Brew City Auctions & Estate Sales

Thanks for taking the time to explain the auction process. You made the selling of my father’s estate simple and pain free. We will highly recommend you to any of our friends and family that have to go through this process. Again, thanks for your honesty and diligence!

I signed a contract with Eric Lewis of Brew City Auctions on June 10, 2017, to sell the contents of my father’s home. The house was filled with a huge amount of collectibles as well as furniture and every day household items. We agreed the sale would be done by online auctions. Eric stated that he had a large email list and that he could reach a large amount of people this way. In all there were five online auctions with the first starting on July 14 and the fifth auction starting on September 1. With the exception of the last two auctions, which I am told brought in very little, I watched the items as the auctions ended and was tracking the sales. We ran into Eric at the house early in the process and he mentioned that one buyer who bid on items totaling more than $300 in the first auction did not show. The next time we ran into Eric at the house, he stated that the auctions were going about as expected. There was no mention of any other no shows. After the final auction, Eric offered us an amount for the items that did not sell (people were still coming to pick up their items at that time) and in the next week Eric had his crew clean out the house. I asked that they leave all of my Dad’s Disney figurines behind. There was a large one sitting on the refrigerator which was my Dad’s favorite and several more in boxes in a bedroom. All they had to do was leave them behind. This was not communicated to his crew and everything was removed from the house. Eric stopped by with a check and a list of times that sold. When I saw the total, I thought it was a bit low, but I had to review my notes. Eric was going to stop by with the Disney figurines a few days later anyway, so I thought I would ask about the total at that time. Eric never showed up or called on the evening he stated that he would and he didn’t respond to a voice mail or an email message. I called again a few days later and received his voice mail. I mentioned how frustrated we were and that the total seemed off. Eric returned the call but I was out of my office and did not get to speak with him personally. He stated that there were over 50 (FIFTY) items that were not paid for totaling more than $1400. I would say this is a problem with this online auction system. I am not sure why a credit card is required to sign up to bid as nothing is done with the credit card if a bidder does not show up to pay for his or her items. The fact that there was so much in no shows was never communicated to us. Obviously, the items had some value if they totaled $1400. (This is 20% of the total sale so it is substantial.) Why would he not contact the next highest bidder or try listing the items again? Clearly there was an opportunity to relist the items with five auctions. What is really upsetting is that if I had not questioned the total, we would have not learned this. Communication during this process was not good at all. I never did get to have a discussion with Eric as he had one of his employees deliver the Disney figurines. The nicest one that was originally on top of the refrigerator was delivered broken in the box. All they had to do was leave them behind and they could not get that right. What transpired at the end of this process is very questionable.