Horological Meandering

Joepny
1970

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Auction season pretty much at an end

I am curious to hear how other PuristS have been treated by the auction houses this season or recently. In summary, I thought it was another good season for Phillips and Christie's. Their offerings were widely better than others. I was a buyer at Christie's Geneva and I would share that my post-sale experience was a confusing long wait. Christie's Geneva was quick to take my payment (over phone 3 days after) but not so quick to arrange shipping, confirm shipping (had to call twice) and refund taxes (altogether 1 month). I had expected and was resigned to the wait going into it. I've had the same post-sale agonizing back-and-forth with Christie's NY in the past. It seems they are not built to efficiently deliver you the goods once you've paid for it. The staff are polite but you do not get quick responses (as in 24 hrs), it is more like 72 hrs for an email response.

I also have an experience with Bonhams. I was told over the phone by their somewhat impolite customer service woman that they would not take a credit card payment from a first-time buyer and even if they did, there would be a limit of 10K. This was surprising to me because it was not clearly stated in their terms. I did not have this problem with Sothebys and Christie's in the past; those bigger houses take up to 50K on credit payment. I am guessing that Bonhams have major problems with settling payments from customers and/or cash flow issues. On the positive side, the email responses from them have been decently clear and timely, though not within 24 hrs. But I will discount looking at Bonhams in the future due to their credit policy.