Is it just me or is $6,600 a bit on the expensive side for this settle?

The desciption lets us know "The very rare settle is in extremely good condition" and "has a finish that looks fantastic." I know other posts have discussed this particular seller and I've noticed they are very careful to list original finish in other postings, which of course leads me to believe the description for this piece was carefully worded to distract from the refinished nature of the piece. In addition, private e-bay auctions seem suspicious as it is nearly impossible to tell if bids were real buyers or shill bids that intended to drive up the price.

$6,600 seems quite high for this piece with replaced leather, replaced tacks and presumably refinished. Thoughts?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=003&it...TRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

I agree, this listing reeks of dishonesty. All 25 bids were from "private" bidders. Also, I found it peculiar that they only accepted checks and money orders. And the fact that they weren't up front with their shipping costs was shady.

It says it will/was listed with a matching arm chair and rocker. Considering V-back arm chairs are worth ballpark 500-800 and V-back rockers 750-1200 (auction, not retail), the settle does look expensive. Fair enough its the hardest piece of the set to find but 'seems' inflated. This seller commonly uses the private bidding route which is fine if he has regular customers with an interest in not telling the world who they are - retail dealers maybe, affluent collectors, whatever. Personally if I was a big time buyer and this guy was close by I think this would be a great way to accumulate stuff and I wouldn't want to advertise who I am. Alas, private bidding is indeed open to manipulation, especially when its private and a reserve is set - these are the worst - get someone to bid and then test his proxy against your reserve by having shills bid and bump hopefully to get the original bidder to have to commit to the reserve, or near the end of the listing have the reserve met and see if someone will take the bait and throw in a late bid to out bid the shill. Here's a question: Can you run a Buy It Now as a private listing?? This would be the best way for expensive stuff I would think - run it and if it doesn't work just keep stepping down the Buy It Now until someone hits the trigger. On the other hand you could have a shill go for it just to make it look like a certain type of item is worth more than it is, and then inflate your other sales - Gus V-Back Buy It Now $100,000

Ultimately it comes down to knowledge is power - know what something is worth and make your bid.

Here we go, Gus V back settle at the upcoming Craftsman Auction..

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/auctions/ebay/p2361316.html?fc=

2200 - 2800 estimate w/original finish, yep just a little inflated at SS

Both pieces looked like they have been refinished. They have lost the patina that makes these settles special. Both of them to have this high gloss poly finish. And if they have both been refinished, these should be bargin Stickley pieces.

I can't believe the price on the first one.

Is is possible that the last settle is actually a new reproduction from the Stickley factory in Syracuse, NY? It just seems to look too brand new.

I really hate it when these auctions hide the fact that these pieces have been stipped and refinished. As far as I know, when that happens, you take away about 50% of antique's value.

Bev.

The settle from Craftsman is not a repro and when they say original finish I think you can 100% take their word on it. The picture might look 'off' because of lighting or the flash or whatever, but Craftsman has a HUGE reputation to uphold - they know their stuff and it would be rare for them to miss the mark on a condition report.

As far as the Craftsman price goes there's also a 20% buyers premium and if a dealer were buying this they would have to mark it up for retail so its safe to think/assume you would be paying more in a shop but the gap is still pretty big.