this seriously pisses me...
this seriously pisses me off......he cleared 8,000 last month alone...and it is obvious he prints new labels they look perfect...and if people can make fake 100's and fool people who have seen and handled them I am really not surprised he can fool people who in my opinion might be mentally challenged...either they are dumb or this guy has the biggest never ending supply or rare mint condition furniture....
I hit the pavement at least 20 hours a week and all weekend going to thrift store, yard sales, estate sales...and craigslist and still have not found stuff like that....
Well Fred is back at it.
Sad that he does not mention the re welds on the base.
Someone bought into it.
Glad I don't anymore.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-HERMAN-MILLER-CHARLES-EAMES-ZENITH-LAR-L...
I had one of his shells for a while
The shells he basically sands down and then does a coat of penatrol
The problem with that is, you can easily see the missing fibers when turning it into the light. It really looks good from about 8-10 feet and then you see how he did it. Not hard to do at all, but pretty shady. What amazes me is people never seem to leave negative feedback, or don;t know enough to really examine what they buy.
Cult of Personality....
They have over 2000 transactions and little negative feedback. The average unsuspecting ebayer would see that as a good sign to buy no? I mean, 2000+ people can't be wrong...
Unless you are aware of the constant stream of rare, mint, items they sell, it would be a lot easier to believe it's legitimate. The buyer would be relying in large part on the seller's feedback.
All their transactions are listed as private so again, the average ebayer wouldn't be aware of how long this has been going on.
The shock mounts alone should've been a huge red flag to everybody bidding...they're beyond obviously brand new.
I am not absolving the responsibility of the buyer, but it is easy to understand how this seller has gotten away with it for so long.
I wonder how many of these doctored items have already been resold at high end auction ? Surely auction houses confirm origins and provenance of items before selling?
(edited) for clarity
Depends on the quality
Depends on the quality of the auction house. Sure, Wright, or Rago will, or even Skinner will do their work, but I have seen some stuff make its way that certainly is questionable and after asking, not been encouraged by the lack of info.
All auction houses don't always have specialists available for every genre. More on the buyer to do their homework especially in the age of online options like Liveauctions when you can't see the item in person.
Sometimes even the big house make mistakes on age/era. I have been on the receiving end of that. Mistakes get made even by the best.
"I assumed that since they were antique dealers, that they knew what they were listing."
An apparent example of an auction house either not doing proper research or actually knowingly misrepresenting is the matter of the Pier 1 Imports "Frederick (sic- Frederic is correct) Weinberg" chair.
I picked up a pair of these chairs for free at a yard sale here in Los Angeles (below). Wasn't familiar with them but quickly saw that the numerous examples all over the Internet were being sold as "mid century (or 1950s) Frederick (sic) Weinberg."
Then I saw that they were all identical to a chair sold by the chain store mass marketer Pier 1 Imports in the 1990s, $39.95 USD.
I contacted the guy who is writing a book on Frederic Weinberg, has been researching the subject for years, and has all the Weinberg Company catalogues and lots of related material. He said he gets this question all the time, about whether these chairs are a Weinberg design/product, and that he has seen no evidence whatsoever that this chair has anything to do with Weinberg or predates the 1990s.
I contacted a seller trying to get $1100 for one of these chairs on eBay, asking them how they knew they were Weinberg and not Pier 1. She responded:
"I saw several chairs like this listed on the '1st dibs' website and assumed that since they were antique dealers, that they knew what they were listing."
I contacted one of the sellers of a pair of these chairs on 1stdibs ($2400 USD/pr, the other pair on 1stdibs is $3900 USD), politely asking how one can tell the difference between a Weinberg mid century chair and a Pier 1 from the 1990s. Her response:
"They were purchased at an auction house, so the information we have was provided by them. I have no other information or insight about the chairs."
An auction house said they were Weinberg, so a 1stdibs seller said they were Weinberg.
An eBay seller saw a 1stdibs seller said they were Weinberg, so she said they were Weinberg...
But all the mounting evidence suggests that every single one of these chairs for sale on the Internet, all described as mid century Frederick (sic) Weinberg, is actually a $39.95 Pier 1 Imports chair from the 1990s.
I am now trying to identify the auction house in question, as I'm writing a magazine article about this.
Not sold as Frederick...
Not sold as Frederick Weinberg but they were sold as after VKG
Wright lists them as vintage 1965, don't know where they got the date.
The chair is called the Mombasa Chair sold by pier one imports.
http://www.wright20.com/auctions/view_search/K807/K808/523/LA/van_keppel...
VKG, Weinberg and Pier 1
Thanks l1flafly for the reference to the Wright auction, I hadn't seen it and very much appreciate knowing about it.
I'm puzzled as to why Wright listed the chairs as "after" VKG, then immediately below as if they actually are VKG.
But because one seller on the Internet did in fact attribute this chair to VKG, and another to either VKG or Weinberg, I contacted someone claiming to be writing a book on VKG (as well as searching VKG myself as I had done with Weinberg).
He responded that this chair is "most definitely not VKG. Not even close."
But of course there are many kinds of "experts" on the Internet.
At some point after its introduction Pier 1 Imports altered the design of the Mombasa Chair, making the weave of the upper back section looser than on the original version, and one may run across Pier 1 catalogue pictures of this second version, but the original Pier 1 Mombasa is as pictured above and is identical to all those I can find currently for sale as Weinbergs.
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