I read an article about Auctionata having gone bankrupt. This is also stated in the "investors relation" section of their website. The company had 130 (!) million Euro in fundings from investors. I cant imagine how they could they loose all that money? (On what had they spent it on!) Has anyone more info?

 

I hope it was drugs and hookers - that's a sure way to loose your money.

 

whoa..so from now on it would be quite risky to bid in their auctions I assume?

 

They don't have to have lost that money to have declared bankruptcy - they may simply have been trading at a loss. How the hell an auction house manages to trade at a loss, though, is beyond me ... it's damn near a licence to print money.

 

Oh, they have lost money – plenty of money.

 

As they are licensed in Germany, I rather doubt that the owners would be stupid enough to attempt to overtly steal client's property. They'd likely find themselves spending time in prison, if they did.

Edit: I would advise caution, though, and especially if consigning.

 

@Tony C. - you seem to have some knowledge of this so, without being indiscreet, what's the link between Auctionata and Chrono24; are you aware of the problems that Auctionata have been having?

 

Worth a read

https://www.theguardian.com/artandd...ction-houses-christies-and-sotheby-lose-money


Bidding started at $80m, and increased to $82m, $84m ... But these were not actual bids. They were so-called “chandelier bids”, called out by the auctioneer himself in a theatrical attempt to get things moving. It’s a practice that’s entirely legal, and common. In 2013, the New York Times reported that for the past two decades, lawmakers have tried to outlaw it, but without success.

 

I don't have specific knowledge that I can share, as my comments are based on what I have been told by a Swiss dealer friend over the past two years. He is very well-informed, and predicted this result long before it was openly apparent that the company was having financial trouble.

Suffice to say that the company's financing and behavior were questionable from a very beginning.

 

So what policies/actions do you suspect contributed to their bleeding capital?

 

I'd be a bit worried if I had consigned property to Auctionata for a future auction. Need to get it back before the bankruptcy trustees latch on to it. Even worse if your property was sold days ago but you haven't, yet, been paid.

Similarly, if a action winner paid for an item but the item hasn't shipped yet. Don't want to be stuck in the middle reading the fine print of your auction agreement.

 

My understanding is that they handled their business poorly from the beginning. They hired poor quality experts, and, while supporting the dealers who supported them, behaved very badly with some private clients, including failure to pay for sold items, and/or return unsold items.

Their investors are likely in trouble as well, as while they initially paid the promised interest, the (more important) status of the principal is a different matter entirely.

 

but how can you spend 130 million on an online auctionhouse? i mean its not 1 or 2 million, its 130 (!)

 

spot on!
I have watched several severe misrepresentations of watches I had been interested (mainly Omegas...)

 

Booze, girls and cars. The rest? The rest was just squandered...

 

Did business with them once two years ago:
Vintage Pulsometer Bezel, Straight Writing:

 

Then I'm glad I never bought through them. Seriously, you have to be a special kind of dumb to fail in that business with the sort of profile they had.

 

Wow lot of misconceptions here, there are some good articles about the bancrupcy on German sites like Gründerszene "foundersblog" if I find the time I may try to translate it.

Main reason for the bankruptcy was their attempt to overtake (not sure if this is the right term) another us based auction house "Paddle8" which at the end cost way to much money and was a failed investment, also funding for it didn't came through.

But it seemed that problems started earlier on, as early as mid 2015.

Also on "how to spend 130 million", it wasn't like they acquired the 130 million in VC (venture capital) at one point, it was given to them over a number of investment rounds.

Also they had around 300 employees.... if basic employee had an income of around 4K€ (mid-high) count in what this alone costs you in one month.

You are right though, from what I read it seems like some of the consigners of late recent auctions (last 1-2 month) have not been paid yet. Also employees are let go already and December wages are yet to be paid ....

 

They raised that much or valued at that much after the last round?

Key difference. Also why did they need 300 seats? I would have put them at 50 seats max