Legal terms:
A bid on an item or a request to purchase it directly constitutes your acceptance of these terms of sale:
1. All bids are per lot as numbered in our sale.
2. By participating in the auction the bidder understands and agrees that he authorizes the auctioneer, Mr. Alex Ben-Arieh, to enter his bids in the auction, and to secure his desired lots at the lowest possible price relative to those bids. The auctioneer has absolute discretion; among other privileges, he reserves the right to reject any bid or bidder.
3. All prices in our auction are in US Dollars ($), and are the minimum prices.
4. Information provided about lots in the auction, including opening prices, descriptions of items and any other information concerning the items, is solely for the purpose of providing information to potential buyers, and is in no way to be construed as binding, guaranteed information. Photographs and accompanying illustrations are for guidance only: images are not to scale and should not be relied upon to determine tone or colour, or reveal imperfections.
5. Items can be seen in person by appointment, or displayed by live-camera to interested parties; additional images may be requested for free.
6. All lots are genuine as described. It is the responsibility of the purchaser to prove that a lot is not genuine or wrongly described. Historama is committed to deal strictly and only with authentic and genuine merchandise (original pieces dating to the period they belong to, manufactured by the sources that are known to have produced them, etc.); we do not deal with or present articles which we know or suspect to be reproductions, fakes, altered or otherwise 'problematic' pieces. In the rare event that we present a piece which we know or suspect to inauthentic, we will state so directly in the item description: in the absence of such a comment, the item we describe is being presented as a piece we believe to be genuine.
7. Your satisfaction is guaranteed. If you are not pleased with any item, you may return it to us within 14 days of your receipt of the order for a full refund (minus the postage and deposit charges). The item must be returned in the same condition as it was sold (in its original holder/packaging and condition); any tampering with the item may invalidate the refund. Please note that collections or lots containing 5 or more items are not returnable.
8. This auction is both a mail and timed live sale: bids may be submitted verbally or in writing (within the auction platform or without), but all bids must ultimately be confirmed in writing (text messaging is accepted). In case of tie winning bids, the earliest bid received wins the lot.
9. To bid online, you must register (for free). Our program will suggest that you bid the maximum amount that you are willing to pay for a lot, as it will then bid automatically on your behalf until it reaches your limit (if needed): it will place the lowest bid necessary, as per the bid increments shown below, to establish your position as highest bidder. Your maximum bid reflects the maximum amount you are willing to pay for a lot - but you could pay much less. In any case, you may bid on your own as often as you like or raise your maximum bid. Bids submitted outside of the automated system will be handled by Mr. Ben-Arieh in the same manner as the automatic process. In light of various bidding options available to participants, winning bids may be reduced and bidders who appear to have lost out on a lot may actually be awarded it in light of the winner's bid requests (please see our bid sheet for more details). As such, the determination of a lot-winner will be made official when he is so informed by the auction house. On lots where only 1 bid was received, the decision to sell the lot at the lesser of the winning bid and the opening bid level - or any reserve price below the opening bid level - is at the auctioneer's discretion.
10. At the end of the auction all participants will be informed by email whether or not they won the lots they bid on. A commission of 15%, postage and relevant payment processing fees are added to the winning bid price. Israeli residents are charged VAT on the sale.
11. Lots are sent by registered air mail; large or heavy lots are sent by EMS express mail - unless other shipping arrangements have been made. Insurance is only available for EMS, and this is an extra charge. For customers located in countries without postal relations with Israel, we can send orders using mail forwarding services: for orders of $50 and above this additional service is free for the customer.
12. Payment should be made within 7 days of receipt of invoice, and orders will be shipped after the clearance of payment. Payment may be made in US Dollars, Israeli Shekels or Euros as per the exchange rate on the day of payment. Invoices more than 30 days overdue are liable to interest and possible collection costs; the sale may be cancelled and lot awarded to runner-up.
13. Bidding or offering to buy lots outright at an auction is a serious commitment as it affects current prices in the sale, decisions by other bidders, the ability of others to compete on a lot, expected returns by consignors and the auction house, and subsequent impressions left on the public as a result of prices presumed realized and paid. Except in real-time, close to the time of the submission of a bid or the intention to buy a lot outright, such intentions and bids cannot be cancelled later, and winning bidders and intended buyers (in outright purchases) are expected to honor their commitments. A bid cancellations after a sale has ended whereby the runner-up is offered the lot, is not a reliable solution, as the runner-up - recognizing that the winner is backing out - may not himself want to pay the final price he offered during what he believed was a legitimate competition with another bidder for the lot. As such, although we would like to transact business, we cannot rely on this option as a way of allowing post-sale bid cancellations.
We use various channels to communicate notifications of winnings and the submission of invoices, and rely on the personal information provided by bidders and buyers at the time of their participation in the sale. Such persons may not reply immediately but are expected to respond to our communications to them within a reasonable period of time, such as a number of days. If we are unable to make contact with such persons within a month of the sale's end, or if such persons refuse to honor their commitments, they will bear the full expense of their winnings/purchase commitments and be so charged. In such an event this will serve as the basis for our submission of complaints to credit bureaus, collection agencies and possibly even to the court system. Winning bidders and intended buyers who indicate difficulty in honoring their commitments or completing their purchases are invited to cooperate with us and we will make arrangements for the handling of these cases, including but not limited to lay-away plans; here such persons are obligated to pay 15% of their total commitments (although at the auction house's discretion this may be reduced or cancelled). In any event, it is always better to cooperate with us rather than to ignore us. Merchandise ships out to customers after the clearance of full payment.
14. Accepted methods of payment are cash, money order (of the 'international' type for overseas bidders), Western Union and bank transfer (without any additional fees imposed; bidders are responsible for bank charges); bank draft or check (if from overseas a 1.5% commission is applied); PayPal (a 3.5% commission is applied).
15. All matters arising on account of this Sale shall be decided under the laws of the State of Israel, where the exclusive jurisdiction of the Jerusalem Courts is agreed upon.
16. In any case of doubt the English version of these Terms will be the binding document.
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