LiveAuctioneers

I have recently been involved with a Live Auctioneer client, Larsen Gallery, engaged in fraudulent activitity including listing incorrect sizes in their descriptions. LA, as is their usual practice, refused to take action. This does not happen with reputable auction houses and reflects poor on the many honest sellers on Live Auctioneers.

Buyer beware indeed! While I have found some very good auction houses on this site, Live Auctioneers does not stand behind its customers. I had one horrible experience with the Benefit Shop, and I tried multiple ways of contacting Live Auctioneers for help (including snail mail). Months later, and I have still not received any assistance. If you buy from this site, do your homework on the auction house, and don’t buy from the Benefit Shop. If you are scammed, sadly, Live Auctioneers will not even respond, let alone help.

I share Ingrid’s perspective. I’ve had a smooth experience on LiveAuctioneers bidding on reputable auction houses. I recently purchased some comic books from a Last Chance auction and found some rare inventory at a great price.

What a frustrating experience… let me just say, buyer beware. Although they are a medium, they really don’t seem to care who sells or the ridiculous charges associated.
I understand buyer premiums and factor that into my bid. But missing and ambiguous charges surrounding packaging, shipping, insurance, etc are awful.
My $ 90 purchase was billed with the 22% premium (got it), but then was charged $ 25 total packing and shipping for an item weighing 11oz. This could have been shipped via USPS for about $ 4.
All sellers should clearly state every charge clearly with shipping calculators that work — both times I won an auction, the calculation was bogus.
Average to no good deals plus high extra charges equals no more use by this purchaser.

They knowingly allow fraudulent sellers to sell on their site. To start, I’ll say that I have bought from reputable dealers on here. But, my last experience will definitely keep me from ever buying from anyone on their site again. I purchased three items from a company on their site that were described as «vintage». I paid over $ 1900. Two items arrived in boxes that said «Made in China» and had the wholesale company they were purchased from on the side of the box. I looked up the company name on the box and sure enough… those two «vintage» tables were being sold on there in bulk quantities as vintage reproductions. Then I started searching google for the image used to sell the larger console and (I wish I was kidding) but they actually bought it from Restoration Hardware, marked it up, then sold it at auction as «vintage». The seller finally agreed that I could return the items for a refund. Then Restoration Hardware called and said that they understood that they needed to pick up a return and that the address of the person had changed. Seriously! No huge surprise that I no longer have any of the tables and the seller didn’t provide a credit. I have a dispute with Amex to get my money back. I reported this to LiveAuctioneers and they’ve done nothing. They didn’t even respond. They let anyone sell on there without proper credentials as an auctioneer and they won’t even do anything if they KNOW that someone is fraudulently misrepresenting items. I’m not doing business with them again and I felt the need to warn others. I do hope you’ll heed the advice.

One of their auctioneers, North American Auction Company, is advertising a ring as a «very rare original United States Military Academy at West Point Cadet graduation ring from 1938».I am a West Point grad and this is NOT a 1938 West Point USMA ring.
I contacted the USMA ring committee and they confirmed this, sending pictures of the actual ring design. I additionally researched all the 1938 USMA grads and NONE of their initials match the initials on this ring. I passed this information on to the auction company and they refused to change their description. I then notified LiveAuctioneers and they basically told me: PROVE IT!
They asked me for «legal documentation» that the ring is not authentic, but they refuse to ask the auction company to prove the ring is real.
All this tells me is that they allow anyone to make any claim about what they are selling but don’t require any proof. So I would be very, very, very careful about those people selling «genuine» Rolexes, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Tiffany, Dali, Picasso, or any other valuable items that are currently on their site.

Actually stumbled across this Unilocal page accidentally, but this is cool! Very easy to navigate, and it has tons of interesting items to browse. Can’t think of any other site that offer the same selections.

