Caplan's auction house is incredible. Not only do they get amazing estates to auction; you can actually speak with the owners directly-- so when I purchased multiple pieces from this auction house I really appreciated that they held my furniture for a couple weeks for my shippers to pick up. A+++ for customer service!! read more

Caplan's provided invaluable support to my family and me during the challenging process of clearing my dad's house. They were compassionate, professional, and made everything much easier during a difficult time. I highly recommend their services for anyone needing assistance with estate matters. We received top dollar for the clothes, glassware, jewelry, furniture and automobiles. read more

I have gotten so many beautiful pieces of furniture from Caplan's! The online auction is amazing and it makes it so easy to bid. I got the most beautiful chairs that had been freshly reupholstered and looked even nicer than in the pictures. I also got a solid oak roll top desk for a fraction of what I would have paid for a similar desk elsewhere. I seriously couldn't believe my luck, it was such a steal! Caplan's always has fantastic quality things and I recommend the online auction whenever my friends need new furniture or cool finds for their apartments! read more

As the co-owner of a small business myself, I read the negative reviews here and felt compelled to write a review myself -- and address some of the other comments made here. I first began attending Caplan's a decade ago as a freshly minted antiques and collectibles dealer starting a new business. I enjoyed the auctions and got merchandise at prices that represented what the market had to bare. Our business grew over the years and we began selling in many antiques malls across the DMV. We also began using auction houses throughout the country to sell different things so that we could sell them faster. Over the course of time, we began to take entire truckloads of items to Caplan's because it proved to us repeatedly over the years that the family that runs the business is the most honest and ethical we've ever met. We just brought another truckload today. Not only do we bring a great deal of our own items to Caplan's, we bring our clients' items there, too. I highly recommend Caplan's to anyone needing auction house services. As for people who have expressed criticism here, mostly relating to hurt feelings, the valuations given to their items or the checks they received, it's important for people to realize that sentimental value does not equal market value. The market for most kinds of antiques and collectibles has fallen considerably over the last 10 years. Auctions by their nature are aslo hit-and-miss propositions. You win some, you lose some. Ultimately, the free market (the bidders) determines the value of any object, not auction houses. I know people get their feelings hurt when someone tells them grandma's china cabinet is worth next to nothing (I have to deliver this news daily -- my least favorite part of my job) but that doesn't mean that Caplan's is being rude. It's just being honest. Honesty on sentimental and financial subjects is often hard for people to hear. People also forget that all auctioneers make their money on commissions -- so no one is more disappointed than they are when items don't sell well. It's in their best interest to do as much as they can to generate as much money for consigners as they can. I trust Caplan's enough that when I die, I fully expect my wife to take my estate there. That's the highest compliment I can give. read more

Caplan's Auction Company - Appraisal Services Near Me - Savage, Maryland

SELLER, BEWARE. If you're thinking of using Caplan's Auction to sell your things, think twice. The man who evaluates the contents of estates (John Harris) is a salesman, and as long as he sees any easy money in the estate, he'll say anything to persuade you to give Caplan's the job. When he evaluated the contents of our mother's house after her death, he told us the following: * Caplan's gets top dollar for Lladros (collectible porcelain figurines from Spain). They have a huge mailing list of Lladro collectors and hold special auctions for them. Our mother owned a Lladro that she bought in the 80s for over $8k. (We had an offer to sell it outright for $2,500 but held out because we were assured Caplan's would get more for it.) * So little of our mother's estate was unsellable that we did not even need to rent a dumpster. Based on John's assurances, we hired Caplan's to sell our mother's belongings (primary importance) and leave the house broom swept (secondary). We would have been better off selling the Lladro for $2,500, giving everything else away, and sweeping the house ourselves. The crew showed up with a truck on Friday--2 hours late. They were not Caplan's employees but subcontractors. They worked for several hours loading the truck and told us that almost everything on that load would be going to Caplan's to be sold. They did drop off a few obviously unsellable but still usable things at Salvation Army that day. The crew returned on Monday to finish the job--2 hours late again. They loaded the rest of our mother's stuff onto the truck and swept her floors. The guy in charge told us that nearly everything in this load would go to the dump. They didn't have time to sort it, and in his opinion, much of it was not sellable anyway. We told him we would pay them for 2 hours extra to sort the contents and at least take some to Goodwill--which he said they would do but didn't. As an aside, I have worked in eCommerce for more than 20 years and have sold tens of thousands of items on eBay and other marketplaces. Trust me when I say I know what's sellable and what's not. I'm also the owner of our local freecycle group (an online forum where people can give stuff away to people who can use it, thereby keeping it out of the landfill) and know it would have been simple to find people who would have been thrilled to have been gifted the items from our mother's house. A couple months after Caplan's crew cleaned out our mother's house, we received an envelope from Caplan's containing a $1,400 check, a paper showing the fees Caplan had taken out of the auction proceeds, a small pile of undated slips of paper with sales prices and cryptic item descriptions scrawled on them, and two landfill receipts, EACH FOR MORE THAN 2 TONS of refuse. The Lladro ended up selling for a measly $2,000, and one of the $200 landfill receipts was time stamped 7:30am the Monday after Caplan's crew picked up the Friday load that was supposedly 99% sellable. So, after assuring us we did not need to rent a dumpster because virtually everything was sellable, they ended up throwing away more than 4 TONS of our mother's stuff. When I finally got through to Caplan's office (I called a few times from the phone number I'd called them from before--no answer; tried calling from a friend's a minute later, and they picked right up), I got gibberish as an explanation. The receptionist told me they do their best to get as much as they can for every item entrusted them--they try to sell things on 2, 3, sometimes even 4 different nights. She said they have auctions every Sunday and that they probably tried unsuccessfully to sell our mother's stuff then--but she'd need to check with the crew and get back to me. It's been several weeks, and I have yet to hear from anyone at Caplan's. I think John told us what we wanted to hear, then once they gained possession of our mother's stuff, they cherry picked the easy sales and threw out the rest. I've read other reviews of this company, and this unfortunately is not an isolated case. Seller, beware. read more

