
really outstanding material! A list with results exceeding start
prices by far is to be looked at with utmost care - to throw
a sheet of $5 Prexies and a few MNH Zepps into a box filled with
cheap kiloware, describe it as a "US job lot with high potential",
put a $100 start price on it, knock it down at several 1,000%
above start price and then largely and widely publish this result
without giving details about the contents of the lot isn't exactly
phantastic, but it's just a cheap trick! And depending on the
contents of the "job lot", the hammer might even have
fallen much too early...
Our experience is, that most lots are sold between 80% and 150%
of our estimations, some a bit lower, some even much higher!
We don't publish result lists and have a good reason for that
- apart from seriously interested parties, quite a lot of folks
need those results in order to have a guideline for putting prices
on their material for sale to third parties. We can hardly expect
any benefits (say, consignments or bids ) for us from those people,
so we don't want to work for them. Our solution is to give every
bidder the results for every lot he bids on. Any other results
can be had for a SAE plus $1 postage (MNH stamps o.k.).
How much will I be charged?
We have some simple guidelines. We don't require our vendors
to make minimum consignments. Not everybody is able to pack $5,000
worth of covers into a small parcels and ship it. It's just that
each lot must have a certain value high enough for a minimum
start price of 1,000 Japanese Yen (approx. $10) - but we recommend
to consign lots at least two or three times as valuable as just
$10 and to consign small items only, if there is a matching balance
of $100+ items coming along with them. We'll explain later, why
this would be because of your own benefit, and not because of
our greed... Our commission is just 10.5% of the hammer total
of a consignment. A lotting fee of 105 Yen (about $1) will be
charged for each lot, whether sold or not. We will also charge
return postage for lots returned as unsuitable prior to the sale,
and for lots returned as unsold after the sale, and we will also
charge fees for certification of lots, where certifications appears
to be necessary to prove genuineness. There are no, repeat: no
additional costs, fees, commissions and / or charges on top of
those mentioned before, except if a vendor requests that his
consignment be partially or entirely returned prior to the sale
we have scheduled for it. Those conventional penalties, as they
are referred to in Europe, are detailed in our vendors'
terms. Why these provisions have to be made? Well, it is
well possible, that a vendor might change his mind and think,
that he can do better elsewhere. And we would have done all the
work to prepare his lots for sale (input, inventory, description,
and also postage &printing for the catalog). It might sound
understandable, when we say, that we don't want to see all this
effort go down the drain for free... Even less so, when we have
to explain to a bidder, that a lot he was really keen to buy
had been withdrawn...
When is the best time to consign?
With our monthly auctions, we don't set any closing dates for
consignments, for a plain and simple reason: Every auction company
publishing entry deadlines will have most of the incoming consigments
around and after that deadline, and this is due to two groups
of people. One group consists of those, who (wrongly!) think
they'd save time and money by sending their material to the auction
house with the next available deadline, disregarding anything
else. The second group pins all hopes on the fact, that during
the hassle between entry deadline and the day, when the catalog
has to be at the printer's, garbage, faults and even fakes wouldn't
be noticed as easily. The first group is wrong for the same reason
that the second pins its hopes on - there's really a lot being
overlooked during that hassle between two deadlines! Carefully
describing a lot when there are still 1,500 lots to go to meet
a deadline the day after tomorrow, isn't exactly possible...
The auctioneer or his describer will overlook details and ignore
facts, that would otherwise lead to a better realisation for
a lot when correctly pointed out & described! Thus very important:
Give the auctioneer time along with your lots! The more time
he's got, the more carefully he can work on your consignment,
and the better your result will be! If you want your money real
fast, and if you're always short of time, then you should never,
never, never consign material to an auction, but instead opt
for a quick cash deal, the cash being payable by means of a nice
bunch of $100 bills at the very moment, when the goods are handed
over... Highest possible profit and instant cash hardly come
together, even though they're always promised... Maximum realization
requires time, and instant cash means less money (and cash advances
for consignments aren't for free...). You will have to make up
your mind here.
How long will my lots remain at the auction
house?
It's different, but it's in your own hands. Most vendors' terms
prescribe, that the lots remain in the auctioneer's hands for
a certain period of time after the sale to serve late bids, mail
problems, plainly ignored deadlines, and also to give those bidders
a chance to purchase, when most or all of their bids were in
vain. This period is usually two or three weeks after the sale.
The vendor can usually instruct the auctioneer, whether the lots
are to be returned immediately, or whether they should be put
into a subsequent sale. We usually keep each lot only for one
sale and then hand it back.
When can payment be expected?
Usually about four to five weeks after a sale. The final day
of settlement is determined by a variety of factors. It's of
crucial importance how quickly successful bidders settle their
accounts - it's not always happening within the time frame requested
by the auctioneer, and other factors also have an influence,
such as lengthy clearance periods for personal checks from North
America, which are credited only after three or four weeks to
a European account. Some buyers request terms, others want a
certificate for a specific lot, and others ask for postponed
shipments due to absence. If there is no follow-up consignment
from a vendor to allow the auctioneer to cover any unpaid lots,
or to allow for deduction of lots returned by the buyer, the
auctioneer will usually withhold payment until every lot is fully
paid for and return privileges have expired. Regular vendors
are usually paid after four to five weeks in full, even if there
are unpaid lots. Ads promising speedy settlement are thus not
always to be taken seriously. You should definitely instruct
your auctioneer to obtain your permission first before granting
extended payment terms to buyers.
