06 Consignment
We do the selling.
You stay the owner.
The piece comes to us and stays here while it is listed, but it is yours until it sells. We photograph it, write it up, list it as one of ours and stand our guarantee behind it — and you are paid once it has reached its buyer and their window has closed. The binding wording is section 11 of our terms of sale.
Nothing starts
without the paper
Before we accept a piece you receive a written consignment agreement, and you reply confirming it. Nothing is owed and nothing is listed before we have that confirmation, and the figures do not move afterwards. Nothing is agreed on a telephone call alone.
What that agreement states
- The piece
- Identified exactly, as we received it and as it will be listed.
- The asking price
- What it is listed at, agreed with you. It is also the figure it is insured for while we hold it.
- The exact commission
- A number, not a range — the published bands below are what the number is drawn from, and once it is written it does not change.
- The insured value
- And that the premium is yours, deducted from the proceeds when the piece sells.
- How long it runs
- An end date, agreed with you. We tell you before it arrives, so you can extend it or have the piece back.
07 The Protocol
How a consignment
runs
Six steps, and you can stop at any of them before the agreement is confirmed. Once it is, this is what happens and in what order.
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Authentication, before it reaches us
A consigned piece comes to us already authenticated, at your cost, and you tell us who examined it, when, and the lot or reference number. We do not authenticate pieces ourselves — that work belongs to an independent service, and we say so rather than imply a bench we do not have. What you tell us goes on the listing, and the listing states plainly whether the examination was independent or came from the dealer who sold it. We publish which, so a buyer can weigh it themselves.
The paperwork has to be complete. Every field filled, the piece identified, the examiner named, the date and the reference number present. A certificate with blanks in it is not something we can put a buyer's money behind, and we will send it back rather than list it. And if no service will examine the piece at all, we cannot list it, whatever its history.
-
It comes to us, and stays with us
We photograph it ourselves, record its identification, take a timegrapher reading where the movement is mechanical, and write its condition as we find it — the same process every piece on this site goes through, because a consigned piece is not listed to a lower standard than one we own. The listing is ours to write and ours to run.
Shipping is at your cost, every leg of it. Insure it for the journey to us: our cover starts when it arrives, and the gap before that is the one thing on this page nobody else is carrying.
-
Insured while we hold it
We insure the piece against loss or damage for as long as it is with us, at its asking price — not at what you would net after commission. The premium is at your cost and comes off the proceeds when it sells. Once it sells, it travels to its buyer insured for the price it sold at.
-
Our commission
A percentage of the sale price, set by the value of the piece. The exact figure inside the band is agreed with you in writing before we accept the piece, and does not change afterwards. We are paid only when the piece sells — there is no listing fee, no fee for the photography, and nothing owed if it does not find a buyer.
Sale price Our commission Under $2,000 20–30% $2,000 to $7,500 20–25% Above $7,500 10–15% -
When you are paid
Eight days after the piece is delivered to its buyer — the day after their right to return it for any reason has run out. We deduct our commission and the insurance premium and send you the balance.
The eighth day is deliberate rather than the seventh: a buyer who posts a return at four in the afternoon on day seven is within their rights, and paying that morning would have sent your money out while the piece was still coming back. If the buyer has returned it or opened a claim inside those seven days, payment waits until that is settled.
-
If it does not sell
The consignment runs for the period in your agreement and ends by itself when that period is up. We will tell you before it does, and from there you can extend it with us or have the piece back. If we do not hear from you we hold it and keep it insured until we do — it does not stop being yours because a date passed.
Before that period is up it ends whenever you ask for the piece back, or when we both agree to end it. In every case the piece returns to you at your cost.
08 If a piece is not genuine
Stated here,
not in the small print
Every piece we sell carries our authenticity guarantee, and that guarantee is ours to honor. A buyer who opens a claim deals with us, is refunded by us, and is never sent to you.
But the piece was yours, and it came to us authenticated. If a piece you consigned is found not to be genuine and we refund the buyer, you repay us the proceeds we sent you, and the piece is returned to you.
This is why step i is not a formality. Requiring a complete authentication before the piece ever reaches us is what makes this clause something that almost never has to be used — by you or by us.
Start a consignment
Tell us what you have, what you think it is worth, and what came with it. We will tell you what we would ask for it, what our commission would be, and how long we would expect it to take — before anything is signed and before the piece goes anywhere.