For consignments received on or after March 1, 2002:
The commission rate is 15% of the bid-in price. Discounted commission rates are available for significant consignments, kindly contact us. We have the lowest commission rates of any marble auctioneer. We auction about 15,000 marble lots a year, bringing in about $1,000,000 in bids. Check the other auctioneers out, you'll find no one's bigger than us, or more reasonably priced.
Consignor checks are mailed 35-45 days after the auction close date.
If an item has not been paid for by a bidder, then we still usually pay you out on it anyway, unless it is an expensive item. In that case, we may hold the payment on that item until the bidder has paid for it, or until we determine that the payment is uncollectible. If an item is returned to us by a consignor, we will usually just pay them and take the item into our inventory, rather than charging you for the return. What this whole paragraph means is that when we sell something for you, it's sold, regardless of what happens between us and the bidder afterward.
Please ship consignments, well packed, to Bob Block, A Chip Off The Old Block, P.O. Box 2321, Huntington Station, Shelton CT 06484, or 10 Twarog Place, Shelton CT 06484.
I will send e-mail upon receipt of the consignment (if you include an e-mail address in your package) telling you which auction(s) it will be in and approximately how many lots we will make from your consignment. You can also include a phone number and ask that I call you when your package arrives to me. Or you can always get me at 203-924-2802 during the day.
You will receive a copy of the catalogue listings for your lots via e-mail, approximately four weeks prior to the auction. A copy of the realized prices on your lots is sent via e-mail the day after the sale. If you have no email address, these are sent via USPS. If you consignment is over $750 (low estimate) you receive a complimentary copy of the auction catalogue.
The Absentee Auctions are the highest quality marbles receive from consignors.. If you ship us common or damaged marbles that we cannot include in the auctions, you are responsible for the cost of shipping them back to you. If in doubt, send an image by e-mail first. If in any doubt as to the identification of anything you are going to send us, send an image first. We are not responsible for you misidentifying marbles or misgrading condition. We are more than happy to tell you what you have and what it's worth.
Misrepresented repaired and reworked marbles are not accepted for auction. If you send us a marble that is repaired or reworked, and the bidder returns it, then you are still charged the commission, as well as the cost of shipping the marble to and from the bidder, and back to you.
Items are not shipped to winning bidders until payment is received and has cleared.
We exercise reasonable care in catalogue descriptions. Occasionally, we make an error. If a winning bidder returns an item to us due to our cataloguing error, we will credit the item back to your account and re-auction the item. You are not charged the commission on the original sale, only on the subsequent sale. We cover the cost of getting the item back from the winning bidder, you are not charged for that.
All images used in these auctions are the sole property of The AuctionBlocks and its successors. You grant The AuctionBlocks and its successors an irrevocable perpetual release to utilize said images in any manner we see fit.
Shipment of consignments to us indicates your acceptance of these terms.
Revised on: 05/23/2007