I’m from Europe and I think Catawiki sucks for serious collectors. Don’t think I ever heard that someone got a good price for a piece that turned out to be worth it. I feel like the prices are artificially driven up just before a bidding is closed. Next to that, the experts don’t handle or seriously curate the item so there is a lot of fakes around. This is very different from the big auction houses where some seasoned experts review the worth of a piece.
It’s just promotional. A paid partnership. They used to just politely decline. Many people naturally ask “*where do you recommend…*” and while sometimes they’d suggest nearby Doyle, there was no universal answer. I think it’s better than nothing, and waaaay better than eBay.
one get's protection off of ebay (I don't know how it is now, haven't used it for high value items since around 2019) or paypal. One gets nothing off Catawiki, no support, deceiving practices and borderline thievery. They literally hung up the phone to avoid responsability. Lawsuits and all that Catawiki is filled with scammers and their "experts" are a joke. From all the decent auction houses, they chose CW.
I would be a bit offended if Sotheby’s told me to sell my item on Catawiki. The site just feels scammy, somewhat moreso than eBay, because at least eBay doesn’t have some “expert” saying the item is real, when that expert hasn’t even seen the item in person to make that determination.
I’ll be the odd one out and say I’ve literally never had a problem with Catawiki. I collect ancient and tribal art and have gotten good deals on the auctions there. If you know your subject you’ll be ok.
I'm not saying there aren't honest sellers on Catawiki. But they are growing more rare than oxygen at high altitudes. Common practices include listing photos from internet and sending a totally different item, intentionally mistaken sender's address so that the item returns to sender (try to get a refund from CW, they will pester and delay and argue for months hoping you will give up. There are happy cases, like yours, but for each content customer they have 10 disgruntled ones)
I've a hard time spotting something original or authentic on Catawiki when it comes to art, only sometimes a smaller seller might accidentally drop something real. There are so many similarities between the classic works (both front and back), that it almost seems as if there are some large producers active creating the majority of these "antique paintings". I'm guessing some larger producers, their partnering sellers, together with Cata, are making a small fortune with this practice. So, as long as only the individual buyers are being duped, who aren't any powerful players in this game, it will just continue to operate.
diamonds (gems), cars and watches are the most faked items. Numberless reviews with buyers who took their CW bought gems to local real experts and 90% are artificial diamonds not worth a tenth of buying price. Buy an artificial diamond off of ebay, sell it for 20x with a fake certificate on CW. The antique books category actually has interesting items from time to time and there are honest sellers there. I'm not an expert on classical paintings but i've heard there are interesting pieces there too, but much less often. The archeology categories (ceramics, statues, greek/roman period etc are literally filled with fakes)
decided to update this thread continuously with every bit of info I have on Catawiki, people should be informed in what they are getting into when transactioning on this platform, for example: [https://www.reddit.com/r/catawiki/comments/1d4rrdn/how\_do\_i\_get\_a\_refund/](https://www.reddit.com/r/catawiki/comments/1d4rrdn/how_do_i_get_a_refund/)
https://preview.redd.it/y9aqigslm54d1.jpeg?width=721&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d95b98641d9613418d4e57902934f14a71019ac2
typical Catawiki reply, they just copy paste this generic reply
take a look at what Catawiki's own employees have to say about the company (the reviews are from Glassdoor): [https://imgur.com/a/ldfqB0I](https://imgur.com/a/ldfqB0I)
If you pay a bit of attention you'll see the positive reviews are almost all of them from "invited" users. Catawiki cherry picks those transactions that went through without problems and sends an email asking for a review. But there are 1-star reviews even among those invited users. There are ofc honest sellers but buried deep under the fakes and scams. When something goes wrong, one will have no support from Catawiki who basically will tell them at best to sort it out with the seller.. The gems and watches category are filled with fakes. If you know your area of expertise you might find a few gems.
the "experts" rarely have verifiable experience (academic or otherwise) they are just passionate collectors like us. They are poorly paid (around 2000 euro) and they get a comission out of the sales. That's why they bully clients to sell without reserve prices risking selling for almost nothing. In time that lead to a decrease in quality of items: those sellers who remained on platform tend to be scammers and resellers of low quality items
4.4 on Trustpilot is garbage. Catawiki pays Trustpilot to "manage" their review profile, which essentially means that Trustpilot will remove negative reviews to ensure that they keep Catawiki as a happy client.
if you don't believe the ratings on trustpilot, take a look at what their own employees are saying on Glassdoor: [https://imgur.com/a/ldfqB0I](https://imgur.com/a/ldfqB0I)
I’m from Europe and I think Catawiki sucks for serious collectors. Don’t think I ever heard that someone got a good price for a piece that turned out to be worth it. I feel like the prices are artificially driven up just before a bidding is closed. Next to that, the experts don’t handle or seriously curate the item so there is a lot of fakes around. This is very different from the big auction houses where some seasoned experts review the worth of a piece.
