SDM Auctions

I wish zero stars was an option for Duane Salter and his SDM auction «scam» company. On the word of a mutual friend my husband and I hired him to sale the contents of my in laws home. They passed away five months apart so our family was in a very emotional state. Therefore, trusting the word of our friend. When we first spoke with Duane I asked if I needed to make a list of the items they would be taking for auction. He assured us that was not at all necessary because his crew would document everything and we would receive a detailed copy. Having never been to an auction we decided to go on the night our items would be up for auction. Duane tried very hard to get us NOT to come. (I now know why.) We did end up going. We saw several of our items sale for very good amounts. When leaving we inquired about the items that he didn’t even try to auction off and we’re told he would get to those at a later date and once all of our items sold he would send us our check. Several months later, after attempts at communication, we received a check in the amount of less than half of we saw sold. We were never able to make contact with him again nor did we get the rest of our money or our items. I have heard several stories along these same lines with Duane Salter. I hope that his auctioneer license has been revolked so he cannot scam others. What a fraud!

Be very cautious when working with Duane Salter. We contracted with them to auction off thousands of dollars in property, which they never ended up doing. It took months to track them down, and when we finally did, it was because of the aid of a state auction licensing investigator. Duane was very unresponsive during months of trying to contact him, to the point of appearing evasive. We ended up incurring significant costs by having to get our property back from Duane and then store it elsewhere. We would highly suggest that one makes sure their auctioneer has an active state license before contracting with them.