Thoughts on Raymond Paszkiewics, Jr auction (round 1)

Posted by: @ed-davis

@ed-davis Ed, that's a stunning model and I really like the diorama setting you have placed it in.

Four pages of comments - I think that we are really engaged with this topic!  I have several replies to comments from various people.  All good.

1. To get a good statistical sample, you need at least 30 reps to see a trend.   Are prices going up or down.  That's hard to do with one model many times, so you have to aggregate models (all MOC Pontiacs for example).  

2. Ken's database would be fascinating to do some trend or statistical analysis on!  I tried to do that with Brooklin prices (sold on ebay) but gave up.  Too much work to gather the data! He put a lot of work into just getting the data organized!

3.  HobbyDB does keep track of the sold price source - look below the item to see it.  As stated above, most times they also do not have enough data to trust any conclusions on real market price.  They rely on their users to enter ebay, etc, sold prices.  It's too difficult to automate it - matching ebay item names with hobbyDB names.

4.  I think many European buyers missed out - even with high VAT and shipping, they could still have gotten a good deal with low bids.  I do that all the time with European ebay items, and win some once in a while!!

 I suppose everyone has different reasons for bidding on certain items.  Some will be attempting to fill gaps in their collection of say MOC items or Victory items and thus concentrate their bidding on those or other chosen brands.   I am more attracted to the car replicated and less what model company made it.    I bid on two MOC early 50s Ford Crestliners and was out bid on each.   I was not just attracted to the fact they were MOC items but that I had no Crestliners on my Ford shelves from any maker.

@ed-davis. I checked my data base back to May 2020 and found only 5 Conquest 1962 Oldsmobiles sold. The most recent is May 16/24 and is the white htp. It sold for $469. Next is Feb 25/23 and is the garnet color T/D convertible that you have pictured. It sold for $306. Next is Nov 5/22 and is a black T/D convertible. It sold for $288. Next is Jun 28/22 and is a black T/U convertible and sold less than $500. As you know, when an offer is taken, Ebay provides only that it is less than the listed price. And finally Jan 5/22 is a red/garnet htp with white roof that sold for $307. I also noticed that a sunset mist  T/D convertible is currently listed at $399. The 2 garnet colors sold for basically the same price. Can't compare the 2 black color sales and the white hardtop is on the high side. In any event, all of them sold for above the original retail sale price of $250 back in May 2020. And yes, it is nicely done. I have the black T/D convertible with red interior.

@kenspear 

Thank you very much. I also have a hardtop, red with white top. 

On Friday night July 12 a day before the auction, I bid on Live Auctioneers for an item 0457 at $160 which was double the existing bid showing at the time.  On the day of the auction the item sold for $160 but I was not the winner.   My bid was recorded with a confirming email and the bid history showed the the current bid moved up before the auction closed at $160.  I would have thought that a winning bid would have to have been at least $170, given the bid increment was $10.  The following day I emailed Live Auctioneers with my concern and the details of my item.  I received a automated reply that they had received my query but a week later there has been no actual response to my concern in spite of follow up emails.   Perhaps I do not understand the auction process but I was under the impression that the winning bid would have had to be greater than my $160  to be the winner and the final price was showing was not over my bid of $160.  I wrote questioning this immediately after the auction day, in the event there was a glitch and wanted to preclude them dispatching the item to someone who was not in fact the winner.   No response has been received and I suspect all winners have had items dispatched to them by now.   What does the forum brain trust say about this?

@john-quilter  Live Auctioneers is just the front end for online bidders for the auction house. I would call https://lloydralstontoys.com/ with your concerns. especially if Live Auc did not reply...  https://lloydralstontoys.com/contact/

I agree; it does not seem right...

Posted by: @karl

@john-quilter  Live Auctioneers is just the front end for online bidders for the auction house. I would call https://lloydralstontoys.com/ with your concerns. especially if Live Auc did not reply...  https://lloydralstontoys.com/contact/

I agree; it does not seem right...

Thank you for this Karl!  I have sent them an email which showed on the link you provided.  If no response by Monday I will call them on the phone.

@john-quilter, it may be that someone else made the same bid, and they give the win to the earliest bid of the same amount.

@john-quilter I had a very similar problem.  I bad $180 Max on a model, with plenty waiting for when bidding increased.  But it ended at $130 and it seemed I was not the winner.  I kicked-up one hell of a stink and it seems I was the winner, after all!  As Karl states, there is a Lloyd Ralston auction going on and concurrently a Live Auctions one, (whom I've learned are part of the E-bay conglomeration) and there seems to be a question of communication between these two.  Live Auctions had one number code for me and billed me for a Rolls I'd won, but Lloyd Ralston had a different code for my other bid - which I had won - but which Live Auctions said I hadn't, because they did not know it was me.

I would press Lloyd Ralston for an answer as they resolved my issue, and in fact both of my models had been sent and were already in France - somewhere - when Live Auctions were still asking where I had got my evidential $180 Max screenshots from.  Perhaps your $160 will have won?

While I await a response from Lloyd Ralston, my concern it that Live Auctioneers may have already dispatched the model to the winner they show.   I did however notify Live Auctioneers of my concern the day after the auction closed which is probably before they had time to dispatch the item.   Just in the last day I have also emailed Lloyd Ralston with my concern and await their response. Having two auctions operating simultaneously is definitely an issue.

May be too late now, but I would have CALLED Ralston in addition to email. I called to say I was sending a check and for them not to use my CC. This saved me more than 30 bucks, but it also shows that calling and talking to a live human being is sometimes the best way to resolve an issue. BTW, all of my winnings arrived yesterday, only two minor repairs needed, otherwise everything was in fantastic mint boxed condition.