National Book Auctions

This was a very difficult complaint to receive. We operated well within the terms of the contract and our services have generated a sizable, unexpected return for this client. At the time we first received this complaint, his consignment was still in process and settlement had not yet come due. Phone calls were answered.
When we agreed to work with these books, the client was able to show us only a small percentage of the collection, the balance being boxed and sealed from a family estate, with the contents unknown to anyone. The collection had already been declined by another auction gallery which conducts uncatalogued auctions without including online bidding. In an effort to provide good service, we gambled on the collection and accepted it for our regular cataloged auctions with global online bidding included. If we had not accepted this collection, it seemed that it would be donated or otherwise discarded. The valuation of over $12,000 is a result of our work, not an appraisal that was conducted independently nor prior to our taking receipt of the collection.
What we do is laborious and our service generates excellent sales results from the worldwide collecting community. Our gallery is unique in the country and it takes time for us to complete our work in an effective manner. Collections of this size routinely take several auctions and a few months to complete. We have always had every intention of fulfilling the terms of our contract and have diligently done so in all our work relating to this consignment.
This client has been paid in full and provided with a full report of all his sales, as he was promised and well within the timeline outlined in the contract. This was a sizable collection and the time needed to complete the work we do was not unusual for a consignment of this size. We do wish that we had been better able to articulate to this individual the value of what we do, especially in light of the fact that we raised these books from being cast off to delivering a handsome return for him. Our services are tremendously effective and are well worth the time required to complete.

This review was a surprise. We were in contact with this client and resolved the account promptly. We approved this consignment as it was coming from a seasoned book dealer who was well acquainted with our auctions. We expected that all of the books that were coming would be marketable but about 500 of the books, making up about 20-25% of the total delivery, were mass market, general books with very little resale value. These should have clearly been too low in value to be included in one of our auctions, especially given his experience with our auctions. The balance of the material sent was saleable and typical of our consignments. As per the terms of our contract, we do at times allow people to leave with us books that are not saleable, when they come in the company of quality material and when that happens, we cull and donate those items at no charge to the client. As a courtesy to this client, we located his donation books by sorting through a large quantity of material, boxed, and freighted back to him, at our expense, his donation-grade books, despite our having been given the clear authority to donate them. He stipulated that approximately 500 books were of this class and we shipped back to him, 26 boxes, each containing about 20 books. Thus, we shipped back to him, the same number of books that he correctly asserted, went unsold, due to their very low value. We offer top-caliber cataloging in auctions that incorporate online bidding and we are unique in the country in that we make that available to people with material that falls in a broad range of value. The other book auction galleries who perform services on par with ours have very high minimum value thresholds. The books we sold for this client would not have been accepted by any of our competitors. We work very hard, charge modestly for our services, and are a small company. We are constantly improving and are proud to work hard for clients such as this, who can find no other comparable venue willing to accept their material.

We did our best to gracefully explain to this client that the books she had were of very low value and we understand that can be difficult news to hear when expectations are higher. Given the age of the books, there was a chance that one or more books of some value might be nestled among the chaff and we offered to perform that search. The client told us that she found the books abandoned in a house she had purchased and after reviewing the collection, it was clear that the books had been left behind for good reason. Most were mildewed and/or had extreme condition issues, while the rest were simply very common.
Much of our work is with estates and we end up absorbing some books that cannot be sold due to being very low in value. At our own expense, we deliver these books as a donation to a local non-profit. Our first choice is for these books to not enter our facility at all but when they do, we prefer to go to the extra effort of donating them. If a client is not willing or able to remove these books prior to delivery, the best we can do is donate them, at no charge to the client. Naturally, our first choice is to sell as many of the books as possible as there is no value to us in paying staff to pack, store and transport books that must be donated. It is not practical for us to track these books, store them indefinitely and coordinate with clients to retrieve them. If the client wants these very low value books back rather than allowing them to be donated, we request that they remove those books from the consignment before delivering to us. For small consignments, we are sometimes able to identify the unsaleable books at time of delivery, depending upon cataloging staff availability, and in those cases, we are happy to see the books leave with the client.
Under pressure from this client, we performed a complete review of her collection at the time of delivery, despite it being a substantial quantity of books. We were able to determine that there were no saleable books in the collection and the client left with the entire group. If we could have given the client better news, we certainly would have preferred to do so.