On May 21 I visited Lorraine Touhy and her team at Prudential Real Estate offices in Stamford, CT to consign a collection of beautiful vintage gemstone rings, earrings and pins all set in 14K and 18K gold passed down to me by my late mother. I was told there would be an internet auction in August. I signed a contract outlining all the terms and conditions and felt comfortable, especially after having seen the Doyle Galleries on the PBS broadcast of Antiques Roadshow. When I visited their website I could not find any upcoming auction pertaining to the one I believed my 50 pieces of jewelry would be on. I called the offices of Doyle only to be told the auction was going to be on EBay!!! I was totally taken aback, as I have an EBay account and know how cheap merchandise is sold for. This was never mentioned by Lorraine or her people. I realized retracting this business deal would be costly as outlined in their contract so I hoped for the best. When the time came I watched the auction and boy was I dismayed when I saw how my jewelry was lumped together in lots like junk with very, very low reserve prices. The settlement I received was a quarter of the estimate I was given. I retreived half of the jewelry back when the auction was over and at that point I wondered whether some of the pieces were in fact "lost" by them. I must say that I learned a bitter lesson and have become distrusting and synical. However, I have had the opportunity to express this unfortunate experience to share with the public, and if a few people are enlightened by this, it was well worth it.
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