[meteorite-list] Lang's auction statement

From: MoritzKarl at t-online.de <MoritzKarl_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:10:06 +0100
Message-ID: <1HH26Q-2DILya0_at_fwd30.aul.t-online.de>

Dear List Members,
as everyone of you know Lang's auction was held on Saturday the 3rd of
Febuaryand I participated in person at the auction to make sure to get
the specimens Iwanted.
I did win 6 lots and after the closing of the auction I walked up to Mr.
Langand told him to hang on to the pieces until either Monday or
Tuesday. He wasvery happy not to deal with the items at this moment,
because a number ofparticipants wanted their specimens right away and
they were pretty busy atthat time.
On Tuesday the 6th I returned to Mr. Lang's room to pay and pick up
themeteorites. By asking for my 6 meteorites I got told that 3 were
missing andthat they believe they were stolen, but 'they would let me
have the historicalmeteorite - which I of course had won - although it
had not met reserve'. Therewas no wording at the auction that my bid
hasn't met reserve and the auctioneersold it to me. It surprises me a
little bit that this was a 'thank youspecimen' for the stolen lots.
My next step was to inform the list about the stolen pieces. To my
surprise ittook only 5 minutes after my announcement and an absentee
bidder wrote to methat he had won one of my lots for $ 300 which I had
gotten for $ 160. Furthermorehe had already received an invoice from
Mrs. Lang and he had immediately paidfor the specimen. Another 2 hours
later due to the time zones Mr Marmet fromSwitzerland contacted and told
me that he had won the other twos for a higherbid than the auctioneer
had sold it to me. He also had already received aninvoice from Mrs. Lang
and had sent the money the same moment.
I'm really wondering why I got told these things were stolen when they
show upat absentee bidder's invoices for a far higher price than the
hammer pricesduring the auction.
Achim Karl
Received on Tue 13 Feb 2007 01:10:06 PM PST