Swann Auction Galleries — Attraction in New York

Why I will not be doing business with Swann Again

Before I explain why I will not be doing business with Swann again, I would like to preface my remarks by saying that Swann puts out a beautiful catalog, has a fine selection of items in in their auctions, and in my experience properly describes them. I have no knowledge of how they treat their sellers. I write from the point of view of a buyer.

My dissatisfaction with Swann comes from the excessively long time it takes them to process purchases, their general unresponsiveness to customer inquiries, and their misrepresentation of the status of shipping and handling purchases which have been paid for and are awaiting their action.

Let me give a specific example. On April 6, 2017, I participated online in their African American Fine Art Auction and purchased item 177, a series of seven screenprints by Faith Ringgold. I was told to wait to pay until I received an invoice from them which included the buyer's premium and their shipping charges. Swann does not accept credit cards so after I received their invoice by email on April 11, 2017, I mailed them a check on April 12 which they cashed and which cleared my account on April 18, 2017.

I called Swann several times beginning on May 18, one month after my check cleared, to inquire about the status of the shipment of my art and was always given some excuse or told that "it will go out today." My auction item was finally shipped to me on May 25, 2017 and I received it on May 31, 2017.

The bottom line is that Swann did not ship my item until five weeks after they cashed my check. I did not receive my item until six weeks after they cashed my check. If you look at the time it took from the Auction on April 6, to waiting for them to send me an invoice, to receive my artwork, it took Swann 8 weeks after their auction for me to receive my item.

And there was nothing I could do about it. If Swann accepted credit cards, then I would have had some recourse. The fact that they only accept checks and are already holding your money means that the buyer has very little influence.

If I lived in NYC I would have no qualms about bidding in auctions with Swann as I could pay for and pick up my items directly. As an out-of-state customer, I find their process for shipping and handling unsatisfactory.

Over the years I have made many purchases from auction houses and have experience dealing with the shipping and handling of my purchases. This is the most unsatisfactory experience I have ever had with an auction house. Based on my recent experience with Swann, I will not being doing business...

I write this to counteract the negative impression given by one of the earlier writers. Believing that you have something worth $8,000 and it sells (for only) $5,000 is not necessarily the auctioneers fault. I've been an active art dealer since 1970. You learn things. You mention nothing about a reserve--the amount the item cannot be sold below. The consignor received an estimate from the auctioneer as to what they believe the work will sell for at that moment in time, not six months from then. Any number of forces can affect the market one way or the other: stock market has a major correction downward, the wrong party gets elected, banks fail, the Feds indict your auction house for fraudulent practices (Sotheby's and Christies)

You didn't say why you wanted to sell. Art is terribly ill liquid ie: it's hard to sell, even for people in the business. If you told the auctioneer that you were highly motivated to get rid of this dog, that's what he did for you.

One last rule. You go to auctions to buy, not to sell. Do your homework before you go to the auction house. Try to sit in the front row so the auctioneer can feel guilty if you are just off by one bid increment. He's looking for a waiving pencil, a movement of your leg, setting the catalog on the floor or whatever that indicates to him that it's now OK to sell at this lower price. When I used to be active, I spent $15,000+ in auction catalogs and web sites a year, just to keep on top of the market--and I still make mistakes. It's just the business.

A final comment. When I first started attending Swann's auctions. It was a small, somewhat dirty operation where you often had to stand during the sales since there was not enough room for chairs for everyone. And only one toilet! Today they have expanded into three, maybe four floors including storage, Plenty of room to view the items. Fairly comfortable seating. And good lighting. Clean toilets. The owner is a recognized expert in several areas. If he is not the expert, the expert works for him somewhere on site. He's on TV all the time since his opinions are sought after. He walks the floors and will talk to anyone. Yes, the other auction houses have experts too. The downside is that you often need to make an appointment. I still buy at the other houses, but Swann is my...

Although Swann has a fine selection of lots, friendly service, and excellent packaging, I will take my business elsewhere due to its misleading/untruthful pre-live auction bidding. Unlike other auctions (ie. dozens of auction houses under the umbrella of Proxibid), Swann does not allow you to see an up-to-date, current bid (or one increment above the second highest bid) for pre-bidding. Before the lot opens live, there is no current running score for bidders to gauge the bidding trajectory! For example, I won lot # 79 from the Sept. 28 auction for $2,400, plus premiums, tax and shipping I paid $3,372.50. The estimate was $400-600, but for personal reasons I placed an absentee bid of $1,800 - 3 times the high estimate! One second before lot 79 went live, the website indicated bidding at $350. Then when the auction went live two seconds later, the lady auctioneer began the bidding at $1,900!!! I jumped in the live bidding, won, but later I called for an explanation. The Swann rep said there were several absentee bids over the high estimate. Fair enough. Then, show the high bid as one increment above the second highest bid during the pre-live auction phase. Or if there is not a second bidder, simply show the high bid as one increment over the minimum/starting bid as auctions across the USA do. Swann can keep their absentee bidding (or pre-bidding as some call it), yet still show how the bidding progresses so customers are not blindsided with a falsity that there is a high bid of $350 when several bidders had allegedly already bid well...