Is Catawiki a trustworthy auction site?

Legoist61

I recently bought some items from the Catawiki auction. The description of the items said that some blocks might be missing from the sets. This is no problem as we have enough Lego to fix this.

When I received the sets I immedaitely checked them and found that from the 4 sets in the lot, two were missing some parts. That was ok as it was mentioned in the description.

The other two sets in the lot were missing approx 30% of the bricks. For this reason I filed a complaint at Catawiki, their expert had a look at it and said that my complaint was not valid as the description said that there were missing bricks.

My statement that there is a difference between a few bricks missing and 30% missing was not a valid argument. That was the end of the discussion.

Do you think it is reasonable to have 1/3  of a set missing and calling it a few bricks??

It seems to me that Catawiki favours sellers, as they generate more money for Catawiki than buyers.

CCC

I thought they were, but I guess anything like this is down to the description from the seller. Mind you, that does sound high for "a few".

colay

30% is too many missing bricks, IMO. And I too would rightfully be kicking up a fuss, same as if it was eBay or Amazon. Missing a few bricks, Id consider no more than 10% absolute max.

Also, if a MiniFig was missing id also be upset, unless it stated missing minifig

panchox1

how did you pay? can you file a dispute with your credit card carrier or through Pay Pal?

I guess it would also depend on what you were charged. if it was super cheap, i may just write it off. My wife bought a Disney princess set off of Facebook market place. the seller said it may be missing a few bricks but thought it was all there. it was $5. According to brickset, it's valued at about $70. it had about half the set missing. but it also had a bunch of bricks that weren't part of the set. My wife was a bit upset a first but heck it was 5 bucks and had a good amount of parts for that price. so we ended up just writing it off as a good deal on a random lot. 

jason1976

I'm with @panchox1 on this - if you got a really good deal (e.g. a UCS Millennium Falcon for £80) and it stated that there were pieces missing, then I wouldn't complain.

Were there any pictures with the auctions showing the state of the sets? If the pictures showed them massively incomplete with bricks missing then I think it's best to put it down to experience (easier to do this if you got a good deal on what you got!) and make sure you check more thoroughly next time, but if the pictures appeared to show it more or less complete then I would definitely have another got at CataWiki or go to Paypal / your credit card company and raise a dispute.

I've also had a similar experience to panchox1 - I won an auction for #5766 which was described as "incomplete with spares". After I got the set I saw the seller had used the picture of the 3rd build rather than the main build, and a lot of bricks needed for the main build were missing. But there were a lot of extra bricks not part of the set, and I got it incredibly cheap so I marked it as being a good deal on a bulk lot rather than being ripped off for a set.

CCC

This is catawiki, I doubt it was a steal. Their appraisers tend to price reasonably high to start.

Mr_Cross

No, 30% is unnacceptable, that is not a few bricks. I actually don't think it matters what you paid, if the item is not as described. I agree there's a point that it could be considered petty, but judge that on the status of the seller, Catawiki aren't exactly poor are they? This isn't a one-man Bricklink shop. Although, I hesitate to suggest you would almost always receive better treatment from someone like that!
Without knowing much more detail, my gut feel is that you have cause to be dissatisfied and they should compensate you.

If you can, work out how much the missing parts might reasonably cost to replace via Bricklink. If they're all commodity parts this could be a little tiresome, if there are a few rare pieces it might be more straightforward to concentrate on those. Build the sets as far as you can to show how poor this is maybe? Just try to construct a case to go back to Catawiki with, include market price of sets on Bricklink, price you paid, cost of replacement parts etc.
If you did pay via PayPal, as @panchox1 says, you could just file a claim. They have listed this incorrectly, irrespective of what their so-called "expert" has said.

I've often been tempted by things on Catawiki, but I'm usually put off by what I consider to be the reletively high prices. I'll definitely not bother after hearing about this.

Aleydita

Begin a claim against the seller and/or Catawiki at the small claims court :

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

Fireheart

I have purchased a few items off Catawiki, and it can be a very annoying site. 

If you know what you are buying and the description is correct fine, but if you want any clarification on anything, then it’s not a expert answering your question but back office people, who to be honest haven’t got a clue.
Sellers are creating second accounts and pushing you up in price on their lots, which is part of the aspect of online auctions, but not nice when you are paying commission to Catawiki on top, based on the % of the sale price.
You will see items even re-listing a few weeks later that you got pushed up on, but stopped bidding on. So they got stuck with.

The concept of Catawiki was good with being able to bid like a proper auction, and not sniper bid  at the last second

I think eBay is a better place to buy items, at least you can communicate direct with the seller, ask what you want, pay no commission and have paypal backup if required. 

I now only buy off Catawiki if it’s a very special item that I haven’t seen for sale elsewhere.

Legoist61

Thank you all for the input. I paid € 10,- (plus shipping) for four Exoforce sets.

Two of the sets were almost complete, two had 30% of the bricks missing.

I will take it as a good deal on a random lot.

And as a lesson how one is treated by Catawiki, where the "experts" consider 30% missing bricks as "a few" refusing to react to my questions about this matter. They only communicate through a back office girl, who has to take the beating for them.