Funny. I wrote a review and it disappeared.
I bid through Live Auctioneers last summer trying to get a lamp I wanted at an auction in Maryland. They were awful. I didn’t understand the process fully and no one was there to help me. The auctioneers were strong arming me to pay for the item when I had no idea how I was going to get it shipped to me. They left me twisting in the wind trying to find some rip off artist from U-​Ship to get it to me etc. They refused to give me the time i needed to secure shipment and I refused to pay. Then they began to ignore my emails and I found out that they sold the lamp, of course at another auction. I knew they were going to sell it. It was a beautiful lamp. However, Live Auctioneeers allowed them to blacklist me and put a permanent strike against me on Live Auctioneers so I can’t bid anywhere else. This is no ebay. No fairness here with feedback. Live Auctioneers doesn’t want to be in the business of judge and jury so they just let the Auctioneers who are paying them, strike against anyone they want and get away with it. Be very careful.

One of the worst websites I have ever been to. it hardly ever works very well and I don’t trust these people at all. When you call there office in NY you get to leave a message which they never return. the Descriptions of the items in the auctions is so sparse I don’t think anyone can make a decision on how good the items are. using this website is dangerous and you probably will not get what you expect. Caution there are red flags all over the place

See the other reviews. In addition to auctioning anything and everything suspect, the even worse offense is the technology platform. Busy day? You may not be able to sign in, verify your email address, or register to bid. iOS app is extremely poor. If you do make it into the system, you’ll be greeted with a poorly designed system for bidders. For example, Lot Descriptions and Estimates are not shown by default in the bid panel, forcing users to click a button on every lot. In short, if your favorite gallery or local auction house chooses to use LiveAuctioneers, you should suggest they pick an alternate.

Selling elephant ivory. I emailed them to inquire if they allow their auctioneers to sell items through their website made from parts of endangered species. Rather than asking me what auctioneer was selling what illegal items they told me to ask that auctioneer if what they were doing is OK. Their response also said they would investigate further but they did not ask the name of the auctioneer or what items I was referring to. I think their strategy is to use ignorance as their defense. I think the government both federal and state is investigating them now. Ebay has already been fined hundreds of millions of $. I have bid on items through them before. I have tried to bid the opening bid as stated in the auction house catalog and on Liveauctioneers website. Liveauctioneers shows that someone bid the opening bid and the item sold. I went into the auction house and they said the item did not sell and they sold it to me fir the stated opening bid. I have noticed it is impossible to bid the opening bid unless you leave an absentee bid before the auction. If Liveauctioneers is in on this fraudulent scheme it could be multiple counts of felony fraud and conspiracy to commit felony fraud if we can get the New York Attorney General to prosecute.

After informing
via email, of fraudulent bids from my account through their website over the weekend, they finally responded a day after the auction took place. They have no staff that works over the weekend, it seems. Fortunately, I caught the fraud before the bids had gone through, but theiIr underwhelming response (insisting that there was no breech on their site, but that it had to be through malware on my own computer, and that I should change my password) arrived literally two days after the first email had been sent. This advice was offered with no apologies, nor a trace of concern. Mind you, the «customer service» phone line offered on their site is, as a prior review here stated, not set up to assist any bidders, but simply to expedite business with the auction houses that they service. In fact, the heinous «Blaine» barely let me utter my concerns, and then informed me that it would be handled ONLY through their email address, and hung up on me. A word of advice, then – there are many, many ways to participate globally in auctions, online and in other ways. These are the ways I shall participate from now on. Anything BUT
. They are crass, unresponsive and completely unprofessional. BEWARE.

