Auctionwally's tips for buying expensive collectibles on eBay and elsewhere.

Authentic Barye bronze monument circa 1856

Authentic Barye bronze monument $300,000

It kind amazes me how easily some people will lay out big bucks for a high end antique or collectible without checking up on the seller or the provenance of what is being offered. You'd think that people who spend in the 5 and 6 figure range are definitely hard sells, but evidence shows that they are taken to the cleaners just as those who purchase smaller ticket items. We often don't hear of these scams so much because the victims don't want to make their mistakes public, but they happen more than they need to. Most of the time a little due diligence could have deterred such a disaster.

I hate to see anyone get ripped off, so here are some of my best tips for avoiding getting beat on higher end collectibles on eBay and other sales venues.

First, know what you're buying, if you're not sure, there are appraisal and authentication services online that are relatively inexpensive.
Check the feedback of the person selling. I mean REALLY check the feedback. It's not enough to know that someone has a high positive feedback rating, if your spending big, look deeper into how they got that feedback. Red flags go up for the following: A seller that has accumulated a lot feedback for items that sold for under $5.00, and now all of the sudden has a hand signed Picasso print, guaranteed to be legitimate for $5,000. Also be careful with new sellers, sellers that don't take PayPal, sellers that won't accept payment delivered via United States Postal Service. (A scam committed through the US postal service is an automatic Federal offense).
Don't automatically assume that because a collectible is being sold through a legitimate source that it is authentic. In some cases the seller may not know that what he/she has is a fake if it is.
Read the seller's return policy.
Ask questions. If a seller gets flustered because of a few questions that's a red flag. If need be, get a trusted source to ask the same question unbeknownst to the seller. If you get different answers, well...
Red flag if the seller is unwilling to give his/her phone# out. I put my phone # in all of my bigger ticket listings.
If the seller claims to be a licensed auctioneer, or licensensed in any way, check the state license board in the state the seller does business in. In MA where I'm a licensed auctioneer, all auctioneers have to be licensed and bonded.
Ask if the seller will guarantee the authenticity of the item. If a seller will not, this in and of itself does not mean the item is not authentic. It only means the seller doesn't have enough confidence in it to guarantee it. If you can get it authenticated or appraised inexpensively before purchasing, you have an advantage over other buyers AND the seller.
Here's a little known fact: The major auction houses,(whom I won't name) the ones that sell mult-million dollar paintings, sculptures and other objects d'art, sell their lots AS IS! Truth. Why do you think it is that when they sell a painting they say it's "attibuted to Van Gogh" etc? Now, 99.9% of these sales go through without a hitch, but if you come back a few years later after you've found that the painting you paid 2.6 mil for was done by a master forger, you are out of luck. They won't even buy you lunch. These days when you register for a bidders number at a large auction house, the sheet you sign in on has an "AS IS" clause that you agree to or you don't get a bidding #. Their basic selling policy is exactly the same as your local country auctioneer who sells general merchandise.
www.escrow.com is the ONLY escrow service ceritified by eBay and PayPal, thus it's the only one both buyer and seller can use. If you run accross an eBay seller that claims to be using another escrow company, report them, they are trying to scam you.
The examiner.com has an excellent scam examiner in Karin Malchow. She scours the Internet and other venues to keep up on the latest scams. Subscribe to her RSS feed or bookmark her page because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and in this case, the prevention is free. How can you beat that?