Stamford, Conn.:A painting offered at Trinity Fine Arts' auction of important American, Russian and European art on October 21 attracted spirited floor bidding and sold for $750. That would have been fine, said Steve Gass, the auction house's co-owner, his voice inflecting no small amount of irony, except that the consignor learned afterward that there had been two absentee bids on the painting left with eBay Live starting at around $2,000.
Money on the table and the characteristic shrug from eBay were among the simmering detritus at 30 or more auction houses around the world in the wake of an eBay Live computer system crash that lasted for four hours on October 21. The "glitch" disrupted sales, enraged and frustrated online bidders and underlined for auctioneers once again that doing business with the San Jose, Calif.-based juggernaut is a double-edged sword at best.
"What's really awful about all of this is that the word 'contrition' does not seem to be in their vocabulary," complained Gass. Other than offering a slight consideration in cataloging fees, he said, eBay did not make any meaningful restitution. In addition to Trinity, many other important auctioneers were affected, including Philip Weiss in Oceanside, N.Y., Ed Nadeau in Windsor, Conn., and David Rago in Lambertville, N.J.
Read more http://antiquesandthearts.com/2006-11-28__12-48-18.html
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