jlevine auction & appraisal house Jlevines.com So-Called antique auction/appraisal house sells 100 year old items for $10.00 no reserves! scottsdale, Arizona

I, an everyone here at J Levine, are personally saddened by this pair of reviews left by a Seller with Auction Remorse. We hold ourselves to the highest standards in the auction business.  Please read our all our reviews on google, dex and the better business bureau when weighing this past consignors remarks. 

I will do my best to answer to the charges.  1) A questionable practice of weekly auctions.  (We conduct an auction every week with consigned antiques & Collectibles.  We are hired by estate & bankrupcy attorneys, fiduciaries, executors, collectors, museums, antique dealers and the like.)  The process is something we are most proud of.  The first step in the process, the seller contacted a representative at J Levine Auction.  After the salesman evaluated the items to be a fit for one of our sales, arrangements were made for the items to be brought to our gallery. Once the items were in our possession, they were tagged, inventoried and reviewed by our experts. We have a combined 50+ years experience in reselling antiques and collectibles.  We have buyers / bidders from over 40+ countries every month.  Average auction boosts over 4000 registered bidders. If we are not familiar with an item, we enlist the services of noted authorities whom we consider to have the best knowledge and reputation within their given field in order to ensure accurate and trustworthy descriptions. This was not necessary with this clients items. However, we treat a $10 item as if it were a priceless heirloom, as we are presenting it, to the world for a live broadcast auction. Unlike our competitors, every auction we conduct is Live Online, Live in house, & features a Live Streaming Video Webcast on 4 auction bidding platforms.

2) High volume of goods ? Yes we do sell a high volume of goods every week, but no more than most regional & national auction houses. I invite anyone to open n Antique Trader or the Maine Antique Digest and look at the 2000 and 3000 lot auctions that go on every day across america.

3) Education ? We employ staff with Masters in Fine Art, Masters in History, have Officers with Business Managment & Accounting Degrees, as well as Auctioneers with a combined 20 years experience selling Antiques and Collectibles for over 1000 consignors to date. 

4) No Reserve.  Yes, our Thursday Auctions have no reserve and starting bid of $10.  Our contract, in Bold, states this in numerous places & our salesman clearly explain it and it's our business model.  We are in the business of liquidating assets for our customers.  We are not a consignment store and recommend them to consigners often when they are uncomfortable with the no reserve clause. "Unheard of" in the profession ?  Its more common than not.  Also, The Christies and Sotheby's reference is not relevant. These companies have minimum values for items excepted and would not entertain these mid to low level valued items. 

5) The market has changed greatly and i can reference many articles written about the values of antiques and the perceived value by descedants versus the fair market value.  Furniture is an excellent example of the supply demand theory in the market.  (i.e. The baby boomers are passing away or down sizing at record pace and the market is flooding with Antique Furniture. Futher, the Gen X and Y buyers are not remotely interested in these items. Supply is LARGE, the demand is NULL....therefore the market is quite soft to non-existent.  Desk sold for consignor is case in point. There is an expectation of a twenty year forecast of this pattern.

6) "Ask to attend a Thursday Auction." We love our potential consignors to attend our public and broadcast events.  We find attending is excellent for educating the public to the market and it's also a great marketing tool for our business.  A lot of our past consignors are now regular attendees of our auctions.

7) LASTLY - Giving Away, Illegal, Ignorant, Uncultered, No education, no respect, insulting, obnoxious, crooked, fence, stolen, robbed are all very hurtful honestly, as I work here 80+ hours a week, Our staff always does their very best & we take this all very personal.  I am saddened by these comments.  I will try to learn from the lessons in here as there is always one.

Sincerely,

Josh Levine, Auctioneer / Appraiser (A#005205)