MaxSold

Response: It's disappointing that this customer had an unsatisfactory experience - should they decide to provide more details on who they are / which auction was theirs we would be happy to follow up with them and attempt to make it right in their eyes - if they choose, they could reach out via support@maxsold.com. Certainly, some of their feedback doesn’t seem to fit who we are so we aren’t 100% certain this person was actually a client of ours:
Examples:
“... they would have been stuck with many items they could do nothing with” - we don’t hold inventory or remove items so I’m not sure who we would have been stuck with items in any way

“They will not do single item auction” - we aren’t sure exactly what this is referring to. We have done both single item auctions (i. E. storage locker full of contents as 1 item) as well as sold items individually when there is merit to do so (typically items that will sell for $50 or more on their own like TVs, Tool chest, vehicle, piece of furniture, lladro figurine, etc.).

“Maxsold gave the money back and let the bidder keep the item” - if an item is refunded (partial or otherwise), the loss is taken by both MaxSold and the seller and full refunds would typically have the item left behind (unless the seller requested otherwise).

Finally, it is true that Sellers who are savvy at negotiation and who have the time to sell 1000s of items on their own time through direct channels can see more top line value on occasion, but the effort typically takes months or years to execute (so if time is a constraint, it’s not a viable option). Sellers who hire us for what we do have time as a constraint that will be expensive to get more of (not a resource that is cheaply available).

For clarity on MaxSold’s fees, they are outlined here: www.maxsold.com/fees. Depending on the model chosen and the gross auction results, the fees can exceed the proceeds (a typical) or result in some net proceeds to the seller (typical). At the end of the day, MaxSold does not decide what a Seller needs to sell - our job is to recover value on whatever the Seller needs to let go of (typically as a result of an estate or downsize) in the time given to us by the Seller - this unique to our service as others providers in our space simply will not serve 80% of the market because they do not have ~$8,000 or more worth of inventory to sell (the typical break-even value that enables other providers to conduct a sale).

As part of our core value of transparency, the results of all our auctions are available for review and should this seller inform us of which auction is there, we would be happy to publish the results in this response (as we have with all other responses where the seller identifies themselves). We do this as we feel our results are fair value under the constraints outlined above (that said, we are ultimately sorry that our seller is disappointed in this case).

Where other solutions try to control prices while having no control over time of sale, we give the seller control of time while giving up control of price to market competition. For people who have items that will soon cost them to hold onto, this is the most economic (and green) solution to the problem of getting things removed on their timelines (typically to support a much larger value proposition such as a closing real estate transaction or avoiding ongoing rental/lease costs).

If interested, check out this perspective on the evolving need and how Maxsold helps:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/maxsold-tomorrows-auction-housetoday-adam-gordon/

MaxSold continues to reinvest all funds made in the pursuit of its vision to Sell. Everything. Simply for downsizing and estate clients without judgement: http://maxsold.com/maxsold-purpose/

In addition to taking feedback from our Seller’s and doing our best to make it right in their eyes, it’s important to provide the following information for transparency for others that may be reading this. It’s an unfortunate reality that the market doesn’t always pay a seller what a seller thinks is a fair price for individual things (or perhaps even in aggregate) under a competitive auction model (this is true for any auction company). Maxsold does its very best to provide both a detailed outline of our process (www.maxsold.com/sell) and share our past auction data (www.maxsold.com/past) to prepare sellers for the realities of the market when items must be sold. Sellers have both financial and emotional attachments to items and so our job is to sell only those items they need to part with - typically items that will soon be a liability due to a move / sale of real estate / etc. as selling the items avoids additional and/or ongoing, logistical and/or storage costs. Our model, which includes selling everything to the highest bidder regardless of price, guarantees our sellers a finite and transparent experience that passes the logistical burden onto the buyers as they MUST arrive and remove, with their own resources, all of their purchases from the sellers location during a short time window agreed to by the Seller. This saves hundreds (if not thousands) in labor alone.

Although we are confident that a 3rd party professional appraiser would agree that our results were fair value (and that we offset even more significant disposal fees than they incurred), we are ultimately sorry that our seller is disappointed in this case.

https://maxsold.maxsold.com/auction/philadelphia-pennsylvania-usa-estate-sale-online-auction-jackson-street-17226/bidgallery/

Where other solutions try to control prices while having no control over time of sale, we give the seller control of time while giving up control of price to market competition. For people who have items that will soon cost them to hold onto, this is the most economic (and green) solution to the problem of getting things removed on their timelines (typically for a much larger value proposition such as a closing real estate transaction or avoiding ongoing rental/lease costs).

If interested, check out this perspective on the evolving need and how Maxsold helps:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/maxsold-tomorrows-auction-housetoday-adam-gordon/

MaxSold continues to reinvest all funds made in the pursuit of its vision to Sell. Everything. Simply for downsizing and estate clients without judgement: http://maxsold.com/maxsold-purpose/

It’s disappointing that this customer feels we have somehow taken advantage of them - especially when, from our perspective, they have actually taken advantage of us and our community of customers who abide by our contract agreements.

This Seller was banned in 2018 after requiring more of a fee adjustment than we agreed was fair due to their value expectations. Value expectations that, as part of our contract, are acknowledged as outside our control as we control time of sale, not sale prices. ***We agreed to send the funds they felt was fair provided they understood that it came with the consequence that they would never be able to use MaxSold as a seller in future.***

In 2019, they asked to sell with us again and we specified that they would need to make an upfront payment of the minimum commissions as well as compensation for the past adjustment we did not agree to (as we believe we earned our commission, but we were willing to split the difference if they wished to use us again). No sale was conducted at that time.

In 2020, they attempted to conduct an auction without providing the upfront fee stated in the 2019 email. This led to us having to cancel the auction prior to launch as they did not seem to want to pay it.
Recently, we served this customer with an auction (in error) and again they failed to provide the up front minimum fee. We appreciate we missed asking them for it but they are now (again) further ahead financially than was agreed to.

At this point we are done communicating with this customer as they refuse to appreciate how ‘in the wrong’ they are for both failing to pay the consequences of their 2018 decision and now, again, for claiming we have done something unethical when actually they are financially further ahead than they should be.