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Discover Mid-America — June 2006
What do you do with your 'mistakes?'
Readers may think they know this dealer because we probably all ran across someone like this dealer:
He/she habitually buys stressed and damaged furniture, fixes it up and marries it to other pieces with the help of handy family or friends, then exhibits it in finer venues priced at top retail for an original piece. Still, the dealer has a surprisingly exalted reputation in the field given the questionable nature of much of his merchandise. And, unbeknownst to the individual in question, that reputation isn't worth a plug nickel to any knowledgeable colleague or collector.
Thankfully, most dealers are not this dealer. They clearly recognize the ethical lapse in deliberately misrepresenting made-over merchandise and charging top dollar for it as if it were in as-made condition.
Many dealers do, however, have to face a more common music, and that is what to do with their "mistakes." How, ethically, does a dealer deal with purchases that turn bad? At what point does the effort to get one's money out of such a purchase cross the line into behavior that can damage a dealer's reputation?
 |
| I
found this item, a wonderfully colored box with a hand-painted blue
Japanese signature on the base, at an antique shop. Even though
blue marks on Chinese and Japanese porcelain are generally older,
the complete lack of rim wear on the base told me this item was
new. |
Mistakes aren't always about condition or authenticity
Sometimes, a mistake is just about paying too much for an item. This can happen fairly easily at live auctions, for example, when rival dealers get sucked into "bidding wars." At such times, emotion can easily override the brain's rational circuits. We've all heard the war stories about these occasions: "It was like I was crazy. I knew I was going too high, but I was damned if I was going to let him get it!"
If you've ever ended up kicking yourself for paying too much for something at auction or elsewhere, all is not necessarily lost. You can try to get your money out of it, and perhaps even make a modest profit on it, by emphasizing legitimate special attributes of the item - without exaggerating or misrepresenting these features.
If that silver item has unusually good repoussé or the unmarked art glass you bought for Loetz that wasn't has an especially pleasing form and design, it's only smart to call attention to such things in the resale tagging of those items. If you have to charge a premium for an item you bought too dearly, best give the customer some rationale for paying even more for it than you did! After awhile, though, you may find you have to bite your own bullet and sell the item at a lost — getting something out of it being better than nothing.
Ye olde "price reflects problem" ploy
In cases involving issues with condition and/or authenticity, some dealers adopt a strategy of "pricing to problem" without declaring the problem, feeling they've thereby discharged all moral responsibility to potential customers. For such dealers, "Buyer Beware" becomes less a warning to customers than an excuse for selling bad merchandise.
This approach to dealing with dealer mistakes is hardly just. Not all retail customers are experienced enough to be able to tell the difference between a reasonably priced or bargain-priced item in respectable condition and a piece of junk. "Their problem," you may be tempted to mutter. But do you really want customers to have to stand in front of your display space wondering which of the motley merchandise is reliable?
Those in the trade talk all the time about wanting to attract younger customers. The fact is that younger customers are also likely to be the least experienced in buying antiques and collectibles. Like the rest of us, they'll have to take their lumps when it comes to honest mistakes. But they really shouldn't have to worry about dealers deliberately preying on their inexperience - at least not if the trade wants to cultivate their future business.
 |
|
Older Beswick animal models, before the firm's sale to Royal Doulton, are particularly hot with Beswick collectors — and goat models tend to have cross-collectible appeal. I bought this diminutive and scarce Beswick "Kid," model #1036, produced from 1945 through 1971 and valued at $175 in the 5th edition Charlton Standard Catalog. And that's after the authors significantly downgraded their prices over previous editions to reflect the impact of the collectibles glut on eBay; as in any collecting field, scarce items hold their value. Only trouble is I didn't look before I purchased this item for my private collection and missed the ear break, an older repair done with glue whose color closely matches the color of the item itself. If you didn't know it was there, you could easily miss it. Trouble is, I do know. For now, I'm content to keep the item in my own collection. If I were to sell it, I hope I'd have the moral fortitude to declare the damage and not just fudge the issue by "pricing to sell." |
Strategies for unloading mistaken purchases
Whether they're dealers or collectors, folks at the extremes of the continuum of coping with mistaken purchases will either want to keep the item around to remind them not to be so rash next time or just want to get it out of their sight so as not to be continually reminded of the pain. Depending on where you fall on the continuum between these extremes, some of my suggested strategies for using your mistakes will appeal more than others.
Okay, so maybe you can't sell that fake or doctored Maxwell Parrish that you bought for original in an excess of enthusiasm that prevented you from taking a closer look before you paid for it. But there are people out there who buy reproductions and even damaged items, either because they can't/won't afford the originals or because they fear incurring damage to expensive original-condition pieces. Even if you can't exhibit a mistake at a high-end antiques emporium, you can probably move it — ethically, with problems declared — at some other venue, such as a flea market, yard sale, thrift shop, auction box lot, eBay, etc. You can even donate the item to a charity flea market or thrift shop.
Might you have to eat the loss altogether?
Well...in a word, yes. Much depends on the seriousness of what's "not right" with the item. If it's fairly commonly available 19th-20th century glass and it's chipped or cracked, it's probably not sellable in any venue. If it turns out the 18th century candle stand has been refinished, with one of the cabriole feet reconstructed from scratch by an amateur 20th century restorer, well, you might have to just find a nice corner of a bedroom in your house to display it.
You probably can't be in this trade and not make an occasional mistake, fewer and farther between as they will likely get with experience. What you can't do, if you care about maintaining your good name, is "pass the pain on" to the next unsuspecting buyer, hoping you won't get caught. The risk to your reputation isn't worth the gain to your pocket.
Peggy Whiteneck is a writer and collector living in East Randolph, VT. If you would like to suggest a topic she can address in her column, email her at allwrite@sover.net.
> Good Eye Archive — past columns
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