Sunday, April 29, 2007

Seven experts say objects not genuine antiquities - News

Seven experts say objects not genuine antiquities

This is in reference to the Tseng Family Collection of Chinese Antiquities in the Oviatt Library at California State University, Northridge.

What a shame, who got scammed was it the family who owned these items or the library? This just goes to show you must do your research before you make a large purchase.

Monday, April 23, 2007

What Is An Antique Dealer To Do?

Where does my responsibility as an online antique dealer end and the responsibility of the customer begin?

I have been selling through my own online shop for 7 years, prior to that I had an antique store and sold on eBay. I loved the customer interaction with the store life got in the way and we had to close it. Selling on eBay became a huge problem just because of the way eBay is going.

I have learned many lessons selling through my own website but for the most part the customer's have been amazing and I have had very few problems.

When I first started the website I automatically tacked on the cost for insurance, this was a carry-over from my eBay days, but I had quite a few complaints from customer's so I made purchasing insurance an option. On occasion if I was shipping something really fragile I would go ahead and pay for the insurance out of my pocket just to be on the safe side and there were a few times where this was a good thing.

UPS owes me a few hundred dollars for items I insured that got demolished in transit and they did not make good on the insurance I purchased but that is just their way.

But what do I do if someone makes a substantial purchase on a non-fragile item and then says it has not been delivered to them, yet the Post Office shows that the item was delivered? What is my responsibility in this situation? They opted to not purchase insurance on the item and I have proof of delivery.

If you live in a neighborhood where packages are apt to get stolen from your doorstep then I recommend you purchase insurance on purchases. As a seller I cannot know what your neighborhood is like. Or do like many of my customer's and have the packaged delivered to you at work.

I really need some help on this because I do not know what to do. Am I being scammed? It has happened to me before. I appreciate all input on this situation.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Create an inventory of your antiques, collectibles and memorabilia FREE

It is very important to catalog your antiques, collectibles and memorabilia. As well as anything that you own of value or items that, in the event of a disaster, you might be called upon to itemize.

Believe me, in the heat of the moment, it is difficult to remember what you owned much less how much you paid for it.

You can now use this free program on my antique shop site to catalog you items room by room. You can then either print it out or store it on your computer and as you acquire new items you can upload the list to this program and add to it.

This was provided by an insurance group who is no longer around and I have been looking for this software for quite sometime.

So please feel free to visit this page on my shop site and start getting your items listed.

There are no strings attached, I promise but feel free to shop after you get your goods listed.

Create an inventory of your antiques, collectibles and memorabilia FREE"