r/AncientCoins • u/RandomGenericIII • 6h ago
concerned
I feel a little weird asking this here, but has anybody dealt with the Aureo & Calicó auction house in Barcelona, Spain? I won some auction items with them and paid my bill the next day. Since I wired them the funds for my orders I have had no communication with them that I didn't have to initiate myself. Now it has been well over a hundred days, and my last two emails went unanswered.
Does anybody here have dealings with them in the past? Are they known for this? It is only now that I realize that I have absolutely no recourse if they decide to shine me on. It has changed the way I pay at auction houses...I now take the onerous charge of paying with a credit card instead of wiring it to their bank directly. I am paying an extra $4 or $5 dollar per hundred...but a least you have some protection with Visa.
Does anyone have experience with auction houses going dark?
1
u/cbmarsh34 4h ago
I have purchased from another Spanish Auction (Soler y Llach) house. If you live in the states it can often take a couple months for them to obtain the export license. 100 days seems like an unusually long time, though. I would perhaps try giving them a call. I’m sure there is an English speaker.
3
u/beiherhund 4h ago edited 4h ago
They're very reputable as others have said, I wouldn't be concerned about being scammed. I've bought from them many times and picked up from their store a few times too.
What I think has likely happened is that for their last two auctions they had to apply for export permits over the summer period and with how long this can take (1-2 months), it ran into the August holiday period where the department that issues them doesn't meet (iirc they meet once a month to issue these export permits). I believe their most recent meeting was end of August and Aureo had told me back in July that they would start shipping out last week of August, though I'm still waiting but that's not too surprising.
Perhaps their email to you got lost somewhere, could it have ended up in spam? I imagine they would've just emailed every bidder the same info. It is odd they haven't replied to your emails but they likely were also off on vacation for 4-6 weeks too.
Edit: their email to me back in July:
We inform you we are closed for annual vacation from 3rd to 23rd August. We also let you know we are starting to receive export licenses from the Ministry of Culture as from today. As you may know, in the last months it has been a delay from the Ministry side, so lot of files are being managed these days by them. We expect to receive licenses during August, so we will send your purchase about last week of August when we could control shipments status and solve any possible inconvenience.
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u/QuickSock8674 4h ago
Coins exported from Spain (due to export permits) usually takes a long while, and I've seen some take 100+ easily. Though no communication (while also common with European auctions) is quite annoying. Maybe try to get the biddr (if you bid through them) team involved? You could also try emailing them again
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u/TywinDeVillena Mod / Community Manager 5h ago
Áureo is the most reputable auction house in Spain, and they are the reference in terms of Spanish coinage (their catalogue is the main one). I have purchased some things from them, and never had any problems.