I attended regular auctions here during the years 2011-2012. I had the same experiences mentioned as before.
Here is the problem, people who are friends of Jena, the owner who do bidding and are not intending to buy items but only drive the prices up IS NOT LEGAL. If anyone had a brain in the area, they would have to wonder why this goes on like this? Honestly, if you do not notice there is fake bidding, I think you need to open your eyes. Too many "friends" bidding.
I attended an auction that supposedly had a couch from a MACYS store that was very new looking. Got it home, and the bottome was made wrong, it was broken. And paid 900.00 for it.
Great Expectations is the only large auction house in St. Augustine, and that's probably why they are able to conduct business for both buyers and sellers so poorly.
I bought from this auction house for about 6 months, and recently tried to sell some items through them. I felt the need to file this report for a number of different reasons, and nearly all of them are negative.
For starters, the owner/manager ""Jena"" is a rude, stuck up, and very difficult person to work with as a customer. If you aren't one of her personal friends, you simply get cut off. You can tell her she lost your items, etc. and she will basically tell you she doesn't care. Leave her a message/email, etc. She's actually enough to complain about by herself, but from there, everything for customer seems to go downhill.
As a buyer, you'll find that Great Expectations often has a lot of LOW quality merchandise, despite the owner's big attidude and claims of getting only ""good items"". Dirty furniture, expired/expiring food, and even used mops! It's not that they don't get some valuable items, but whenever they do , they usually -sell for a lot more than what they are worth. This is strange, considering that when you try to SELL similar or identical items at the auction, your stuff will typically go for pennies, and this is where it seems to get pretty shady.
The auction house charges lots of high fees, and they even charge fees to buyers for using a credit card and just for buying period (buyer's premium). The fees charged to sellers are confiscatory, and the highest on low dollar items, which is what everything seems to go for ... except when you are a buyer. I believe they literally take half of any items that sell for less than 20 dollars , or something ridiculous like that. It almost makes one wonder if there is something shady going on, like ""house owned"" items and/or shill bidding.
To make all this worse, ""Jena"" and her auction house have all these weird rules which you pretty much only find out about the hard way. Most of the time when you call them , they don't pickup the phone. When they do, little help or information is available. They have ""appointment"" times which aren't very well described by their staff, when you call to try to bring items to sell at the auction. What's worse, is that the appointment times are EXACT appointments. Yes, they will actually turn you away with your items if you don't show up on time for some appointment during a weekday. Apparently, that's another way to thumb their nose at sellers, as if they don't need items to sell. In any case, I can assure you that it, like everything else about the place is very aggravating.
There is more. They ""LOSE"" your items, and then you simply get the runaround when trying to find them. Again, you'll get the attitude of ""Jenna"" if you dare ask about your missing items or complain.
This place seemingly has the most ridiculous book keeping, to the point where you wonder if they are just trying to rip everyone off. While you are ""encouraged"" sometimes to show up to the auction, so you can presumably see your items actually sell and for what price ... you'll never know which auction your item will be at ... and it's usually WEEKS after you bring in your items. IF you catch your items in the online pictures, and call later to ask the prices, I was shocked to find out that the auction house won't give you any information about YOUR items and YOUR money. Why? More excuses, and it really doesn't matter, because when and if you get your check, weeks later, you'll be shocked at how low it is and the items that are missing from it.
Yes it still gets worse. As a buyer, I've often noticed lots of weird shenanigans by the auctioneers at Great Expectations. They like to do ""choice"" , and lately expired/expiring food, and other such low quality auction house gimmicks. What this means is that in some cases item lots are not properly described, and the action can be so confusing, that many people wind up paying more than they intended.
If you Google this auction house, you'll find other complaints confirming some of the things I've written above. Since they are still fairly new, and virtually the ONLY auction house in or near St. Augustine, I suspect it may sadly be awhile before people get enough courage to start complaining more about this place. I don't intend to do ANY more business with them, after my experience as both a buyer and a seller. There is simply no way to make money at this auction house as a buyer or seller ... but someone is certainly making money ... and I do believe those people are the house, ""Jena"", and their friends. Anyone visiting the place more than once can easily see the clique type of atmosphere the place has, which also adds to the bad experience and lack of trust. I've talked at length with people about this house, and I'm sure others that read this will be nodding their heads in agreement. Again, it really seems this is a case of Jena's Great Expectations Auction House is the only game in town, so the place is run like they are doing us all a favor by being in business. NOT good. Buyer and seller BEWARE!
