InvaluableReviews 145

I've participated in 3 auctions, unfortunately. In all three, I was extremely disappointed in what I received. The auctions took place over a 3-day period, so by the time I realized that I had been ripped off, it was too late. I bought autographed sports memorabilia - all of which didn't pass professional authentication. Not even close. "Laughably fake," in their words. I received sports cards in poor condition. But poor condition is better than completely, photo-copied, fake reprints of original, valuable cards. What a total scam! And the shipping charges are ridiculous. I've tried to reach the auction houses that ripped me off, and of course they never answer, return calls, or emails. These were Randy's Cabin Auction, and South Florida Estate Sales and Auctions. Please please please avoid this garbage. I can't believe it's even legal... shameful.

Lot Nr. 121 - Biedermeier Laderndluhr 1 year Astronomical Regulator on Fountain Auction Gallery on 17.Nov. 2018 is a total fake!

Here is the short story about this Laterndluhr-fake:

Some years ago I`ve bought this clock from the Vienna "art dealer" Mr. Andreewitch at a high amount and after the clock experts had found, that this clock was a total fake, Mr. Andreewitch had to take back the clock and to return the whole amount I`ve paid. Mr. Andreewitch also had to pay all the costs for the Vienna law court and the whole costs for the lawyers.

We are an auction house, we have used the Invaluable Auction platform site to sell our auction items on two occasions. We collect all the proceeds from the auction sale and ship the items. Invaluable provides the platform and a huge number of bidders to our auction but Invaluable is in no way responsible for what is sold, that it is shipped or guaranteed to be authentic, that is the auction company selling and describing their items and collecting the money responsibility. Perhaps Invaluables failure, if any, is that auction companies using their platform are not vetted properly.

I won one of their on-line auctions on July 21,2018, paid for it by debit card on July 23, and as of today, August 7, I have still not even received a billing invoice from their shipper, Pony Mailbox in Galatin, TN, nevermind the item itself. Phone calls and emails have produced no positive results, just excuses that they have a large number of items to transport to the shipper in the same town, and the shipper says they are doing the best they can to get invoices sent out and items shipped.
This is no way to run a business. If the local shipper can't handle the load themselves, then Invaluable, doing business through Worthington Galleries, should seek additional help from other nearby shippers to reduce the backlog.
I doubt I will be doing any business with Invaluable/Worthington Galleries in the future, unless they finally streamline their shipping arrangements.
If I had known I would have to wait this long for an item that I paid for and still has not been shipped, I would have made the 10 hour drive out to Galatin TN, picked it up myself and brought it home. I may do it yet if something doesn't happen pretty quick.

Invaluable is the creation of self proclaimed auctioneer and gold expert
Fred Holabird whom is an a confidence scam artist or con man. He also does business as Holabird Auctions, Holabird western Americana, Gold Leaf Placer, Holabird Kagin Americana, ect, ect.
Do not just go away mad, excepting your loss. Call your local police, the FBI, and your state attorney general and file complaints with them. He is already under investigation and the more information and complaints they have on him the more time he will serve!

I purchased a Marc Chagall painting through Invaluable affiliated auction House 'Art Legacy' in Chicago. It was a signed lithograph. After paying the premium and the shipping charges, when I received the painting, I decided to have it independently appraised. By two separate appraisers, it was assessed as a fraud. The painting was a photograph reproduction from a book and the artist signature was inserted afterwards because the original that appears in the Raison Catalogue does not have the artist signing directly on the lithograph. I contacted Art Legacy and they told me if I was not happy, I could return it. So I paid additional shipping to return the painting to them. And this is where the drama gets more complicated. I gave them wiring instructions to send me back my $649 and I never heard back. After several phone calls, I was told that by them that I had given them the wrong wiring instructions (I had not) and that they could not recover the funds. Since I live in Canada, I contacted TD, my bank here in Canada, who also tried to intervene. I instructed Art Legacy to do a wire trace with their Comerica Bank and this saga dragged on for close to 2 months. After contacting Art Legacy two weeks ago, I was told the funds were finally recovered. I then instructed them to mail me a cheque, (registered so it would not be lost) which also dragged on. Finally today, I received the cheque for $500 with a little note saying that fees and processing charges had been deducted without specifying where the difference between the $649 I paid and the $500 I received went. This ordeal went on for over 2 months. What a nightmare! You would think since the painting was a fraud to begin with, the mixup on their end with the wire transfer and the inconvenience I was put through that the least they could do would be reimburse me in full for the price I paid. Buyer Beware if dealing with Art Legacy.

