Ruminations

Blog dedicated primarily to randomly selected news items; comments reflecting personal perceptions

Monday, April 13, 2009

Be Aware, Shun Stupidity

You might think that people would exercise some common sense, make themselves aware and informed before setting out to spend a large whack of funds on things they know little about. On the other hand, people buy cars known as lemons all the time, when they might sensibly scan consumer reports to determine beforehand which poorly performing vehicles to avoid. People spend inordinate amounts of money on designer labels, when perfectly good alternates can be found for far less.

It's a matter of personal awareness, adaptability to the marketplace, priorities and choices. If a home appliance proves to have been a poor choice, and the owner discovers that others have had similar problems, a kind of boycott ensues, where people look elsewhere for reliability. It's a learning process. And when it comes to the purchase of art and antiques, isn't it kind of sensible to learn something about what purports to be the genuine thing before embarking on a buying spree?

It's hard to get exercised as a result of the experience that an ostensibly well educated professional couple underwent because of their lack of due diligence. Want to go to an auction to avail yourself of bargains in jewellery, furniture, rugs, original art, then do some homework. Know something about identifying objects of real virtue and value. The people who hawk them famously are out to make money, not to educate the ignorant.

Here's the complaint of an Ontario couple, she a medical professional, he a businessman who, looking for something to do, decided to attend an advertised auction. Where, ostensibly, estate objects were to be auctioned off and where they might take possession of valuable objects at a fraction of their evaluated values.
It's caveat emptor, all the way. Know nothing, do nothing. Above all, don't commit to what you're ignorant about.

Instead, this couple attended an auction at an exclusive golf club in Milton, Ontario, where they saw paintings, rugs and jewellery that struck their fancy. And they bid, handsomely enough, on a number of those items, for two consecutive auction days. First day the woman bought three original oil paintings, a black Pearl necklace and three Beluch rugs, spending $8,400 in the process.

On the second day of attendance the husband bought a pastel and a pen-and-ink drawing, a heliogravure, a necklace of freshwater pearls, and two more 'antique' Beluch rugs, totalling an additional $8,800. They asked the vendor/auctioneer for certificates of authentication for the artwork; none were to be had. They, presumably, were had.

But in the world of art, antiques, and jewellery, a total of $17,218.38 doesn't represent a huge investment. They bought what they liked. And then thought better of it. A series of emails went back and forth between the dissatisfied purchasers and the vendor/auctioneer. Some people buy to satisfy their personal aesthetic, to surround themselves with objects of beauty. Some for investment purposes.

The auctioneer had some unfortunate, but isolated instances of bad faith bargaining with previous customers, all of which were settled to the customers' satisfaction. The peripatetic game of presenting auction opportunities to the public is a fairly unregulated one. But if you're going shopping for pricey objects, know something about them. And once committed, be satisfied with your purchase. Or stay home.

No one forces people to attend these auctions, to avail themselves of desirable objects. Just as no one forces people to invest in creative and 'genuine' oil paintings on velvet. Our public institutions cannot rescue people from their own stupidity. People do have an obligation to inform themselves before setting out on any venture. If they feel they've been conned, made a bad deal for themselves, consider it a learning experience.

But this couple is screaming loud and long, and insisting that government get involved. To protect innocents like themselves from getting burned. In fact, some of the items they took possession of proved to be genuine enough, some of them professionally evaluated after the fact, given a far higher value than what they paid. They've simply thought twice about the enterprise they brought themselves into.

Trouble is, there's no real cure for lack of attention to details. Of mental laziness, of credulous stupidity.

Labels: , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

 
()() Follow @rheytah Tweet