Great Expectations Auction Company Reviews
I attended regular auctions here during the years 2011-2012. I had the same experiences mentioned as before.
Here is the problem, people who are friends of Jena, the owner who do bidding and are not intending to buy items but only drive the prices up IS NOT LEGAL. If anyone had a brain in the area, they would have to wonder why this goes on like this? Honestly, if you do not notice there is fake bidding, I think you need to open your eyes. Too many "friends" bidding.
I attended an auction that supposedly had a couch from a MACYS store that was very new looking. Got it home, and the bottome was made wrong, it was broken. And paid 900.00 for it.
BUYER BEWARE
Great Expectations is the only large auction house in St. Augustine, and that's probably why they are able to conduct business for both buyers and sellers so poorly.
I bought from this auction house for about 6 months, and recently tried to sell some items through them. I felt the need to file this report for a number of different reasons, and nearly all of them are negative.
For starters, the owner/manager ""Jena"" is a rude, stuck up, and very difficult person to work with as a customer. If you aren't one of her personal friends, you simply get cut off. You can tell her she lost your items, etc. and she will basically tell you she doesn't care. Leave her a message/email, etc. She's actually enough to complain about by herself, but from there, everything for customer seems to go downhill.
As a buyer, you'll find that Great Expectations often has a lot of LOW quality merchandise, despite the owner's big attidude and claims of getting only ""good items"". Dirty furniture, expired/expiring food, and even used mops! It's not that they don't get some valuable items, but whenever they do , they usually -sell for a lot more than what they are worth. This is strange, considering that when you try to SELL similar or identical items at the auction, your stuff will typically go for pennies, and this is where it seems to get pretty shady.
The auction house charges lots of high fees, and they even charge fees to buyers for using a credit card and just for buying period (buyer's premium). The fees charged to sellers are confiscatory, and the highest on low dollar items, which is what everything seems to go for ... except when you are a buyer. I believe they literally take half of any items that sell for less than 20 dollars , or something ridiculous like that. It almost makes one wonder if there is something shady going on, like ""house owned"" items and/or shill bidding.
To make all this worse, ""Jena"" and her auction house have all these weird rules which you pretty much only find out about the hard way. Most of the time when you call them , they don't pickup the phone. When they do, little help or information is available. They have ""appointment"" times which aren't very well described by their staff, when you call to try to bring items to sell at the auction. What's worse, is that the appointment times are EXACT appointments. Yes, they will actually turn you away with your items if you don't show up on time for some appointment during a weekday. Apparently, that's another way to thumb their nose at sellers, as if they don't need items to sell. In any case, I can assure you that it, like everything else about the place is very aggravating.
There is more. They ""LOSE"" your items, and then you simply get the runaround when trying to find them. Again, you'll get the attitude of ""Jenna"" if you dare ask about your missing items or complain.
This place seemingly has the most ridiculous book keeping, to the point where you wonder if they are just trying to rip everyone off. While you are ""encouraged"" sometimes to show up to the auction, so you can presumably see your items actually sell and for what price ... you'll never know which auction your item will be at ... and it's usually WEEKS after you bring in your items. IF you catch your items in the online pictures, and call later to ask the prices, I was shocked to find out that the auction house won't give you any information about YOUR items and YOUR money. Why? More excuses, and it really doesn't matter, because when and if you get your check, weeks later, you'll be shocked at how low it is and the items that are missing from it.
Yes it still gets worse. As a buyer, I've often noticed lots of weird shenanigans by the auctioneers at Great Expectations. They like to do ""choice"" , and lately expired/expiring food, and other such low quality auction house gimmicks. What this means is that in some cases item lots are not properly described, and the action can be so confusing, that many people wind up paying more than they intended.
If you Google this auction house, you'll find other complaints confirming some of the things I've written above. Since they are still fairly new, and virtually the ONLY auction house in or near St. Augustine, I suspect it may sadly be awhile before people get enough courage to start complaining more about this place. I don't intend to do ANY more business with them, after my experience as both a buyer and a seller. There is simply no way to make money at this auction house as a buyer or seller ... but someone is certainly making money ... and I do believe those people are the house, ""Jena"", and their friends. Anyone visiting the place more than once can easily see the clique type of atmosphere the place has, which also adds to the bad experience and lack of trust. I've talked at length with people about this house, and I'm sure others that read this will be nodding their heads in agreement. Again, it really seems this is a case of Jena's Great Expectations Auction House is the only game in town, so the place is run like they are doing us all a favor by being in business. NOT good. Buyer and seller BEWARE!