It might also happen that an auction doesn't reap the results
expected, and that the auctioneer might be in trouble - see expenses
as mentioned earlier... Our policy is to rather not knock a lot
down, than to sell to someone who, after conclusion of a sale,
would not pay before receiving several reminders, or who even
would not pay at all. This policy helps to keep problems arising
from slow payments at a limit. Our vendors receive immediately
after the sale a provisional credit note for their purchases
from us. This credit note helps avoiding bank fees and hassle
from making multiple payments in both directions. It will not
be necessary to pay your $200 auction bill, if your consignment
realizes more than $200 net, and you won't be requested to pay
your $500 auction bill prior to finalization of your consigment
account, even if it's just $150.
What about bank charges etc. for settlement?
A problem arises here for our bidders from outside Europe. European
and Japanese bidders usually hold a postal giro account, enabling
us to remit payment at no cost for either side. Also, if you
hold a bank account in Germany or Luxembourg, payment will be
at no cost for either side. For all other forms of payment, charges
depend on the method of payment you opt for. Postal money orders
are basically the cheapest method at about $4 per transaction.
Bank remittances, cashier's checks and bank money orders regularly
incur at least $25 as charges on our end, which we are afraid
to have to pass on (and which can be waived on consignments realising
more than $2,000 for a single sale). Cash can be sent by registered
or insured mail, provided, we obtain the vendor's consent and
a guarantee in writing, that he accepts the risk of theft or
loss in transit. The alternative for small con-signments would
be to use the proceeds for purchases from us, or even for purchases
from other Japanese or Central European stamp dealers - you'd
kill two birds with one stone: No hassle for payments to and
from Japan and/or Europe and no charges for expensive bank transactions.
Our computer will keep track of it all! We admit, that for the
small and one-time consignor, bank fees are a major reason for
not considering us as a partner, but an auction company in one
of the Anglo-Saxon countries. But please keep in mind, that many
German dealers buy from those houses at a big profit for themselves,
only to resell the material on the German market. The same applies
to Swiss, Swedish, Danish, Japanese, Thai and other dealers,
serving their own home markets. So why don't you secure a share
of those dealers' profits for yourself? Bank charges will eventually
be offset and exceeded by a difference in net realisation, so
it's worthwhile to risk $20 postage and $25 bank fees, if you
have the chance to reap a $200 higher profit, isn't it?
Why is it disadvantageous to consign many
small lots?
Very easy - to avoid unproportionally high charges! Imagine,
you consign 100 lots, out of which 50 are sold. Total estimate
is $350, and the 50 lots sold bring in $200. This would mean
10.5% commission, coming to $21. Leaves $179 for you. On top
of this, we'll deduct $1 per lot for a total of 100 lots = $100.
Leaves just $79 in your favor. Return postage will be around
$15, which leaves a net realization of $64 in your favor, from
which you will have to calculate your own postage expenses. Think
first, whether this will be worth it!! If you have got just small
lots for sale, you should think of selling for cash. Of course,
you'll hardly sell everything in one big lot, but for the items
you sell, you'll have no expenses and no risk! And - it is really
a rare occasion that a lot starts at $10 and is knocked down
for $200...
Let's look at the same account with higher class lots. Now it's
the same 100 lots, but they start at $3,500. 50 lots are sold
at a total of $2,000, and our commission will be only 10.5%,
just $210. The lot fees will stay unchanged at $100 for 100 lots,
and return postage also unchanged at $15. Total deductions will
be $325 out of $2,000, which is a far better relationship than
$136 out of $200! And the higher the gross realization of your
consignment is, the better these figures get! Precondition for
a good net realization is not only the auctioneer's ability to
sell your lots, but unconditional precondition for a handsome
gross realization with as few deductions as possible is a high
value consignment with lots at reasonable start prices.
Can we negociate the charges?
Sorry, we can't! Our expenses are rather fixed, and we won't
be able to talk our printer, the post office or our landlord
into lower charges, even if we were their best clients. We would
also endanger our solid financial basis, if we started to negociate
commission rates! And the standard phrase "I'll have more
and better stuff, if you..." won't work with us - as it
hardly works within anybody else!! If a vendor is certain to
obtain better terms elsewhere, then he is kindly asked to try
his luck elsewhere (and to take higher risks - see chapter "expenses"...
- and maybe lower profits due to a not-so-well-off clientele.
Please think of the $10,000 Scott CV job lot for $298... Not
all that's cheap is also worth its money...).
What about references?
Some people display a huge list of references and memberships
on their letterheads - and still they go bankrupt... We're members
of the Japanese
Philatelic Society (JPS), Tokyo, and also of the Yokohama
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and we intend to stay for a
while...
