Plain City Auction house has been in business for many decades and has been held in high esteem but was recently purchased by their new owner John Coffey who seems intent on squandering that reputation. John Coffey owns both Plain City Auction and Old 42 Antiques & Vintage Marketplace.
In summary, I was disappointed that the final split was much different than what it appeared to be on the contract, it took a very long time to receive my payment, John was difficult to deal with at times, and items sold for far less than I expected.
1. Final split - Although the contract stated that the auctioneer was to receive 40% and I was to receive 60%, in the end I received approximately 47% and John 53%. This was due to a couple of items that were not mentioned in the contract, namely a 15% buyer's premium and the auctioneer charging me a 40% commission on items that were sold but never paid for.
2. Slow payment - Although the actual contract stated that I was to receive payment within 30 business days of the auction and John indicated that customers often receive payment quicker than this, I did not get a check for nearly 40 business days after the end of the auction. I contacted John several times after the deadline had passed, but each time received an excuse. To put this in perspective, although my parents' house was listed for sale after the end of the auction, we were able to close on the sale of the home and receive payment for the home two weeks before I received payment for the auction.
3. Demeanor of the auctioneer - It was critical for us that we complete the auction before the house went on the market. During our initial meeting we tried to impress this fact on John and we agreed in the contract on an auction date that was 10 days before the house was scheduled to be listed. Despite this, two weeks before the scheduled date for the auction, John asked my wife to move the auction to a date that was 3 days before the house was scheduled to be listed because he was having a staffing issue. My wife was trying to be cooperative and John had us over a barrel because it was too late to find a different auctioneer, so she reluctantly agreed. After the completion of the auction, John scheduled two days for buyers to pick up their items and the second of those days was the same day that the house was to be formally listed for sale. The realtor had showings for 10 perspective buyers already scheduled for that date. During the course of attempting to work out this issue, John became very difficult and at times downright rude.
4. Sale price for items - I realize that this is very subjective, but I was disappointed by the price that the auction house was able to get for many of the items. In retrospect, I feel that one of the other auction houses that we interviewed would have done much better in this regard and I regretted that I had not chosen them. read more
