http://www.flomatonantiqueauction.com/
Very interesting front page at Flomaton with mention of "reorganization" and "economic situation"...not to mention the "suspending our monthly auctions".
Where is the Federal bailout plan for the antique market?
- Jason
Flomaton auction - "not"
Archive summary
Auction and Show Watch thread on victorianforum.com · started October 2, 2008 by 1881victorian · 3 posts · discussion in 2008.
http://www.flomatonantiqueauction.com/ Very interesting front page at Flomaton with mention of "reorganization" and "economic situation"...not to mention the "suspending our monthly auctions". Where is the Federal bailout plan for the antique market? - Jason
I saw this also the other day Jason---I guess you could interpret this many ways---I hate to see this as I always enjoyed the Flomaton auction. Charles. ???
Hmmm, interesting, i wonder if the recent credit crunch brought on by freddie/fannie collapse had anything to do with what sounds like closing their auction business.
In other auction house news, The Cobbs Auctioneers has decided to discontinue internet bidding.
"Much to the pleasure of those who attend auctions in person, Charlie Cobb has decided to discontinue Internet bidding for a variety of reasons. The bottom line is simply that it wasn't worth the extra bother and the extra cost. "I had to put a full-time person on that part of the job," he said, as he further explained there were always two to four complaints from bidders that they were losing out to a floor or a phone bidder at the same or a lower amount due to the time lag in Internet bidding.
The effect of that was lost sales and lost commissions when the underbidder had to be tracked down in an attempt to resell the item. Some buyers preferred the absolute anonymity of Internet bidding as opposed to phone bidding, but as far as Cobb is concerned, the loss of that small aspect of service is more than compensated for by the fact that more people will now stay at the auction in person and bid until the end.
The extra expense of eBay simply wasn't paying off. Cobb concluded that often "not only did I lose the transaction, I lost the five percent!"
I would argue that this is a short sighted move by Cobb and will come back to bite him in the future. By contrast, check out Cowan's brand new website complete with high definition pic's and it's obvious to me who is going to move up in the auction house world. Maybe a Christies or Sotheby can get away with doing it their way but cobb? I dont think so.
http://www.cowanauctions.com/index.asp
In other auction house news, The Cobbs Auctioneers has decided to discontinue internet bidding.
"Much to the pleasure of those who attend auctions in person, Charlie Cobb has decided to discontinue Internet bidding for a variety of reasons. The bottom line is simply that it wasn't worth the extra bother and the extra cost. "I had to put a full-time person on that part of the job," he said, as he further explained there were always two to four complaints from bidders that they were losing out to a floor or a phone bidder at the same or a lower amount due to the time lag in Internet bidding.
The effect of that was lost sales and lost commissions when the underbidder had to be tracked down in an attempt to resell the item. Some buyers preferred the absolute anonymity of Internet bidding as opposed to phone bidding, but as far as Cobb is concerned, the loss of that small aspect of service is more than compensated for by the fact that more people will now stay at the auction in person and bid until the end.
The extra expense of eBay simply wasn't paying off. Cobb concluded that often "not only did I lose the transaction, I lost the five percent!"
I would argue that this is a short sighted move by Cobb and will come back to bite him in the future. By contrast, check out Cowan's brand new website complete with high definition pic's and it's obvious to me who is going to move up in the auction house world. Maybe a Christies or Sotheby can get away with doing it their way but cobb? I dont think so.
http://www.cowanauctions.com/index.asp