Buying sets before auction, not paying for them, but selling unowned sets from a web site.

[chesspurr]

I have been informed in private that a known E bay seller is purchasing chess sets from British Auction houses.

The purchaser is not paying for the sets, but offering these antique items for sale on their web site.

One presumes that once the item sells for a price way exceeding the purchase price, then the auction house gets paid.

One such auction house informed my on the telephone, that three months waiting was not uncommon.

This practice helps nobody, and in many cases, the unfortunate auction house as well as the original owner, are suffering through no fault of their own.

It is bad enough to see chessmen so badly misrepresented ( British chess company Xylonite for example ) but this beheviour has to be addressed.

Evidence does exist as to who is doing this, and if we all take an interest, then such rogues can be driven out, and the best weapon we have, is to refuse to buy off these people.

I have no plans to add to this posting, but the active E bayers and seller in question will know " they are being watched ".

The many CCI friends and Foes that I have now know ..........what's what .

[corptaxman]

I'm pretty sure I know who you mean. They seem to employ a number of questionable tactics, especially in their eBay listings.

However, I'm not sure that this particular one is a major problem to buyers and the collecting community in general - certainly not as great as is intimated.

As an accountant, I would advise any business to try to minimise its stock-holding costs - and this certainly does that! Who loses? - well, if allowed, then the auction house and ultimately the original seller as is stated.  But - many, if not all, auction houses have terms of business that dictate items should be paid for within specified timescales and that there will be fees incurred for storeage if not picked up within certain periods.  Are these not being enforced? If not, the auction house is at least as much to blame. Equally, this sort of thing does get around, and it would not be beyond the auction houses to ban or cancel bids by such people if they considered it against their and their clients (the sellers) interests. That they continue to operate must tell you a lot.

I saw the Xylonite set mentioned, and did contact the sellers to say what I thought it was. They were surprised, believing it to have been ivory - and this may well have been because they hadn't actually held the pieces at that point due to the above practise! I'm not sure of the outcome of that particular sale, but it may well be that they lost out (unless they failed to complete with the auction house - not a good move for a continuing business)  - which would only go to show that the practise has its dangers for them, too.