CJT5150

Did Heritage offer any reason why the "winning bid" by a bidder that is familiar to them did not follow through. I would think a familiar name would not back out of a deal. Are there any repercussions from not paying for an item you win? I know if that happened around my way...the person would no longer be allowed to participate in future auctions. He said that the bid was made in error, and that the bidder called and discussed it with them and did say he would pay since he did submit the bid, but at that point they decided to check with me and see if I wanted the lot at my max bid. I don't know enough to know if this is on the up and up...its plausible I suppose. It's just that those circumstances coupled with these threads raise some flags.

I did in fact contact Heritage via email Sunday evening ( my particular situation is summarized about 10 pages back) and got a call from the person that handles consignments on Monday. He said they did review my purchase and that the bid beneath me and the winning bid (which ended up being vacated) were from bidders he was familiar with and that he considered legitimate. For what it's worth, he did say he was familiar with these threads and with the situation and would be reviewing all of the art consigned by Romitaman. As for what that means...people will have opinions on that. They very well could be doing that. I suppose it's possible that it's just spin and they are hoping this goes away quickly. It would be interesting to hear from other folks that feel they've been affected and what communication they have with Heritage.

I'm actually Chris T... Thank you everyone for weighing in. I'll contact them, see what they say. I'm suspecting they won't share too much, but at least I will have said something. When the winning bid went for roughly the same price as had been listed on his site and then all of a sudden it was offered to me, I mentioned to my wife that I suspected...something...but couldn't really articulate it. I do like the piece. It holds a bit of nostalgia/sentimental meaning for me. But having now read through the multiple threads on this and having a strong suspicion there could have been some shilling taking place tempers the enthusiasm a bit.

I just stumbled across these posts (I don't visit all that often) and this is disappointing to hear. I recently ended up with one of Mike's pieces in the last Heritage auction, one that I had eyed on his site for a while. During the auction I ended up bidding to just slightly less than the price he had listed at on his website; I ended up as the under-bidder for the item. A week or so later I get a call from Heritage asking if I still wanted to buy the item at my last bid. I asked what happened to the winning bid but the representative said she did not know. I ended up accepting and buying the item. I obviously was willing to cut the check so I am comfortable with the price I guess. What would be disappointing is if this item was bid up, with the the winning bid not really being legitimate and the winning "bidder" not being someone that actually intended to buy the item. Maybe I am niave to art collecting - it's not like I have an extensive collection - but it feels unsavory to me, legal or not.