An Ontario collector who successfully bid on and then paid for a rare 1948 silver dollar through a Toronto auction firm has concerns after the coin has yet to arrive more than four months after the sale.
Cresent Chew, of Scarborough, Ont., used the online auction-hosting platform HiBid but purchased the key-date coin through Impulse Fine Art Auction, which claims to have more than 30 years in business.
Chew placed the winning bid this spring before sending the firm the full payment of $1,813, which includes the buyer’s premium.
“It’s really hard to get a hold of these guys,” Chew told CTV News in late August, four months after he sent his payment.
“They had a false phone number on their invoice and I have emailed them about 25 times and they won’t get back to me.”
Chew became suspicious after seeing the firm’s phone number written as 123-456-7890, as well as a post office box for an address, on his invoice.
Impulse Fine Art Auction failed to respond to CCN’s request for comment via phone by the time of printing. CTV, to which Impulse also failed to respond, contacted HiBid, whose representatives confirmed the Toronto-based firm “is no longer on our platform.”
Chew told CTV he’s unsure if he’ll bid in an online auction again: “It’s an expensive lesson to learn, but what can I do?”