Until there is a buyer feedback system in place it should be considered a ripoff.
As a lifelong collector of art and antiques I have done business with many of the reputable auction houses that use the Live Auctioneers platform. That said, any buyer should be aware that Live Auctioneers will and does allow scam artists to sell on the website. Fakes are common. Broken and fraudulent items are listed without disclosure. Some «auctioneers» are not licensed at all, but are simply junk dealers or fly-​by-​nights selling out of their houses. If you get robbed – even to the tune of thousands of dollars – even if the auction house takes your money and never sends anything in return – expect Live Auctioneers to do nothing except flag you for complaining. LIVE AUCTIONEERS DOES NOT CARE ONE BIT ABOUT THE BUYERS, THEY WILL SHIELD AND PROTECT FRAUDULENT SELLERS AT THE EXPENSE OF BUYERS EVERY TIME. THEY JUST DON’T CARE!
1. Crazy shipping and «handling» charges. How does $ 100 for a tiny $ 6 parcel sound?
2. Blatant misrepresentation/​forgery. The jewelry especially is a nest of thieves. These people are thieves operating in the open. Liveauctioneers does not care or they are in collusion.
3. Items arrive damaged or missing and the buyer has no recourse.
4. Many irregularities involving shill bidding and lots that you should have won because you were the high bidder and yet the auction gives the bid to someone else.
Fortunately, there are some gems among the trash heap that is Live Auctioneers and you must find reputable sellers with long histories in the business. At some point the New York Attorney General will show up on your doorstep, Live Auctioneers, and you will be held accountable for being party to so much theft and fraud.

Beware. We spent a day following an auction online and bidding on LiveAuctioneers and purchased three lots. The next day we discovered that none of our bids had actually won their lots at all. Basically, you have to do it in order to know how to do it — silly us, we thought we could just follow directions, bid when prompted, and see the amount we’d bid win the lot. Um… no. To add insult to injury we actually accidentally bid on a lot we’d had no intention of buying, just by fumbling the phone for a second. Result? we had none of the three lots be thought we’d purchased but were the not so proud owners of something we had no interest in acquiring. Verdict: if you can’t get there and you really want something, call the auction house and bid on the phone. At least then you’ll know where you stand.

Total crap. That sums up this service in two words.
Many of the auction houses they list appear to be less than honest. For example, one item that I bid on went from opening bid to my max absentee bid with no bids in between. I’ve never seen that at a real auction.
Other items for which I bid, were sold for my bid. When I would call to find out where to send payment, I was told I didn’t win because someone else won it for the same bid as mine. Have you ever been to an auction where they try to collect as many identical bids as they can for the same price and same lot? No, that doesn’t happen because it’s just plain stupid. I guess LiveAuctioneers «didn’t know» that many people might bid the same price, and they don’t inform you of identical bids on their site. Classic.
Stay away from this «service» and save yourself a lot of grief. There are better ways to attend auctions from a long distance.

This is a terrible company!
I cannot stop the emails from them!
Have tried everything!
Do not do business with them. You will be sorry.

Live auctioneers is not itself an auction house, is just a medium.
I understand all the reviews that say they might be ripped off or was a scam or that they bought something broken.
They should take up with the auction house who sold them.
Live auctioneers makes possible to bid for items on the internet but you gotta know which auction to subscribe and to bid. YOU NEED TO RESEARCH THE AUCTION HOUSES BEFORE YOU BID. Look at the catalog and the item, READ THEIR TERMS AND COMMISSION AND GO TO THE INTERNET and research prices, Artnet is a good place to know prices for some art.
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I agree that some of them are not very reputable. SMRJ uses the site to sell their own jewelry and their pictures are better than the jewel. Some get estate and closing store items and sell for what they think is worth.
When you see an item you like RESEARCH. And don’t forget that in real auctions there is always the commission over the price, check the commission it should range from 11 to 18% and apply over your bid.
But some auction houses there are very reputable, here in NY I like Roland and specially Capo, out of the state William Bunch.
If you are willing to bid in something out of state that will require shipping, check the conditions of sale for that auction house and see if there is shipping charges, some auction houses do not ship themselves and offer the addresses of the nearest shipper. It is a good idea to contact them and ask for a quote.
I like Live auctioneers for it makes easier to bid on auctions without having to travel there and I want to be fair.
BUT REMEMBER TO RESEARCH THE AUCTION HOUSE AND THE ITEM FIRST.

I saw a beautiful ring being auctioned — Paperwork says value 845.00. Found the same thing on overstock for 69.00 — Plus you cannot find a phone number anywhere on their website. Very shady company — Thought I would check Unilocal first and see what it says — Glad I did!!!

They maxed up my absentee bid. There were no other bidders and suddenly I have to pay my max.