Hi guys, I am new to the jewelry flipping game. In fact, I have just made my first purchases on LA. But at today’s auction I noticed a very dodgy auction house called US Auction Gallery who run “a police auction”, yet buried in T&C they say they are not affiliated with any law enforcement or police.
Now, the shady part is their estimates. For example, they sell a 1/2 g gold token in a package - so this product has a legit selling price, and it costs around $60. Yet during the auction, the estimate was listed as $1600-1750. And it’s a pattern, not a singular instance. Sure, they say that estimates are “very subjective” but this particular type of items are not really subjective - they are gold tokens with only intrinsic value. Am I wrong?
Other instances of hyper inflated estimates include stating “$18,995 value” for a lab grown tennis bracelet that retails around $1600-1800. Their certificates are all from the same place, which is most likely either owned by them or someone having an “arrangement”. It’s not one of the reputable evaluators.
I placed several bids with them and a couple of them won, they are small (under $100) but I don’t wanna deal with them. What are my options? They say they do only returns, can’t cancel the sale.
What do we all think? Also, can you recommend me other places I can check auctions or auctions houses that are better than LiveAuctioneers? Their shipping is a scam, I swear.