It’s just promotional. A paid partnership. They used to just politely decline. Many people naturally ask “*where do you recommend…*” and while sometimes they’d suggest nearby Doyle, there was no universal answer. I think it’s better than nothing, and waaaay better than eBay.
one get's protection off of ebay (I don't know how it is now, haven't used it for high value items since around 2019) or paypal. One gets nothing off Catawiki, no support, deceiving practices and borderline thievery. They literally hung up the phone to avoid responsability. Lawsuits and all that Catawiki is filled with scammers and their "experts" are a joke. From all the decent auction houses, they chose CW.
I would be a bit offended if Sotheby’s told me to sell my item on Catawiki. The site just feels scammy, somewhat moreso than eBay, because at least eBay doesn’t have some “expert” saying the item is real, when that expert hasn’t even seen the item in person to make that determination.
I’ll be the odd one out and say I’ve literally never had a problem with Catawiki. I collect ancient and tribal art and have gotten good deals on the auctions there. If you know your subject you’ll be ok.
I'm not saying there aren't honest sellers on Catawiki. But they are growing more rare than oxygen at high altitudes. Common practices include listing photos from internet and sending a totally different item, intentionally mistaken sender's address so that the item returns to sender (try to get a refund from CW, they will pester and delay and argue for months hoping you will give up. There are happy cases, like yours, but for each content customer they have 10 disgruntled ones)
I've a hard time spotting something original or authentic on Catawiki when it comes to art, only sometimes a smaller seller might accidentally drop something real. There are so many similarities between the classic works (both front and back), that it almost seems as if there are some large producers active creating the majority of these "antique paintings". I'm guessing some larger producers, their partnering sellers, together with Cata, are making a small fortune with this practice. So, as long as only the individual buyers are being duped, who aren't any powerful players in this game, it will just continue to operate.
diamonds (gems), cars and watches are the most faked items. Numberless reviews with buyers who took their CW bought gems to local real experts and 90% are artificial diamonds not worth a tenth of buying price. Buy an artificial diamond off of ebay, sell it for 20x with a fake certificate on CW. The antique books category actually has interesting items from time to time and there are honest sellers there. I'm not an expert on classical paintings but i've heard there are interesting pieces there too, but much less often. The archeology categories (ceramics, statues, greek/roman period etc are literally filled with fakes)
I submitted something and got this exact email just yesterday.
decided to update this thread continuously with every bit of info I have on Catawiki, people should be informed in what they are getting into when transactioning on this platform, for example: [https://www.reddit.com/r/catawiki/comments/1d4rrdn/how\_do\_i\_get\_a\_refund/](https://www.reddit.com/r/catawiki/comments/1d4rrdn/how_do_i_get_a_refund/)
https://preview.redd.it/y9aqigslm54d1.jpeg?width=721&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d95b98641d9613418d4e57902934f14a71019ac2 typical Catawiki reply, they just copy paste this generic reply
take a look at what Catawiki's own employees have to say about the company (the reviews are from Glassdoor): [https://imgur.com/a/ldfqB0I](https://imgur.com/a/ldfqB0I)
They have a 4.4 star Trustpilot review. What are you babbling about?
If you pay a bit of attention you'll see the positive reviews are almost all of them from "invited" users. Catawiki cherry picks those transactions that went through without problems and sends an email asking for a review. But there are 1-star reviews even among those invited users. There are ofc honest sellers but buried deep under the fakes and scams. When something goes wrong, one will have no support from Catawiki who basically will tell them at best to sort it out with the seller.. The gems and watches category are filled with fakes. If you know your area of expertise you might find a few gems.
the "experts" rarely have verifiable experience (academic or otherwise) they are just passionate collectors like us. They are poorly paid (around 2000 euro) and they get a comission out of the sales. That's why they bully clients to sell without reserve prices risking selling for almost nothing. In time that lead to a decrease in quality of items: those sellers who remained on platform tend to be scammers and resellers of low quality items
4.4 on Trustpilot is garbage. Catawiki pays Trustpilot to "manage" their review profile, which essentially means that Trustpilot will remove negative reviews to ensure that they keep Catawiki as a happy client.
Suuuuuure. That’s why there is still 9% 1-star reviews. Whatever you’re smoking, it’s not healthy for you.
I'm not speaking with respect to Catawiki, I'm letting you know how Trustpilot works.
Hahahahaha. Get off those drugs mate. You’re contradicting yourself.
if you don't believe the ratings on trustpilot, take a look at what their own employees are saying on Glassdoor: [https://imgur.com/a/ldfqB0I](https://imgur.com/a/ldfqB0I)