OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Finding and Swapping For Sale ONLINE AUCTIONS – Caveat Emptor

Hello ODK auction lovers
Most collectors now use on-line sites to make bids on items.

A recent online auction has, yet again, alerted me to the problems of
auction listing descriptions and auction house’s contactability about them.

Consider this: -
In early 2020 a listing appeared for a ‘VICTA ROTOMO BOOK’ …

The seller’s description [from a purported online ‘antiques’ dealer] said
that this was a ‘Book’. Of course, that was a mis-description.

This was visually presented as Victa brochure from the mid-1950s.

The condition was described as ‘Used’ and in “VERY GOOD CONDITION”.

Yes, the condition was as described, but the item was a clear fake –
a reproduction using a cheap colour photocopier and the ‘book’
was poorly cropped and presented.

Note that there were 14 bids made by 3 bidders.
Three folks fell for this… One lucky bidder ‘won’ the privilege of owning it.




The gallery of images is below.
However, the story is more complex.

This is a story about the thriving industry of seller mis-description and auction houses making it very difficult to report this issue.

TO BE CONTINUED …