Always a good experience with caplans. Whether it's buying or selling. Owners really care. Highly recommend.

I recently bought a television at auction, and the product does not turn on at all. I know it says items are sold as is, no refunds, but the least I'd expect someone to do for a used electronic is to plug it in once and check to see if it turns on. I've bought other electronics from them, but this is the first dud I've received. Very disappointed. read more

This place is an absolute joke. I've never been to such a stuck up snotty antique store in my life. The employee we dealt with was so incredibly rude. Recently we took a box of some of my mothers grandmothers old fashioned belongings to this place and we took one item out of the box to show this employee and she said "is everything in this box like this? Because if so its all junk." I understand that it may not have been worth much money but she could have worded it much better. There was a lot of sentimental value with everything in the box, so for the employee to call everything junk is very rude, insulting, and unprofessional. She could have just as easily said "Sorry, but these items honestly probably wouldn't go for very much money." instead. Anyway, I recommend you take your business to a much nicer pleasant location than this place. At least other places take the time to inspect every item and not just assume. read more

BEWARE......For people considering using Caplan's Auction to sell your things. The owner (John Harris) promised a lot when he came to my place and looked over my massive collection of a wide range of collectibles. My home was filled and he wanted all of it and told me not to sell anything off to other dealers, otherwise he wouldn't take a single item of mine. In the end, months later, after repeated calls and unanswered emails to John Harris, I finally got a measly check for $3000. I called and complained about what had happened. I was told I would get much more than that. Harris just said sorry, that's just how the auctions are, great easy excuse to give to his "clients". How many times has he done this to others, and used that same line? What a snake of man. I really felt taken advantage of and robbed outright. I should have known from the start, when he drove up in his expensive BMW sports car, flash is glitzy gold watch. How else can John Harris afford such luxuries, but by taking advantage of his "client". My advice to you, don't use Caplan's Auction to sell your belongings, you will be taking advantage of. Read the other Google review from another person with the same experience. read more

I can't speak for this auction house but a few years ago we sold many antiques at another auction house.Before we considered them we went to a few auctions to see what prices things were getting and how the auction was run. That way when we sent our things we knew our precious memories were only precious to us but felt the prices were fair. Give auction houses a break. Do your homework and hope the house has a lot of bidders the day your things come up. I love auctions and the excitement they bring. read more

Amazing auction company full of treasures!!! Super fun because you never know what you'll find. There are some terrific deals here and unique items. Be prepared to bid a lot. It's unlike any auction I've been to!!! read more

I love the treasures I find regularly at Caplan's Auction. The atmosphere is friendly and after a few auctions you feel like family. I have been going regularly for the last five years and in that time have managed to upgrade the quality of my home furnishings. If you are looking for unique quality treasures this is the place to spend a few hours. read more

Took many items passed down to me from my grandparents and things from my parents after they passed to Caplan's . I have to agree with other reviewers that the owner was not very polite and rather rude . It's an emotional process to clean out heirlooms and he degraded many items . My interaction with him was less than 5 minutes . You just set your boxes on a table . They do not it inventory your items or look through anything with you . There was only a little transparency in what things sold for . When I called to inquire whether my very nice10x11 Oriental ever sold , the owner stated he needed to send a second check .. I received $40 , no ticket for what it sold or like the items in the first check . Disappointing experience . read more

