To be honest Catawiki offers mostly "fake" security by "vetting" pieces. Fakes are sadly rampant and thats mostly because it is a capitalist company mostly motivated by short term profits. It has scared away lots of customers and a good part of the sellers in the last year. Also customer support for buyers is at the moment in my opinion horrific. I have had some really bad experiences as a buyer recently. Even though i have the help of a dedicated seller support as a big seller on catawiki i do not get trough on the buyer side of things ending up with the weirdest non-solutions to really obvious problems.

As i both sell on catawiki and ebay and also buy on both platsforms a lot i must say Catawiki is the more dangerous of the two as a customer. 

Mostly because you get the feeling you are safe. On ebay you at least know you are in the Wild Wild West of antiques. Catawiki gives fake sense of safety because of the "vetting".

Only trust your own opinion and not that of the experts is my best advice. 

Best wishes

Freek

Ps. If something os shipped and does not arrive Catawiki will ofcourse refund you. Shipping at the moment is horrible.

Shipping atm is a absolute nightmare. 

I can only recommend that you do not use a standard/economy service. It will for the most part get held up for a extended time. Even lost. 

In all the years I have bought I have only had one parcel go missing. Fortunately the seller promptly supplied another that did arrive safely. 

Preferably use express with tracking and sign only. It's obviously more expensive. Highly recommend if the item is precious or expensive. 

As to catawiki site I can offer no opinion. Potential buyers in Australia do not have access. So it's pointless looking etc. However I heed the advice of Freek as a high end buyer and seller. 

Mark 

ETA: My apologies! In my earlier post I meant to say that Catawiki needs to improve their photos. Oops! How clumsy of me!

@shangrilaantique

That's good to know. I browse and buy there the same as Ebay: with a skeptical eye and very carefully. Having "experts" vet every item seems too good to be true. 

@shangrilaantique

Dear Freek:

It's nice to see you posting here. For those of you who don't know it, Freek and Bob at Shangrila Antiques in Amsterdam are among the nicest and most honest sellers of Chinese art that I have dealt with. I have bought many items from them and that is what a good business model should be all about namely the building of trust. When I buy from them, I know they will patiently deal with my complaints about delays and that they will always take care of me. Catawiki is a whole other story. Their attention to customer concerns is close to a zero level. If one sends them an email with an inquiry about an item or about an item not received, one gets an automated reply that they are too busy to deal with the matter. When they do eventually get back to one, the email is boilerplate and does not address the issue at hand.

I too am suspicious of the so-called experts who vouch for items on Catawiki. I don't know who they are or what their level of knowledge is about Chinese art. I agree with Freek that their opinions offer a false sense of security that one does not have on eBay where one knows that 95 percent of Chinese art offered is fake.

I very much doubt that I will ever again bid on or get any item sold through Catawiki despite all the promotion they receive on bidamount.com. They cannot be blamed obviously for international mail problems during a pandemic, but it is their total lack of care for buyers that is so appalling. One suggestion I could offer is that instead of using the postal service as the default delivery method they could offer buyers the option of paying more and getting items sent for example by Federal Express International Priority mail. The profit margin on Chinese art must be very high and they could salvage their reputation by sponsoring safer shipping methods.

The only time I was able to get their attention was when I disputed the sale with my credit card company and I was issued a credit for the payment. They don't like that at all because they are then the potential loser in the deal and have some incentive to try to correct the problem.

In the meantime, as I have often said here the old Roman admonition of caveat emptor very much applies when it comes to Catawiki.

Regards,

Errol

Thank you for your kind words Errol. Much apreciated.

Regarding the experts of Catawiki. I know a lot of them. They are people that have knowledge and the quality has grown over the years.

The problem is that they are under a lot of pressure to deliver (quick) results. So they need to fill these auction week after week after week and are pressured to lower reserves or go as much without reserve as possible. This leads to problems as it creates the incentive to accept either mediocre stuff or be less critical.

The whole concept is a tipping scale that can easily go the wrong way. Sadly in the last year for me it tipped largely in the wrong direction. Something that has happened before and than they were able to reverse it.

I hope they can reverse it again before it is too late.

Its really frustrating when the customer service and company gives you the feeling they only care about their own money. And with catawiki at the moment they are not very good at hiding that part............

Its very short term orientated and will in the end make there profits less and less

best wishes

Freek

It is nice to hear from a regarded & high volume seller on both main platforms as buyers and sellers via @shangrilaantique. 

Sometimes issues with a purchase or a poor sales result can cause (understandable) frustration with a platform; but this adds to the overall consensus that things are far from “okay” with Catawiki, from yet another perspective - and one which has a high frequency of interactions/experiences compared to most.

(Without risk of rewriting what was unfortunately long for even my own posting), I had said a while back Catawiki offers very little delivery on its promises of “being different” in any meaningful way - and at the time; based on public records and tendencies from the groups which bought them out/held large stakes in the company it seemed they were trying to generally court investors and not customers/sellers/long-term clientele.

Shame to see it still occurring; but frankly not surprising..

My friend who is a fellow collector but not commercially involved in the industry (other than selling early pieces as he replaces them), wrote me an email last month encapsulating most of the complaints in this thread.. 

He recalled to me mentioning recently to their experts about 5 or 6 of their paintings in a single sale were outright forgeries being sold as originals, and they temporarily “held” one from the sale; with the others going on to realize high results without any addressing otherwise.. 

He was very disappointed, and when I directed him to another area of their platform to highlight a more prevalent & egregious display of this - he said he wouldn’t sell any more of his older items on the platform after seeing such; preferring to go back to “taking the many chances” on eBay. 

While I admire his ability to have an ethical & moral compass (along with dealers like those speaking out here), we have to remember this is rampant and largely goes without accountability in any meaningful way as long as the profit margins keep widening & volume of outreach grows.. 

Keep in mind, this isn’t the sole responsibility & blame of the overworked/overloaded experts who are tasked with many items each week (along with being “the face” for their respective categories should any issue arise).
It more or less is indicative of a mentality for turning a blind eye starting with the higher ups and this general outlook trickling down to the other levels. 

-JRN