Rick's Auction Galleries - Calgary

Questionable ethics, buyer beware: They accept absentee bids, which I partook in. My bid was accepted and I had separate facebook message confirmation from the auction house that my bid was registered and that they had it in their system. When the item came up for auction, my bid was not honored, despite being the only bid and higher than the minimum ask. When I came in person later that evening to inquire, I was told the auction was over and even though my item had not sold and I had the highest bid and confirmation from the auction house that they had my bid, they would not honor it. I feel as though this is dishonorable protocol and am quite dissatisfied.

Very unethical buisness it's a dumping ground for thieves. Iv seen alot of my stuff go threw the auction, I'm hopping the police can aventually charge them and seize all there assets.

I try to sell my mask. I have set minimal price of $150 a case for them to sell. 4 cases mask 400 boxes (4000 pieces) of Kn95 sold for $55 dollars. this is unacceptable.

The photos of the lots is organized and builds interest in the weekly auction. Regular buyers bid at almost every auction - so selling prices are fair in my mind. John, Rick and Anna work hard to get items you bring into the next auction date. They work to bring variety into each auction. The auctions are FUN!

As a once loyal client buyer and one time seller, the Rick's 'auction' nightmare still haunts us years later.. On the excuse that it was a stormy night and only 8 people came (all dealers looking for a steal) the check from Rick's was about 1200.00 for, at nearest estimate, close to $100,000 worth of beautiful antique decor, furniture and personal items that I had bought over 20 year period. Many of the goods we entrusted to them were never accounted for. I was deathly ill at the time but we were in the middle of a move, so friends were helping. Unfortunately, many the items and boxes of personal belongings went in to this so-called antique auction that should never have gone in . I estimate nearly a thousand items in all went to Ricks. There were chairs, tapestries, a rare Spode china complete dinnerware set for 12, including every type of supplementary piece made for that design. Last year the soup tureen/ ladle was on Ebay for $1300 U.S.. I've searched for years, and cannot buy the whole set anywhere for any price today. I couldn't afford to buy it if I could find it. There were at least 160 pieces in the set but when they sent back the sales receipt, they wrote there were 53 pieces! They paid me 60.00!! Nearest estimate of the true worth is nearly $10, 000! I believe I got around a couple hundred dollars, for large solid brass panther, another rare piece, which from my research, would have been worth a minimum of $5000-10,000. Many of my valuable items were listed on the sales receipt as sold for 30.00 or less! And gave us $0. No money! It was insane - any reputable auction house would have returned the items but Rick's took our life's investments, as good as gave them away, and kept the money ! They just took it! Rick's treated me and my beautiful belongings as if we were both garbage they could now dispose of in any way they wanted! For all we know, the staff could just have said "I want that" thrown in a few dollars and kept whatever they wanted for themselves or sold them on ebay! What reputable auction takes in a clients lifelong possessions, sells them for pennies without ever consulting the client and keeps even that money on many of them? How does that work? The conflict of interest is beyond comprehension. To make it even worse, much worse, we had just been through a huge fraud by our accountant, and I told Rick I was only selling some of the items because we were in desperate need of the money. Many of the items submitted never appeared on on the sales receipt at all and were never returned to us. Rick's said they couldn't sell everything in the first auction, and wanted to put the rest in the next, but I was so angry about the tiny check for the first sale, I went with my husband went to pick up what was left. I had been extremely ill and hadn't yet read the sale item list, nor did I realize how many personal boxes of belongings went to them accidentally. I had no idea until after we had unpacked and found that half my boxes were missing and had gone to Ricks). I saw a Victorian marble end table that looked exactly like mine in the next auction veiwing, but didn't realize fully what was happening yet so thought it must be a coincidence - someone else's. Later I realized it couldn't possibly be. Genuine antique, I'd bought them over 10 years earlier from a NY estate antique auction sale. I still had the other. No 'replica' suddenly appeared in their random junk furniture sale a week later. I realized too late ,it was my table! One beautiful antique clock with Westminster chimes that I did get back was chipped and no longer worked. The key had been inserted and wound until it broke. That is just a tiny sample of our experience with Ricks. I have never been back.We will never know just how much they kept back and sold without my knowledge. I was never paid for or notified about. Years later, I still suffer trauma from what to me felt like rape and pillage. I even can't look at anything associated with antiques. Movies, homes, stores, nothing at all. They stole that too.

Sometimes it can be scary having auction houses ship items - Rick's auction packed my item very well & it arrived in good shape. Will definitely not hesitate to buy again.

Good service, friendly staff, well organized for auction pickups.

I am new to auctions. Covid started me off...I was looking for something to do and I love all things MCM...actually I just love things! So far I have bought many lots of bits and pieces for me, my daughter and husband. I have found Rick's to be a great source of reasonably priced goods, and something I look forward to on Wednesday nights! I have received very friendly assistance from John and the team. I am posting this review because I have read some negative reviews about Rick's, (from mostly sellers), and I think Rick's is being being blamed for what type of goods people are looking for in the 2020's. What I do know is my mother was an Antique dealer for years, (long since retired), and what was very valuable years ago, is basically worthless today comparatively. The younger generations, (I am 50+), do not want collectables, large sets of china, antique clocks or anything really "antique". It is harder on the older generations, who paid a lot for things back in the day, to understand this. In this day and age MCM greatly out prices anything Victorian! My mother still can't get her head around it! Lori S