I'm a buyer, not a seller. I started going for the coins. But, a lot are cleaned and there are some patrons that will pay much more than they're worth. But, that's the only negative thing I have to say. I've always had a good time. And, I've gotten some really good deals on furniture and other collectibles. The bottom line is that it's just plain fun. They're friendly people and they know their business. It's a comfortable place to go and the auctions are well run - no pressure, no gimmicks, just fun. This is my "go-to" place for auctions because it is entertaining and there are always deals if you know what to look for. read more

I recently used Caplans Auction to auction many antiques and clean out my parents home after my dad passed away in June. It was a very emotional time for me and Caplans made the process so much easier. I could never have done any of this myself. Just got the check today and all I can say is thank you for your professional service and care of my parents prized possessions. Oh, and the check that I received, very happy with the results! Would use Caplans again in a heartbeat. read more

There were no hours of operation listed on the website. I thought maybe the business number listed would have the hours in the recording like many businesses do. I called at 7am. The phone hung up. I called again at 10am. The man answered and said he refused to speak to me because I woke him at 7am and hung up on me. Don't put your personal phone as your business phone if you don't want calls or list your hours on your website. Unbelievably unprofessional. read more

On 7-26-18 I stopped into Caplans Auction to have a piece appraised and to see if they had any interest in buying a old antique that came from my father who recently passed. Was greeted by two men who one was probably the most ignorant/ rude person I ever encountered in customer service. Degrading my product after I drove 25 minutes to this location. If you're not interested in the item, be a little more humble about the situation and treat people with respect. Will never come back here, and will never recommend this place to anyone!!!! read more

They get some interesting items, often at good prices, but commit a shocking number of unprofessional and amateurish errors, such as announcing they are accepting bids for "choice of 1 hat from this bookshelf," then halfway through allowing someone to pick up 8 masks as "1 hat." Yeah, we would have bid on that if those had been the rules announced. Good job costing yourselves money there. read more

SELLER BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We worked with Caplan's Auction in Savage last fall as we downsized our living arrangements like many Boomers. We went online and based on their claims and our discussions, selected Caplan's to help us in this life transition. We had a host of antiques, oriental rugs, oil paintings, accessories and much more that Caplans said they were eager to sell on our behalf. In our discussions, it was agreed there were certain items of value where pricing minimums were set before the pieces left our home. The items included 4 "Turn of the Century" antique chairs (recently refurbished at Rockville Interiors for $2,000) and two large oil paintings. Once they departed, Caplan's would not return any of our calls for nearly 5 weeks. Further, we learned that they sold all of our items for almost nothing, claimed they never agreed to pricing minimums and said they had communicated that directive with us shortly after the items left our home. This is a blatant lie! It is my opinion that these individuals are not trustworthy. The receipts they provided are very questionable and it appears that many of them were for items that were not even ours. They took our oil paintings, rugs, antiques and much more, agreed to pricing minimums on numerous items and then claim that they never agree to minimums. It's interesting that there is an antique mall adjacent to their auction house when you can find similar or lesser items then ours in the "thousands of dollars" range for sale where we were advised that our items had no value. Anyone considering selling through Caplan's should RUN....these people cannot be trusted. All I can say is customer..............BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! read more

If your selling antiques don't use these guys. They are complete rip off artists. Better off selling on Craigslist. My mother got $1000 for some beautiful antique furniture that was most likely worth about $6000 read more

I used Caplans to liquidate my grandmothers estate. They were very professional and great to work with. It was very easy to schedule a date for them to pick the items up at my grandmothers home. The crew that came to get the stuff were very nice and worked quickly as I had to get to work that afternoon. Once they sold the stuff I was paid pretty quickly after that. Great experience overall. read more

I've been going to auctions at Caplan's for several years and love it. The staff is always friendly, and they have a wide selection of items for sale - furniture, smalls, jewelry, silver, crystal - and they rotate different types of items throughout the sale so you don't have to wait until the end for a specific category. It's a great place for anyone interest in antique auctions! read more

Basically I've had two bad experiences with them - the first time they refused to offer the free appraisal advertised on their web site, and the second time they responded in a rude way to an email I sent. Surprising because everyone I've spoken to at similar businesses in the area has been friendly and polite. read more

Went to Rams Head and saw auction sign and thought it might be kind of fun. I saw one piece that I really liked on a table that was filled to the brim. Just a little while later, the piece had disappeared from the table. Later, an antique dealer (I think, but certainly a regular) pulled the piece out of the bottom of a box that he had bought. I offered to buy it but he declined saying that he "just found it in the box.' Right where he had put it, I expect. Let's hope his Karma catches up with him. I hear this goes on all the time at auctions. read more