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Lunds Auctioneers & Appraisers Ltd
Categories: Shopping Antiques Arts & Entertainment Art Galleries Shopping Art Galleries Antiques, Art Galleries [Edit]
926 Fort StVictoria, BC V8V 3K2
(250) 386-3308
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- By Appointment Only:
- No
2 reviews for Lunds Auctioneers & Appraisers Ltd
2 reviews in English
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Review from Stuart L.
White Rock, BC
4/29/2011
My suspicion is that Charles would have penned a glowing review of Lunds if his estate items yielded a princely sum at auction. What Lund's now requires is an educated review:
Prices: As with all markets, antique prices are a function of market fundamentals, and as a consequence, prices are constantly in flux. Another factor that has a potentially deleterious effect on antiques is desirability: When furniture from the Arts and Crafts period became imminently collectable, prices for Victorian, William IV, George IV items fell precipitously.
At the date of this review, the antique market is in a tailspin, and shows little to no signs that it will recover to its pre 2008 status anytime soon. Many antique dealers in Victoria and in Vancouver have subsequently gone out of business. The few that remain totter on the brink of insolvency.
Simply because something is an antique does not immediately mean that it is valuable. In fact, it is the exceptional occurrence that an antique will be valuable. If an antique can be attributed to a specific maker; is in flawless condition; is collectible; has an iron-clad provenance; the economy in which the item is being sold is robust, then, and only then, is there potential for the price of an antique item to climb through the roof on auction night.
Therefore, it isn't a great intellectual stretch to now connect the dots regarding antique valuation.
Book Values: These are only useful as a very rough estimate of what your item might be worth in a best case scenario. These are not numbers that you can take to the bank. How much is your item truly worth? Whatever someone is prepared to pay for it on auction night.
Lunds conducts their specialized auctions (Collectibles, Fine Art, Antique & Art, Timepieces, et al) at a rate of six times per year, or one every two months. This means that if you trot in a Victorian sideboard to sell, then it will be placed into their next "Antique & Art" auction which is held once every two months. If you bring in a vintage Danish dining table to sell, it will be placed in their next "Decorative Arts" auction conducted once every two months.
Reserves: If you've convinced yourself that grandma's clapped-out, next-to-worthless, rocker was actually crafted by Gillows of Lancaster, you're more than welcome to set a reserve on your item. This is the minimum price you are prepared to accept for your item at auction. This does not guarantee that your item will sell at that price, nor is setting a reserve a free service. Believe me, if your item does not sell for the reserve the first time around, chances are that bids will never meet the reserve when the item gets kicked to the next auction.
Antique Dealers: Antique dealers draw most of their inventory items from an auction house. An antique store is not a charitable institution, and they do not buy a lot from an auction, tidy it up, and sell it at their store for precisely what they paid for the lot at auction. An antique dealer is in business to make money. Like all retailers, they buy their inventory items at a wholesale rate, and sell them at a retail rate. In this instance, an antique dealer's wholesale rate is equal to the hammer price at auction. Customarily, the retail rate exceeds the wholesale rate by a significant margin. Apparently this is all rocket science to Charles.
Lunds is one of the most important auction houses in BC. I've attended their Antique & Art auctions for many years as a collector. The staff has always been courteous and professional, and the quality of the lots up for bids has always been exceptional. -
Review from Charles S.
Victoria, BC
4/21/2010
My friend and I went into Lunds to sell some assorted household goods he got from an estate, and we really didn't like the treatment we got.
They appraised everything for about 1/3 of the prices given in books and online, but that was supposedly because of the bad economy. So the items were left with them for sale.
Two months later they still hadn't turned up in an auction, and the girl at the counter seemed to indicate that they might have misplaced the items.
A month after that they finally sent a cheque for about half the appraised price, and well below the minimum that my friend had requested, but they didn't have a record of the minimum.
The final straw was two months after the sale, when the items were found in a local antiques dealership being sold for as much as six times what was paid!
My friend was so angry that he told everyone he knew about this. I am certainly going to heed his advice and not use them!
