Rock Island Fees
 

Well, I have to complain. I have never bought anything fromm Rock Island, and it appears I never will again. My automatic bid did not reach my maximum I was willing to pay, but it came within a $100.


This morning they called and told me I'd won, and emailed me. Not sure why they called, but they did. The fees for shipping, handeling, etc were $59; that did not surprise me. What pissed me off was the $280 commission fee. Yes, if I had used a calculator and figured it out, I could have figured out that a buyer purchase of $1600 would equal that (17.5% commission).

Do they charge the seller a fee too?


But holy mother of god... I won't be dealing with them again unless something really special comes along...

Ed, I have heard this more than once from others...The RIA charges extremely excessive fees. I guess you have to read the fine print!
Jerry Burney

Ed If this kind of language continues, we will have a moderator close this thread......... oh, you are a moderator! David

I know, you should have seen my first comments when i got off the phone....

Buyers premium..I bet they figure if your biddin' on their high dollar stuff a little ole buyers fee ain't gonna matter much. 175 on the thousand is ridiculous.

They are in business and spend a helluva lot on producing their catalogues, maintaining their facilities, etc, etc. Its business, folks...where else do you get this kind of exposure-for a seller- or, if you are a buyer-the opportunity to learn about and bid upon some real treasures.

Personally, I am envious of their business model. Pure free enterprise!

Tom A

Or, if you are not careful, the opportunity to learn about and bid upon some real crap being offered as authentic. I am appalled at some of the stuff that is being auctioned that is totally bogus. The auction houses aren't necessarily any more well informed about the veracity of some of the pieces as the uninformed buyers, although it should be their responsibility to do their homework. But profit motive sometimes dims complete and honest analysis of the items being auctioned...better to keep it ambiguous, if not misleading. That is a business model that doesn't serve the hobby well. I will say that open discussion on forums such as this has resulted in a lot more weasel-worded descriptions that allude to non-original or "constructed" offerings.

With regard to the fees associated with auction bidding, as someone near and dear to our hearts once said: "The tuition at Luger U. is very expensive", and that includes lab (buyers) fees.

This is why I would only buy from a member of long-standing on this forum. You may have to wait longer than you might like, but you aren't going to walk funny for weeks after.

Ed, it is only money and you cannot take it with you.

Ron I agree and this reminded me of a good Friends experience with RIA. He "won" bought a very expensive Radom, pre war holster and original rod. When he got it the rod was missing. RIA had no explination other than it must have been stolen. If it was stolen why didn't they say so before they shipped it? Kris was in New Jersey at the time and importing a pistol to this state is time consuming & costly. It had to go back of course and they wanted to stick him with some fees and shipping even though it was not his fault.
I don't dis agree with my good Friend Tom of course but their business model leaves a little to be desired from what I hear. One other thing..any business that leaves a bad taste in your mouth at the conclusion of the deal is not one clients will flock back to.
Jerry Burney

My approach is to figure out how much I am willing to pay out of pocket, subtract the buyer's fee and shipping and set my top bid accordingly. I may get outbid but not screwed.

I had a couple of bad experiences with RIA. Now I do not buy from them unless I can inspect the piece in person.

All,

Absentee biding based on a catalogue description and photographs is, well, assuming some risk. RIA or any other auction house, for that matter, is merely a venue. if you are sufficiently interested in something to throw some big dollars at it, either hi thee to observe personally or have a knowledgable confederate on site to observe and verify.

Oh, and always read the terms and conditions *very* carefully, remembering that the large print giveth and the small print taketh away.

Tom A

What you say is true, but oral statements should match the piece, whether $700 or $7000.

As I said and you agree, inspect the piece in person.

About three years ago I had successive really bad experiences with RIA on two auctions. The first one should have been enough to teach me a lesson, but I had to go back for more. Never again!!!! Their glitzy catalog and marketing are really nice, but you can find a beautiful hooker for a price (whatever that price may be), but she is still a hooker. Looks and marketing are great but be careful what you are looking at. I recently placed a bid at another auction on an artillery Luger, described as matching parts. When I re-looked this gun more carefully, the sideplate was wrong. Yes, the numbers matched, except that it was a totally matched DWM....except for the sideplate, which was Erfurt proofed. Right number, wrong part. Another artillery was described as being very RARE, because it was marked "Germany" and these were "really diffcult to find." What a crock. I'm with Ed....never again will I try to get anything from RIA.

Where was that again?

PM sent with photos, price list, and map.

I was at the 02/09/08 Regional auction. Unlike the previous Regional auctions They had a full phone bank taking bids this time. The phone bidders won a lot of bids. I felt that the bids were higher than earlier Regional auctions. RIA charges the seller a higher selling fee for a regional auction sold gun than their Premier 3 day auction. RIA also decides which type of auction that your gun will be put in.

My beef with RIA is not calling me to honor my online bids. That only happened once though. A buyer's premium of 17.5% is not out of the ordinary. I would be much more concerned about the accuracy of descriptions.

Rest assured that they are also charging the seller the same or more % fee also :mad: