Let me give you some friendly advice; if you are interested in anything being sold at Bosley's Militaria Auctions, you need to go and inspect the items very carefully; do not absentee bid without prior inspection.
Why? Because Steven Bosley is useless to the point of fraud of describing items correctly IMHO. I have personally witnessed several of their items being sold to absentee bidders who have relied upon the due diligence of Bosleys, where the item was woefully misdescribed and / or serious flaws / damage was not disclosed. For example, in their February 2009 auction;
Lot 903 was described as being etched with the owner's initials; there were no such markings!
Lot 913 a Scottish basket hilt - no mention was made of the fact the tang nut was loose (the basket hilt fell off) and the tang thread sheered.
Now, see if you can spot which of these is not a sword from their lot list;
910 Scottish. 71st Highland Light Infantry Victorian Officer’s sword by Wilkinson
911 Scottish. Royal Scots Victorian Officer’s Broadsword Blade & Scabbard.
912 Scottish. WW1 Period Seaforth Highlanders Officer’s Sword
OK, when you have been allerted to it, the fact is easier to spot; Lot 911 is not a complete sword; it is a blade and scabbard only. Elsewhere Bosley's had described the fact items were not complete swords and these items were not mixed in with the swords. MANY people bid on lot 911 believing it to be a complete sword of course. Lot 912 was described as having a broken hilt bar when three were borken and the hilt was seriously dented. Bosley's trading conditions are "Buyer beware" (really) and buyer's really should beware of Bosleys Militaria!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Antique Auctions Support Network - Warning
Be warned, the Antique Auctions Support Network run by Andrey Kiselev and Svetlana Kalmykova is a dodgy place to buy swords (or anything else) from, or to use as buyer's agents at auction.
Andrey Kiselev also operates on eBay as history_relics and calls himself "Andrew". History relics are well known for fraudulently selling reproduction swords and other militaria as authentic. He tries to hide behind a PO Box at Mail Boxes Etc in St. Albans (Mail Boxes Etc do not call their PO Boxes by that name, they call them "Offices"). You can read all about Andrey's antics on a site called vBay me, here; History Relics (if you have been cheated by these people you can find their home address and phone numbers here).
Andrey is clever, he mixes reproductions in with authentic items, so buyers will see something they know to be authentic and then presume everything he sells is authentic. Actually Andrey is a very bad authentic antique buyer at auction; he pays well over what he should and you should not appoint him as a buyer's agent for this very reason. I have taken a screen grab of one item for sale on his Antique Auctions Support Network site which is clearly a reproduction; I can not show it here because it is Copyright protected, but I can send anyone who emails me a copy of it.
Andrey Kiselev and Svetlana Kalmykova AKA the Antique Auctions Support Network need to rip people off because they make so little money conducting honest, authentic business. Therefore you should think thrice about trusting your money on their goods or services. They sell fakes and they likely swindle customers who use them as buyer's agents equally.
Andrey Kiselev also operates on eBay as history_relics and calls himself "Andrew". History relics are well known for fraudulently selling reproduction swords and other militaria as authentic. He tries to hide behind a PO Box at Mail Boxes Etc in St. Albans (Mail Boxes Etc do not call their PO Boxes by that name, they call them "Offices"). You can read all about Andrey's antics on a site called vBay me, here; History Relics (if you have been cheated by these people you can find their home address and phone numbers here).
Andrey is clever, he mixes reproductions in with authentic items, so buyers will see something they know to be authentic and then presume everything he sells is authentic. Actually Andrey is a very bad authentic antique buyer at auction; he pays well over what he should and you should not appoint him as a buyer's agent for this very reason. I have taken a screen grab of one item for sale on his Antique Auctions Support Network site which is clearly a reproduction; I can not show it here because it is Copyright protected, but I can send anyone who emails me a copy of it.
Andrey Kiselev and Svetlana Kalmykova AKA the Antique Auctions Support Network need to rip people off because they make so little money conducting honest, authentic business. Therefore you should think thrice about trusting your money on their goods or services. They sell fakes and they likely swindle customers who use them as buyer's agents equally.
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