LADENBURG Automobilia Auctions not paying consignors?

WOW some of those bid prices on the Ni-cola auction are amazing!! I think I will contact them and see if they would like to sell my photos, sales brochures, race passes, stickers ect....The original stickers and decals are really cool and I have a TON of them!

 

When Ronald Stern or whoever the main buyer stops this market will drop. A bubble I feel.

 

Yes, some of the bids are crazy. But over the last 2 years the market and results
in these auctions were very strong.

best wishes,
BjörnS

PS: It seems that they removed Lot 546 with yesterdays highbid of EUR 20.004,- EUR

 

What item was lot 546?

 

Photo of F1 presentation in Maranello Courtyard 1961.

Marcel Massini

 

Hi all,

the next nicola auction catalog is online...
Some interesting items from the J.L. Elbert collection (Ferrari postcards, brochure's etc.)

https://auction.nicola-ac.de/catalog112/?page=1&search=&btn=Suchen&filter=

Marcel Seidel's catalog will follow in the next days..

best wishes,
BjörnS

 

Doubt it. Not specific to Ladenburg. The auction biz is one of the last truly archaic ones.

 

now the online catalog for the may auction of Marcel Seidel's automobilia ladenburg is online...

https://www.automobilia-ladenburg.de/aAPI/catalogs/de/7edd3a6c33ac1704882b5c943234bf65/page/1

best wishes,
BjörnS

 

I was just following the Ni-Cola auction live, and the photo postcards still seem to be most desirable. Even when multiple postcards are available in 1 auction, as was the case here.

By the way, first name notwithstanding, I am not affiliated with Ni-Cola.

 

Re Seidel's Automobilia Ladenburg auction:
Clearly they have massive organisational problems and probably lack of people. And a strange business philosophy.
On 1 October I purchased online some photos for approx. Euro 6'000 and paid within 20 minutes.
I have proof that they had the payment on Monday 2nd October.
Only on the 5th October they confirmed receipt of my payment.
As of today 10th October they haven't even started sending the stuff to me. Instead I got an email that they are still waiting for some items from the consignor!!!
They are offering and selling stuff that they do not even have physically.
Do I like this?
NOOOO. Not good.
They also are very slow answering mails and sometimes simply don't answer at all.
I am really not a new customer, having spent over the last few years many ten thousands of Euros already there.
BUYERS BEWARE!!

Marcel Massini

 

Not good! I'm okay with things taking a while, but not even having the items in their possession? Come on...

I think Seidel might lose a lot of clients to the neighbour Ni-Cola (again not related to me, just a name coincidence) that way.

 

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Ferrari 250 GT Coupe Pininfarina ??
Noooooooooooo !!

 

It is already well known that their descriptions can be seriously poor.
But the bidders usually know exactly what it is, better than the auction house, and if they wanna buy the item they go for it. No matter how it is described.
You cannot expect that an automobilia auction house has real knowledge, all they want is sell, sell, sell.

Marcel Massini

 

Doesn´t Seidel let the conseigners verify the description first or am I spoiled by the other auction houses I frequent?

 

Yes, the consignors can verify and also supply the descriptions, which is what I do so that things don't get screwed up. I always supply descriptions which I check to make sure they are correct. Many consignors do not do that, and/or they supply wrong information, which the auction companies most often don't bother to check if correct or not. And as Marcel wrote: "You cannot expect that an automobilia auction house has real knowledge, all they want is sell, sell, sell."

 

Whoever you are (always easy to hide behind an alias..........) I can tell you that I have sent both Ladenburg auction companies (Seidel and Friedrich's Ni-Cola) repeatedly corrections for their descriptions. Just to help them and become a bit more professional. However, I have given up because nobody seems to be really interested in proper identification.

Marcel Massini

 

I agree, and I'll add that they just don't care. They do a great disservice to their clients; consignors and bidders. Over the years I have alerted and sent correct information to various auction companies... and always the response is the same... either they ignore me, or they reply with a BS explanation and defense. RM, Bonhams and Mecum immediately come to mind, but ALL auction houses are guilty. It always amazes me that the children "working" at these companies just do not know how to take responsibility, or accept correct help & info.

 

OH YES!!!!
Massive issues with both Ladenburg auction companies when exporting stuff from Germany (EU) to another country such as Switzerland where I live (Switzerland is not in the EU). A nightmare every time. They have no clue.

Marcel Massini

 

Hello all,
I don't know the background for the actual "delay" but keep in mind:
- customs (and declaration) is a nightmare, custom authority's set timelines and they took days to process them
- last week we had a public holiday day (Tag der Einheit, Tuesday 03.10.) here in germany

Hope it will solved soon,
best wishes,
BjörnS

 

I have zero understanding when someone offers a service that he can not fulfill. That public holiday was 24 hours, not 8 days. Don't forget that the customer also pays 16% surcharge plus shipping costs. If you are internationally active and sell internationally, then you must hire suitable personnel who knows all the rules and tricks very well. Everybody knows that dealing with bureaucrats, customs, authorities and the like is a total nightmare. Nothing new here. Seidel/Ladenburg are simply not professional and clearly they are totally understaffed. Not answering emails is another thing I don't like as a good customer.

Marcel Massini

 

One thing that strikes me when I look at auction results across sites, is that the old Ferrari paint color charts always demand very high prices. Do they still have a practical use in today's restoration of vintage cars like the original toolkits, or are they just highly collectible like the photo postcards?

I've never owned a car where matching the original paint color was of significance, so I'm not familiar with the process. My own cars have always been historic rally builds (not Ferraris yet, but working my way towards a 308 GTB!) where livery was way more important than paint. I mainly frequent auction sites to look for rare items such as specific wheels or copilot equipment to complete my rally builds (and to end up buying some fun stuff while I'm there...), and as I used to be involved with Lancia's I also came across a lot of Ferrari related items along the way. I'm not as fanatic as that one guy who built a complete Stratos out of spare parts though. But looking at auctions and reading this forum does give me some starting knowledge for when the day comes that I own a Ferrari. It's been itching for years, so that day will come. My neighbour used to own a 328, my hairdresser owns a Valeo Mondial, so I'm surrounded by bad influences! Maybe I should give myself a headstart and buy a Fram filter.

As I'm in the EU I've luckily been spared that kind of export problems. I'm all too familiar with auction houses not replying to email though! The only ones I've found to be consistently good with email communication were BringATrailer and Catawiki, which have a fully online focus anyway. All the more traditional ones are hit and miss with email at best. Telephone seems to work better for some of them. But Bonhams was particularly unreachable, even when I wanted to sell items.

Regarding the erronous identification in descriptions: that's a two edged sword. For the most part, I would like the auction houses/sellers to pay more attention to their descriptions so that everyone knows what they're bidding on and the whole process becomes a bit more professional. On the other hand, if you are a well-informed bidder you can sometimes do a good deal buying a misidentified gem. But that's just a positive side effect of a bad situation so overall perhaps not a good reason to keep the status quo.

 

Suggest to change the hairdresser.

Marcel Massini

 

Well it is one of the rarest Ferrari's of its time... Too bad it resembles the box it came in a bit too much. Her husband also has a 348, so luckily they also have a Ferrari that is more pleasing to the eye. As for changing hairdresser, I prefer talking gearboxes over the weather when having my hair done!