How to consign?
Depending on the value of your consignment, registered or insured
airmail would do the job. SAL is advisable for consignments exceeding
a gross weight of 4lbs. Please also take a look at our "shipment
advice" page.
What to watch out for:
- Stable and solid packing is a must! It is
not advisable to just throw things into a card-bord box and mail
it without any further protection!
- Never
announce, that more and better is to follow in case of a satisfactory
first deal. Even if this were to be the case - so many people,
who are not in the possession of more material (not to talk of
better material...), are currently using this phrase, that no
one be-lieves it any more, just to the contrary!! Real professionals,
whose objective really is to test out a new business partner,
would never talk big or give notice. A first consignment of such
a real pro would consist of few, but nevertheless first class
lots! Consignments from a "wannabeapro" can easily
be recognised by the material's low level, inferior quality and
absolutely inappropriate claims of the vendor...
- You really should check the expenses of an
auctioneer in order to estimate the risk you are running. Every
auction consignment is a potential risk, as is your daily drive
to work. The latter might end up in an accident even for the
most experienced driver, and the former might end up with a bankrupt
auctioneer. This means, keep your risks low, check an auctioneer's
fixed expenses, (postage, printing, rent, personnel etc.) and
put them against his estimated commission income. This is even
more important, as the number of auction and mail bid sale companies
keeps growing, as are public charges and overall expenses, but
with a dwindling number of "fresh" lots on the market.
- Prepare your consignment as carefully as
possible and point out specialties to your auctioneer. No auctioneer
is an allround man!
- Prepare a detailed list of consigned items
and keep a copy for yourself. Cross-check the details with the
lists supplied by the auctioneer prior and after a sale. Just
one unintentionally wrongly pushed button may assign one of your
lots to another vendor, or even may assign a totally wrong start
price. You can assist correcting such mistakes, and your auctioneer
will forever be grateful!
- Avoid consigning manipulated lots or forgeries
- it's in your own interest! Among reputable auction firms, detailed
informations about consignments containing such trash, and also
about the vendors, are circulating! If you do not want that a
certain item be submitted for certification because of an unpleasant
result - keep it for yourself and don't consign it to us!!
- Don't forget your correct address, your fax
& phone nos., a signed copy of the vendors' terms, and detailed
payment instructions.
- Consign only lots, that are your property,
or for which you have the unlimited right of disposal. Why? If
there is a third party owner unkown to the auctioneer, the auctioneer
will be home free, but the vendor might get himself into deep
trouble, up to being made subject of a prosecution for fraud,
initiated by the owner. Why we're telling you this? Unfortunately,
there are quite a few people around, who consign items bought
from third parties, but still unpaid, hoping, that an auction
realization will cover the purchase price to be paid to those
third party owners. If this game goes lost, our vendor is in
deep trouble. An auctioneer has to rely on the vendor's declaration
of ownership resp. of his right of disposal.
What about foreign exchange risks?
The Yen is not pegged to any of the major currencies, leaving
it as vulnerable on the global ForEx market as the Greenback.
Any limits you might want to set for your lots in your currency
will in most cases be converted to the auctioneer's local currency
at the date, when work on the lots starts. This must be borne
in mind when setting any limits. If, in the end, the auctioneer's
currency appreciates between the day of entry and the day of
settlement, it will work out in your favor. A depreciation will
work against you. 5% should be allowed for "rate fluctuation"
in your calculations - in most cases, this works out just fine,
since Yen, Deutschemark and the Greenback aren't any toy money
that some banana republic freak prints at will...
What happens at The Cover Exchange ?
- After receipt of your consignment, it is
checked for damages and contents. A receipt is sent out to you
the same day. You might want to attach a return receipt to your
consignment to check arrival.
- Your consignment will, in strict order of
arrival, be prepared for the next available sale, which is not
necessarily the next one on the calendar. If a sale is already
"fully booked", your lots will be prepared for a subsequent
sale. This also ensures careful work on your lots.
- Prior to the sale, we will return any lots
considered unsuitable.
- The catalog will be mailed about four weeks
(in summer five weeks) prior to a sale. Your copy will have a
detailed list of your consignment with lot numbers and start
prices attached.
- The sale's deadline is the last Monday of
the month. Invoices are mailed the following day, and so are
lists of your preliminary results. A provisional credit note
will be enclosed, so that your own purchases need not to be paid
for right away.
- Settlement starts four weeks after the sale.
For items unpaid by the buyers, our computer will check every
day after booking of payments and initiate payment after complete
receipt of outstanding monies. We're as honest as to inform our
vendors of any probable delays, instead of keeping low profile
and waiting for the vendor to get upset!
- Together with your account statement, you
will receive any unsold lots.
- And since you will be perfectly satisfied,
we'll be happy to work on your subsequent consignments...
Thanks in advance for your confidence, and we're looking forward
to hearing from you!
Here you'll find our vendor's
terms.
And here you'll get back to our English
index page.
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