GoAntiques caught my eyes once because of a painting attributed to Gainsborough. I had seen that painting before from some seller on ebay auction and dismissed such a stretch of an attribution. But when it reappeared in GoAntiques, at one time I thought I was wrong. After all, big auction houses have experts and appraisers and have the chance to look items in person. Well, that makes it acceptable to pay the extra buyer's premium.
But a close look at GoAntiques shows it is an "eBay" type of online service within the eBay live auction. They gather information from different sellers around different places and sell them through online-only live auction effort.
Thus the traditional screening of consignment does not apply to this no-brick-no-wall auction house. Worst of all you still have to pay buyer's permium.
You may find that the live auction window show "floor bids", but those are actually online absentee bids.
More can be read through here if you are interested:
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=1000330755&tstart=240&mod=1170087605511
Be aware: there are more than one online-only auction houses now. (For example, Universal is another one.) This does not mean that they can not be trusted. But additional caution should be paid to avoid scams or shilling bids.
Check the auction house's website if you are not familiar with the one that you are interested. Another easy way to identify them is to see whether they allow in-house pick up and if you cannot pick up items in person, what are the avaiable local shipping and freight companies who work closely with them.
But a close look at GoAntiques shows it is an "eBay" type of online service within the eBay live auction. They gather information from different sellers around different places and sell them through online-only live auction effort.
Thus the traditional screening of consignment does not apply to this no-brick-no-wall auction house. Worst of all you still have to pay buyer's permium.
You may find that the live auction window show "floor bids", but those are actually online absentee bids.
More can be read through here if you are interested:
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=1000330755&tstart=240&mod=1170087605511
Be aware: there are more than one online-only auction houses now. (For example, Universal is another one.) This does not mean that they can not be trusted. But additional caution should be paid to avoid scams or shilling bids.
Check the auction house's website if you are not familiar with the one that you are interested. Another easy way to identify them is to see whether they allow in-house pick up and if you cannot pick up items in person, what are the avaiable local shipping and freight companies who work closely with them.
More reading about GoAntiques? http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m12/i23/s01
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