Terms and Conditions

Condition Statement

It is the buyer's responsibility to be knowledgeable about the condition of the property before bidding. This is a live auction, and the buyer is advised to inspect the items in person during the week prior to the auction. As a courtesy, Cottone Auctions makes condition reports available prior to the auction. All lots are sold "AS IS." No statement regarding condition, kind, value, or quality of a lot, whether made orally at the auction or at any other time, or in writing, shall be construed to be an express or implied warranty, representation, or assumption of liability. Any such warranty is WAIVED. ALL SALES ARE FINAL AND NO SALE RESCISSONS WILL BE MADE ON THE BASIS OF CONDITION, NO EXCEPTIONS.

Conditions of Sale

By Bidding, you understand that any Bid you submit can and may be regarded as the Purchase Price Bid for a particular Lot; accordingly, your Bid constitutes a legally binding agreement to purchase the Lot in accordance with your Bid if accepted by the auctioneer.

You agree to assume personal responsibility to pay the Purchase Price Bid, plus the Buyer's Premium, and you agree to purchase the Lot and assume all risk of loss and damage to such Lot, in addition to any obligations, costs and expenses relating to its handling, shipping, insurance, taxes and export. All sales are final. NY state residents are charged 8% sales tax, unless a valid tax exempt number is provided.

If you do not make payment within 10 days of the auction, the credit card number provided to establish your bidding account will be charged in full for any invoice amount due.

All property is sold “AS IS” and neither we nor the Consignor make any guarantees, warranties or representations, expressed or implied, with respect to the property, merchantability, or correctness of the catalogue or other description of the authenticity of authorship, physical condition, size, quality, rarity, importance, provenance, exhibitions, literature or historical relevance of the property or otherwise. No statement anywhere, whether oral or written, shall be deemed such a guarantee, warranty or representation. However, if within 14 days of the sale of any lot, the purchaser gives notice in writing to us that the lot is counterfeit and within 10 days after such notice, the purchaser returns the lot to us in the same condition as when sold, and demonstrates to our satisfaction that the lot is a counterfeit, we will refund the purchase price.

We accept no liability for any failure or delay in executing bids or any errors contained in bids placed via any online bidding service. Cottone Auctions and its suppliers provide the online bidding service and the Cottone Auctions website "as is" and without any warranty or condition, express, implied or statutory. Without limiting the foregoing, we accept no liability for any failures, delays or errors caused by interruptions in the availability of the online bidding service or our website or any errors or defects in their content or functionality, any software and/or hardware defects (whether yours or ours) and/or any internet connection problems (whether yours or ours), and we do not represent or warrant that the online bidding service or the web site will be error-free.

Your dealings with bidding platforms are solely between you and such bidding platforms. We encourage you to be aware of, and to read, the terms and conditions and privacy policy of any bidding platforms that you visit. You expressly release Cottone Auctions from any and all liability arising from your use of any bidding platform or other third-party website or service. Under no circumstances, including, but not limited to, negligence, will we and our sellers be liable for any damages, lost profits or any special, incidental, or consequential damages that result from the use of, or the inability to use, these bidding platforms.

Buyer’s Premium

Cottone Auctions’ buyer’s premium is 20% to be added to the hammer price of each lot if paid for by check, cash, or wire transfer.

Credit Cards

If paying by Visa or MasterCard, an additional 3% surcharge will be added to the total invoice.

It is often a good idea to let your card provider know in advance that you intend to buy something. This can help cut down the time we need to seek authority when you come to pay.

Breach

If a buyer fails to make timely payment as required in these Terms, or breaches any other covenant, representation or warranty in this Agreement, Cottone Auctions is entitled, in our discretion, to exercise any remedies legally available to us, including, but not limited to, the following:

1. Cancelling the sale of the lot to the non-paying buyer, including the sale of any other lot to the same buyer (whether or not paid)
2. Reselling the lot, at public or private sale, with or without reserve; retention of all amounts already paid by the buyer to Cottone Auctions
3. Charging interest at a rate of 1% per month throughout the entire time frame of non-payment
4. After 30 Days: filing a Civil Complaint against the buyer to recover any balance due plus court fees, interest, storage fees, administrative costs, and any other applicable financial hardship caused to Cottone Auctions and/or the consignor, or pursuing other collection avenues to recover any and all losses

SHIPPING

Unlike many auction companies, Cottone Auctions offers a full service shipping department. Learn more about our services here. If you’d like a shipping estimate in advance of the auction, contact [email protected] or call 585-243-1000.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Cottone Auctions usually auctions items at a rate of approximately 80 lots per hour. On some occasions, your local Internet connection may not be able to keep up with the pace of the auction. We recommend placing a realistic absentee bid as insurance to avoid disappointment. By bidding, you agree that Cottone's may award the lot to another bidder at its sole discretion under the circumstances described above or any other reasonable circumstances.

Cottone Auctions assumes no responsibility for a failure to execute any such bid, or for errors or omissions made in connection with the execution of any such bid.

Since internet bids are not shown to us until we open the lot on the floor, we treat those bids just like floor bids. In most cases the floor responds before the internet bid is presented to us, due to possible Internet lag time, so for consistency it is our policy that floor bids are always considered first over internet bids.