Levi Goldstein Auctions

Wow. I just spent a good chunk of my day reviewing & bidding on my first Levi Goldstein Auction — — and I won several. I was thrilled.
The Warehouse —
The warehouse is a treasure-hunter’s dream. It is basically a junkyard — incredibly dirty with «junk & jewels» piled up everywhere. Not a clean counter or table to set your items on & check them before leaving. Also, there is zero parking — especially at lunch.
The Staff —
It was lunchtime, so it was pretty busy. The girl helping me seemed annoyed she didn’t get to eat her sandwich when I arrived.
The Items —
The first box she brought me had 3 flameless candles inside. One was completely smashed with broken bits. This should have clued me in to check the other items. The way they collect your things is they pile them all in a box and hand them over. Because I bought so many and had waited so long. I just left.
Normally auctions tell you if there is significant damage — but no descriptions mentioned significant pieces were missing, smashed, extremely soiled and odorous, and in two cases — parts were falling apart from poor storage. I think rats might have chewed one of the boxes and peed on the pillow I bought.
Resolution —
I called and talked to Misty — she pretty much told me I should have checked my items before i left and it was on me that I’m stuck with this stuff. Well, it was a $ 150+ lesson. I’m devastated. I was having fun… finding treasures. then reality slapped me in the face. I can’t use most of the high-​dollar items I did buy.
Do Not Buy based on pictures OR descriptions. Misty told me they do not go through and plug in every item nor do they inspect everything because they are not paid enough to do that. If important pieces are missing or there is significant damage that disables the items you are purchasing — it will not be mentioned in the description. Buyer Beware. Other auction houses are MUCH better than this group. I have a $ 150 pile of garbage going out tomorrow.

I am writing this review in response to one Matthew Y. posted. I’ve bid on many auctions R.L. Spears Co. Inc. has placed online and was quite shocked to read that review because all of my experiences with ALL of the various auction house sites have been quite the opposite of what Matthew Y. states was his.
I would like to give the reader a little real information and background about how R.L. Spears works. The site will post up auctions that are run out of several different locations, all in Los Angeles county. All of the auction bids start at $ 1.00, or sometimes even less than a dollar depending on what’s being sold. There is a 13% commission that is added to the winning bid of every lot which goes to the auction lot housing site team — Levi Goldstein is one of those team leaders, for lack of a better way to describe it. The 13% commission, as far as I can tell, is the auction house team’s payment for (perhaps finding items, but not sure) receiving lot shipments, inspecting shipments, categorizing then numbering each item or lot, testing (or not testing but making that «untested» information clear in the items blurb), photographing, description blurb write up, as well as providing excellent client assistance for all prospective/​bidders on the inspection and post auction item pick up days. Spears does not provide shipping of items and the buyer is responsible for picking up their winning auction items from the team/​address the auction is held out of. Auction houses have a standard limit on the amount of time prospective buyers can examine the lots that are up for bids and Spears (via the lot housing sites) is no different, giving 2 whole days, 9am — 4pm, to do so. They also allow (in most cases) two days for the items to be picked up. *** SIDE NOTE: On one occasion I won some items from a «newbie» auction site team that gave only one day from items to be retrieved, I was running late (standard for me :) to pick up my items. In a mini-​panic I phoned R.L. Spears and explained I was running late and to my delight the auction site actually stayed open to wait for me. Me — just one person out of thousands. ***
Now I would like to give the reader some factual information about my, and my uncle Dale’s, personal experiences with OTHER ONLINE to ON SITE AUCTION HOUSES _​ONES NOT RUN BY Mr. Spears. Awful. If you are unhappy, disappointed, misinformed, jipped, horn-​swaggled and/​or ripped off these other sites absolutely do not care. They have their money and that’s that. My uncle Dale spent hours trying to make right what two other sites ripped him off on (the items were absolutely NOT what they were represented as — condition wise) and I believe he had to go through his credit card company to dispute them — one of which he won and the other he just took the loss on. In stark contrast, both mine and my uncle’s Dales experiences with R.L. Spears and each of the various auction house site/​teams we’ve won items from (a total of 5 different places/​teams we have collectively dealt with INCLUDING Levi Goldstein and his team) has always been very satisfactory. We have found some awesome deals on things we have resold, as well as personal items we use today! My uncle Dale bought a brand new remote controlled medical bed for a friend of his for $ 16, as well as lots of great pet food items, clothes, designer suits and more! I have been shocked on many occasions by the volume of his lot wins versus the literal dollars he spent on them. I have won many items from Spears, here are a few: vintage clothing both me and my kids wear, a set of brand new 16in x 6in lock boxes (lot of four — I paid $ 4.50 for all four of them and have two happy eBay customers who EACH bought them from me for $ 15 plus $ 10 shipping — Buy It Now style! I kept one of them for myself and gave the other as a gift), a random box of «Kimko’s Items» for $ 4.00 that ended up being a treasure trove of beautiful cards, high quality colored stock paper and some old, non-​circulated postcards, one of which I just sold on eBay for $ 10!
Lastly, I would like to address Matthew Y. and his various complaints about his own experience with Spears/​Levi Goldstein. MATTHEW Y. MAKES SEVERAL FALSE STATEMENTS ABOUT HOW THESE AUCTIONS ARE RUN. INSPECTIONS OF ITEMS MEANS… INSPECT! I was just at Levi’s yesterday picking up some won items and I PERSONALLY OBSERVED 1.) outlets for testing 2.) some guy who apparently brought his own home desktop computer with monitor in order to test out some PCI or whatever cards that are up for auction right now — who was being assisted by Mr. Goldstein himself 3.) someone else who was inspecting items, taking them out of their box etc, unassisted, who then had some questions about an item and was politely assisted by one of the other team members. Matthew Y. is one those people who gets stuff for free by complaining & I challenge the reader to try Spears for themselves before listening to him.

