Alleged Whistleblower

[Dafydd]

Well the response doesn't surprise me and of course everyone is entitled to air their view in open debate. You cannot give offence you can only take offence.

The email I received was unsolicited and had the senders name and email address.  How did he or she obtain my private email address and know I was a previous client as surely this is confidential information? From my perspective I have committed no libel as I simply posted an unredacted email as it concerned me.  I was convinced by the screen shots as I do not believe they would be in the public domain. I was not the author of the material and would be happy to share the senders email address, attachments  and time of receipt to anyone with a pm including Katz and any authorities. I did not share the attached  screenshots because they revealed  consigners and that would not be proper. If I was duped, so be it, but I wouldn't want to embarrass anyone else.

I do not appreciate the intimidatory and misinformed manner in which I am referred to and fall back on the adage, "don't shoot the messenger".

What is reassuring is that it is apparent that collectors , dealers and auction houses are reading such forums and that can only be good for transparency and for the ongoing protection of collectors. Perhaps no more exotic provenances for Eid Mar denarii?  Perhaps that lengthy thread should be removed until the matter is heard in court? I do not believe anything has been reported that is not in the public domain so what could be the problem?

If we look at the recent thread posted by  @DonnaML about her concerns about a potentially fake coin , will this initiate an intimidatory message from a reputable dealer giving life time guarantees? I doubt it, but the open and honest discussion and debate posted today about @DonnaML's concerns epitomises the value of this forum in which we support and encourage each other. Long may this last.

I won't lose any sleep tonight and I fully appreciate the position of @Restitutor and for me the matter is closed but I will think twice in the future about raising any future concerns openly. Possibly I posted originally in haste but I was shocked by the email and its attachments. 

I have made my own decision regarding this auction house and will not add anything further to the matter.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Dafydd
typo

[DonnaML]

@Dafydd, clearly, you did nothing wrong. But I'm sure you can understand why @Restitutor decided that it was prudent to delete that anonymous email you got, especially since there was no proof that this person really did work for Katz. Who needs to risk getting dragged into a lawsuit in Prague?

Still, if I were you I would consider sending my own "lawyer's letter" to Katz demanding that they withdraw their defamatory accusation that you were the author of the allegedly defamatory accusations against them!

Edited September 19, 2023 by DonnaML

[Dafydd]

@DonnaML I understand the position of @Restitutor perfectly, life is too short to litigate. The defamatory accusation made against me doesn't add up to much because anyone with a modicum of intelligence and grasp of the English language would have seen that I was not the accuser but someone else was. Empty vessels rattle loudest. Clearly someone had access to my private email address and that association alone was enough to confirm to me, as an individual, the source of the claim. Personally I am not vindictive and derive no satisfaction from making such a post but I am not complacent . In similar situations in the past when advising clients I fall back on the often misattributed quotation, " The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing".

Fortunately our anonymity is maintained by our forum names. If this was a different situation my lawyers would be reacting faster than a "New York Minute" to protect my reputation. 

[Prieure de Sion]

As a dealer (and private collector), I must admit that I now experience this effect at almost all auctions. Since I bid a lot - also for my shop - and cannot attend all auctions live, I place a lot of pre-bids each week. I may or may not be lucky enough to get a coin for my pre-bid.

Of course, most auction houses are reputable. And I can't say now which auction house doesn't play fair here or is fair after all.

But I can say that in the meantime - when I win a lot - about 90% of my pre-bids are fully exploited. If I bid 200 euros as a pre-bid - as an example - I also get the knockdown at exactly 200 euros. Actually, I hardly have any winnings among my pre-bids. And it's strange that almost all the lots I win go exactly up to the limit of my pre-bid amounts. 

But as I wrote - this now affects almost all my auctions and lots. And since I bid and win a lot - I can already speak of a (strange) trend here.

 

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As for secretly bidding and re-bidding a coin - I can no longer hear the excuse "the buyer didn't pay for the coin". I am not naming names here. But here too - as a dealer, I observe the market very closely. And I have lists of coins that my customers want. That's why I also have many coins from auctions on a watch list. 

And it has to be said, unfortunately - that it may happen once that a winner has not paid for a lot. Twice would be extremely rare. But in the meantime I have coins on my watch list from auctions that have already been auctioned for the fourth time (!)! They have been auctioned many times (on some coins I have bid myself, but too low). And yet these coins have been put up again and again in later auctions. Nobody can tell me that so often the buyers did not pay.

The only option is to set yourself a maximum price - even if you want the coin badly. And if a higher bid is made, just give it up. At the respective auction houses where I notice "ghost bids", I only bid my limit and don't get involved in any more bidding wars. I have no desire to give money unnecessarily to a straw man and the auction house. And yes - certain auction houses auction coins several times - even though they have already been "successfully" auctioned several times. 

Edited September 20, 2023 by Prieure de Sion

[Limes]

Except for my somewhat funny remark above, I have not shared an opinion on this matter. There's simply too much to speculate, but too litte to know for sure. I do however feel like I need to let out a rant about some behaviour I have personally witnessed but also read about on this and the CT forum over the years (and pardon for my bad English). I'll keep it short, because I actually find rants annoying and a joykiller to read. (So I perfectly understand if no one reads this!) But the reason is two words outed by the auction house in question: transparency and accountability. So, here goes.

• First, over the years, I personally have had some negative encounters with auction houses (big and small) and sellers. These were situations such as not responding to questions, shipping coins even though I had asked them to wait for it because of a holiday, taking forever to process my payment and ship a coin, and so on. Usually, the 'if you dont like the treatment, buy somewhere else' applies, but this behaviour seems to have become more common practice it seems and occurs quite frequent. Is it because for the last couple of years, we're in a market that has attracted a lot of new material on offer, new sellers, and more buyers? Taking my business somewhere else has become a bit of a problem, also because of increasing fees and taxes that make non-EU auctioneers/sellers more expensive. 
• Second, there are some sellers whose behaviour is not illegal, but which I dislike personally. One example discussed already, is when sellers buy coins for their stock, only to increase their price substantially, sometimes even doubling it. I will avoid these sellers. This also includes sellers that secretly bid on their own lots to increase revenues, or increase my max bids. Their auctionhouse terms may allow this, it's annoying nevertheless. 
• Then, third, there are now cases appearing which are illegal: fake provenance, selling stolen coins knowingly. In all these cases, examples and instances, it appears to me that there's a lack of transparency, and accountability. So my immediate question to the auctioneer in this thread would be; if you use these words, who is that you are transparant to, and accountable to? Not me. I don't think any (many, if not all) seller is completely transparant. Where do your coins come from, what is the behaviour of you as a seller during an auction, how do you deal with my max bids, and so on. These are all questions I have, which are becoming more and more urgent in my thoughts but that are and likely will be unanswered. 

Now, I also understand that many buying-selling processes in every day life are not transparant. But then again, this is a delicate market based on trust mainly and trust is easyily damaged. I also understand that most collectors won't care, or care less about all of this. I can merely share what the effect is on me, and nobody has to care about it. And I also will not make bold statements about long term effects on the market and so on, because I find that too difficult to predict since Im no expert. So, I'll just leave it at this rant and hope that someday, these annoying sellers wake up and magically find the interests for their customers the most important. Untill that moment happens (never...), I will scrutinize sellers and try to take my business elsewhere as much as I can.