Purchased a ring through invaluable (Rare Treasures) paid $750 for it never received the ring. Invaluable was completely useless in helping me get the merchant to send me the item or refund my money. They basically told me it wasn't their problem the ring that I purchased continues to be out there on the site months after I purchased it it is a total scam, When I asked them about ensuring that the merchants and items were actually authentic and available they said it's not their problem basically it's my problem she all but hung up on me. Be aware stay away!

Did anyone know that invaluable.com and ebay have a contract to sell items from these auction houses and that when you are bidding you are in competition with other bidders from Ebay.live and another auction site that is also in partnership with invaluable? If this information was disclosed would you still bid on one of the auction on invaluable or Ebay.live? I certainly would have been bidding on Ebay since it protects its consumers. I also believe they have "bidders" artificially increasing the bid amounts until they realize a price where they have made a decent profit and charge an additional minimum 20% buyers premium on each item. The numbers done lie. In one weekend auction that sells over valued and poor quiality jewelry a minimum of $150,000. They are making a boat load of money using tactics the take advantage of the consumers yet work their terms and conditions so that they cannot be held liable. Ebay is a public held company and it prides itself with its buyer protection policy so why doesn't invaluable offer the same protection since they have a contract with Ebay to cross platform these auctions. In a brick and mortar auction you have bidders in house, phone bidders and sealed bids but the way these companies run these auction you can't verify who is legitimate who is working for the companies in question. There have been numerous instances where the items won on these platforms are fake, broken and over valued with a "certificate of value" by some unknown jewelry grader. I contacted an auction house where i was the high bidder on two of their inflated auctions to discuss these issues and was ignored. Since i still have not opened the federal express box they offered me the opportunity to return the items with a 40% restocking fee. I have decided instead to take a stand and fight. I think its time that we stand up for our consumer rights and form some sort of class action suit against all of these companies. Someone has to be responsible for this level of unethical business practices. If you have interest in joining me you can email me at auctionclassaction.gmail.com. Also, if you have knowledge and or experience with these type of issues i would greatly appreciate your assistance.

We deal in collectible and obsolete ammunition and cartridges. A number of times we have placed the winning bid for an item only to discover that the auction house description was totally inaccurate. They tell us a box is sealed to find out it has been wrapped in cellophane with the incorrect cartridges. The auction houses to stay away from are Holabird Americana Auctions, Hansen Reality, J. Levine Auction to name a few. Invaluable COULD CARE LESS about the dishonest auction houses that they host. Remember for them the name of the game is MAKE MONEY.

I am an auctioneer in Maine Daniel Alllen Lic#1431. I held and online auction thru invaluable and it was the worst experience of my 25 yr career! Every bid stated not accepted bid so the online bidders could not bid and the bids would not advance. It also
Stated that a "floor" bid won the bid when actually it was an online bid that won. So... that being said... the customer service was horrid... it was trainees training, lack of english speaking employees not understanding the question, my auction was on a Saturday the online bidding had major problems and I was given 5 different excuses and told no supervisor or manager on duty on Saturday! When I finally received a call back from them it was an international phone number... wtf! This auction was a live audience as well as an online auction... I had to cancel the auction, send everyone home and lost 1000's of dollars worth of sales...
I AM NOT A SCAM AUCTION... I was screwed as much as the bidders! DO NOT USE INVALUABLE... DO NOT USE

By item count, most of the Jewelry is sold by scam "auction houses" that are illegitimate. I found 26,000 items listed, less than 1% were sold by reputable sellers. Having been involved with auctions for 40 years, I know which are bonafide and which aren't. I recommended Invaluable to a friend, and then later realized that most people, including my friend, would be taken in by a con artist seller. Which almost happened. I will never recommend Invaluable as a source of anything to anyone again. Check any reputed auction site for legitimacy before bidding!