Kingston Auctions

Avoid this place like the plague. Here’s my experience. I bought a diamond ring from them in 2008 at their Van Nuys location. We reviewed the appraisal card from AIG (who I will review later and also give them a negative review) stating that diamond was a VS1 and K color. Later on, I reset the diamond into another setting and the store that I bought it from (Robbins Brothers — see my review) had it reappraised by the same AIG lab. Diamond was now graded as a SI1 and K color. After noticing the difference on the appraisal card from AIG (same gemologist signed both cards) I went on the internet and found that Kingston were wheeling and dealing with AIG and jacked up the values of the jewelry by falsifying the quality of the jewelry. ABC did the investigation:
. I got lucky and found that what we paid for the diamond was exactly was it’s worth. We bought the diamond for my engagement and happy to report that we’ve been married for over a year (been together for 6yrs) but I wish this never happened in the first place or to anyone else. Lesson learned — If you are looking for a «cheap» diamond, go to LA’s diamond district or a reputable antique jewelry dealer (check out my review for Antoinette Antique and estate jewelry).

I agree with the other reviewer. I recently attended a Kingston auction in Coronado, CA (saw it advertised in the local paper). I had never been to an auction before so thought it would be interesting. The first thing I noticed was there wasn’t any listing of items with descriptions or any clues as to value. We had to put a yellow dot on an item to indicate there was some interest in it so the auctioneer would put it up for bidding. But there was no way of knowing where the bidding would start until the item actually came up for bid. So I felt like a captive audience only to find out the bidding was too high for me. The bidding was very slow, and I started noticing that the auctioneer was faking a first bid just to get things rolling. I agree with the other reviewer, it was as if the auctioneer was setting the price by faking the opening bid. Finally people lost interest and drifted away and the auctioneer got frustrated and stopped the auction. I had been interested in a ring which hadn’t come up for bid yet. I discovered even though there was a yellow dot on it, the woman behind the jewelry counter had failed to put the item out for bidding. I asked the auctioneer about it, and he huffed out a price over his shoulder as he was walking away. In spite of his rudeness, I ended up buying the ring for a hefty price and may have gotten soaked. When I tried it on it was too big so they offered to size it for free. They said it would take just a few days. 3 weeks later I called to see when the ring would be shipped to me. They said it wasn’t ready yet. «Emma» agreed to have it delivered one week later on a Friday between 9:00AM and noon. I adjusted some travel plans in order to be home at that time. On Friday I called at 10AM to confirm delivery. She said she would check on the computer and call me right back. 30 minutes later I called again to check delivery. I was told that the package hadn’t gotten to the post office early enough the day before to be delivered on Friday but would be delivered on Saturday. Too bad. Because of my adjusted travel plans, I was going to be out of town. I was very angry and disappointed. I paid a lot of money for the ring, had gone to considerable trouble rearranging my travel schedule so I would be home for the delivery, and wanted to be enjoying the ring all this time. After all, Kingston has been enjoying my money all this time. Today is Monday and I will see if it’s at the post office. My fear is that they have switched out the ring I bought with a fake or something. I just don’t trust them anymore. This may be an expensive lesson.
I second the suggestion of staying away from this auction house. Oh, yeah, one more thing, there was a huge buffet table outside but nobody knew it was for the auction attendees so the auctioneer was the only one who ate. What?

This auction was advertised as an estate auction and NEARLY took place in my hometown (Rapid City, SD). The police shut the auction down after investigating Kingston Auctions and learning they had none of the permits a legitmate business would have acquired to host an auction anywhere. I don’t know much about state laws governing auctions, but apparently Kingston Auctions doesn’t either.
They claim to be an estate auction, but seem to sell the same garbage from auction to auction, not likely to be from anyone’s estate. In truth, they are traveling salesmen of fancy-​looking art, rugs, and jewelry with GREATLY EXAGGERATED appraisals. In fact, all of their jewelry came with an appraisal from American International Gemologists, which currently (June 2009) has a D+ rating (up from F, read the artlcle @ the above link) from the Better Business Bureau.
If you receive a brightly colored postcard in the mail from these people or see an ad in your local paper, please contact the authorities. The carnies known as Kingston Auctions have likely blown into your town in blatant disregard of your local or state auction laws. Who knows if they were even planning on paying the sales taxes they collected from their unsuspecting customers? We’ll never know here because the Department of Revenue and the local police had to threaten them with arrest before they packed up and hit the road. They had the balls to actually try to hold the auction after being warned days in advance that it wasn’t going to happen.
Keep these people out of your town.