A general comment, just to mention it's worth exercising caution when either citing or placing reliance upon published auction results in at least two situations:


1.  Very recent sales for absurdly high prices

Be especially wary with lower-end items (up to the four figures), where bidders are less likely to have been carefully vetted beforehand by the auction houses.

To state the obvious, there is no "sale" until money has exchanged hands. Even with genuine bidders, arrangements are frequently made for payment to take place a good fortnight or month later. And much can go wrong during the interval.

Under these circumstances it's easy to see how, in the immediate aftermath of an auction, references to an artwork having sold for [x] pounds, dollars or euros could be misleading — because the sale might not complete. This, for any number of reasons, including a dishonest bidder never intending to pay in the first place.


2.  Sale results posted on host platforms like LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable.com and Artsy

It can sometimes be wise to ignore the results on these platforms, at least when auction houses responsible for the relevant sales have published (or will soon publish) their own results.

Whenever there's a discrepancy in the figures, it is the host platforms (with access to less information) that are more likely to get things wrong. And if any sale-price corrections or updates are made by an auction house, these won't necessarily be tracked through to the details posted by platforms such as LiveAuctioneers.


__________


An example for illustration purposes


The posts below are from the thread titled, 4 X Peckham Rocks Wanted*, started on 16 June 2020:




As at today, 19 July 2020, that LiveAuctioneers link still shows a Peckham Rock card by Banksy (Lot 152) having sold last year for US$2,000:

www.liveauctioneers.com/item/70532955_banksy-british-1974





But LiveAuctioneers was only a host platform.

The actual auction house was Julien's Auctions. Its Fine Art: Street and Contemporary sale took place in Los Angeles on the evening of 25 April 2019 (or 26 April, European time).

And when verifying or trying to corroborate the $2,000 result on Julien's Auctions' website, we discover the sale never completed. Lot 152 has been omitted for that reason:

www.juliensauctions.com/auction-results?id=282





Now, maybe the winning bidder later realised how foolish they were with their bid level(s). Another possibility is the winning bidder (perhaps together with the underbidder) was trying to manipulate the market and artificially raise the perceived value of Peckham Rock cards.

But whatever the cause of the failed completion of sale, it is clearly problematic to suggest somebody paid $2,000 (plus buyer's premium and any applicable taxes) for one of these cards in April 2019.

Even if unintentional, the spreading of such false information may be convenient for people sitting on a stack of these cards. At the same time, it could also be potentially disastrous for naive collectors who are seeking guidance on pricing before they purchase some Banksy ephemera.



[As a separate issue, I'll take the opportunity to reiterate my view about Julien's Auctions: It is a dishonest business that has repeatedly exploited the ignorance of its clients. In case members are interested in some of the straightforward, damning evidence upon which this opinion is based, they can use the forum's 'Search' mechanism (along with the search term "Julien's") to locate posts I previously drafted on the subject.]

Finally asked my Credit Card company for a refund. BanskyCaptured went AWOL regarding a photo print I bought in the fall 2019. Not a word, for months.

In my opinion, there are way too many of these incidents to seem innocent mishaps. Folks, I would be very cautious moving forward...

Crazy. I was right with you there but my photo print randomly showed up. I figured others must finally be getting theirs as well.

So at this point, can anyone else here confirm that they purchased and received the photo print that they ordered?

I was getting annoyed by the delay, and I sent one follow up one email about six weeks after I made the purchase. I never received a reply to the email, but the photo print arrived about two weeks later. It was beautifully packaged so no damage during shipping and the print itself was neatly wrapped within a lazarides embossed box. I find it hard to believe anyone here received an empty “envelope” and/or incomplete orders. There was clearly a lot of thought and work into packaging and shipping the print I received. I figured he was just backlogged, but I’m a bit shocked at what other members are saying here.

Surely, if laz gets a load of charge backs from all these failed deliveries, these credit card companies won't allow him to process payments through them soon.

I confirm I did not receive my print. I wrote several times over the months. I purchased my print very early, so several months before the COVID19 shutdown started. I received my first edition, first volume book, yet the print, which was more expensive, never materialized. Terrible experience.

Seeing as the tenners were even more expensive than the photo prints, I wouldn’t expect it to be “easy” to forget to stick the damn thing in the package. That is an unforgivable level of sloppiness.

wait someone really got a empty envelope on a 1500 tenner? has anyone disputed this with their bank?

The certificate is missing a gold thumb print?

Same here, no communications whatsoever even after requesting a refund. They also over charged on the shipping cost.

After several unanswered emails, I included 'laz@lazconsult.com' (not sure that made the difference) and said he can either refund me, or my bank will do a chargeback. Alternatively legal action. I then got contacted straight back on the same day with an apology and a refund the next day. Seemed to do the trick.

Looking for a Black Edition of the Banksy Captured book, please DM if you offer one.

Someone copy and paste this to laz instagram!😬

The business is run in a chaotic manner it seems , and the limited marketing of products is an appeal to customers To purchase for the large sums of money advertised which is clearly working