My problem is not only Levi Goldstein Auctions, but with RL Spears Co. Inc. I did some business and bought an auction from Levi Goldstein and to my surprises it was all junk. All the electronics that in their description said its been tested or it was new. That was false on both promises. I also bought two adult toys which should be a big re-​seller, however the outer plastic that covers the container they came in looked like it was home made or made from very cheap shrink wrap. One of the toys shrink wrap had a large hole and there’s no way it can be re-​sold.
In talking to one of Levi’s employee’s, she old me that when they get this stuff for the lack of a better word, they simply wipe it down with a cloth to get the dust off of them and shrink wrap them and sells then in a auction for some schmuck to come by and buy this crap. Buyer Beware!
Levi Spears also work with RL Spears Co in Westlake Village. In fact I wrote a negative report for RL Spears and within a couple of days I get a «CC» letter from Levi Goldstein stating they denies everything that I found to be troublesome. In that e-​mail it also states from Levi Spears that I was suppose to receive a full refund for that action. RL Spears also agreed that would be the best thing. Its been a week and I see nothing nor have I received an email with an apology. Unfortunately, I wish that I could say I was surprised, however being the type of businessmen they are, I didn’t hold my breath.
My suggestion to anyone looking to purchase from Levi Goldstein or RL Spears is DONT! They are not reputable business people and this proves it. If you feel that you are going to give them a chance, Buy Beware. If you can go into Mr. Goldstein place of business and look at the items you are looking for. That’s only if the girls that clean the merchandise will let you. When I went in I was told that I couldn’t touch of open boxes for the auction that I were to bid on. Make sure that all the electronic cords and accessories are in the box. If you win the item in the auction, those pieces suddenly come up lost and they say its only what you see. My box of electronics didn’t have one electric cord and I had four or five items. Can’t give them away now. I did ask one of the girls if they had the cord and her reply was it doesn’t come with it. I showed be it did and after a she going outside to talk to Levi, she gives me a cord that doesn’t work.
So basically, if you absolutely have to have something that Levi Goldstein and or RL Spears sells then BUYER BEWARE! The best thing is to look on-​line for another auction house, and do business with them.
– UPDATE AUGUST 22, 2013 — Below is the e-​mail that I received from RL Spears and Levi Goldstein Auctions. To date they haven’t lived up to what they said they were going to do, i.e., A Refund in full! You be the judge. My opinion is that these companies are not what they say they are. Rather, in my opinion they ripped me off as they may have done to many others. One last thing. RL Spears was not happy that there first « Unilocal» review was negative, that they demanded that I remove my Unilocal Listing IMMEDIATELY as they put it.
«After receiving your e-​mail, I forwarded it to the seller/​consignor who set up the items. His reply is below. We are refunding the money you spent for these items and, as requested, we will remove your bidder number from our active bidders list.
To LUCKY
*

This is very unsettling to me. first of all Iif it says tested we tested it. As far as the novelties we don’t wipe items off and wrap them I don’t know about that. We do wipe boxes if any even look used they go back to the vendor for replacement or sent to an adult movie company. As a matter of fact they just picked up 293 units I would not sell. Last but not least at any time anyone is welecome to come in and try any item except for toys (adult) send an email to this man with my appologies as well as a full refund also please let him know that he must of misunderstood about the toys. You know Dave I am not into games nor would I tell someone they can’t test something. I want people to come in feel touch smell. Anyway all can’t be Happy but we can try…»
LUCKY
We hope that this matter is now resolved.
Sincerely,
R.L. Spear Co., Inc.