Privacy and auctions
Gazes
Posts: 2,315 ✭✭✭✭✭
Let me ask a hypothetical. I am the winning bid of a fairly expensive $10 lib eagle at auction. Two dealers who do a lot of work with the auction house are interested in the coin I purchased. Dealer A specializes in these type of coins and wants to know the buyer out of curiosity (i.e. Keep tabs on the coin, does he know the buyer , etc). Dealer b wants to know because he may want to make an offer for the coin.
Both dealers ask the auction house who they do business with ---who won the coin? Do auction houses reveal that information or do the keep that information strictly confidential ?
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Comments
No way they should. The auction house should come to you and inquire as to next steps.
The few times I wanted to do something like this, I took the opposite approach: I asked the auction house if they would forward my contact information to the winning bidder. Even then my results have been spotty. Some auction houses seemed happy to oblige. Others got offended that I would ask.
(To be clear, I've done this maybe a half dozen times in the last 10 years, so my sample size is limited...)
Can't speak for every company, but in my experience this information is absolutely confidential.
Sometimes an auction company will attempt to broker a sale between the two, while keeping the identities of the two parties secret though.
Gazes, I would bet your house the auction houses would never reveal that information. I'd say my house, but in one in a million I don't want to lose my home.
US Civil War coinage
Historical Medals
The auction house would open itself to an amazingly large lawsuit if it unilaterally distributed that type of information.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Years ago in an auction I won a pattern cent. A couple of days later the auction house called and told me that a dealer (whom they named) was interested in buying the coin and gave me his price. Clearly the auction house did not give my name or contact information to the (relatively prominent) dealer though they did tell me the dealer's name. FWIW, I declined the offer.
The auction house should never reveal the buyer unless the buyer consents to that disclosure.
Citations for pedigree purposes are often limited to the names of past owners and something like, "Lot X in auction Y."
As the past president of a large auction company, I can tell you it is policy to keep this information confidential. If there was an inquiry regarding a specific lot (and this happens in every sale) we would pass the information along to the buyer and act as the intermediary. The buyer and the seller would remain anonymous