AVOID Park West Galleries Auction at Sea

[ezi-amy]

Great article.

 

They don't care what you wear, they just want your money.

 

When you buy a print from them they automatically add $35 for the appraisal and hope that you don't notice or make you think that you have to get it. We always insist that they take it off.

Appraisals from Parkwest is a pure profit for them and a pure ripoff for you. I read some's appraisal and it stated that "in our opinion this print is valued at ..." They can make up any price. They do their own appraisal which is unheard of.

 

Parkwest's Peter Max prints are overpriced, you can get them at the same price of cheaper anywhere else.

Thomas Kincaid prints are over price anywhere they will not go up in value, buy them if you like them and want to decorate your house. He creates an original and has many certified by him people making copies and selling them as his originals. Check out a local Thomas Kincaid gallery.

 

Once an artist becomes establish he or she don't create their own prints, they have a their own (people) printers or they send them out to get printed. When the artist receive the finished edition the artist check them, number them and sign each print. Before the 1970's this was all done by the artist, Including Picasso who did his own prints.

 

Beware of Parkwest auctions:

They try very hard to sell you "Original Rembrandt" as they call them. What they don't tell you is that they are limited editions form the original plate BUT printed a few years ago and not worth the $15K to $20,000 that they are asking for. A fair market value for them would be $200.

 

Same thing for Norman Rockwell, these were printed recently with the estate seal. Norman Rockwell was long dead when these were printed.

 

I like going to the auctions and see how many lies I can catch. The most recent one was when at the beginning of each auction she said that they had million of happy customers and no one tried to return their art. She didn't say anything about getting sued.

I questioned her when she said that all sales are finals and a few seconds later she said that if we get the art and we don't like them we can return them. She never mention the 40-40-40 rule that you will not get a full refund, I just read this in the article.

To fight any company about returns, make sure that you don't pay your credit card (for that bill only) until you get it and inspect it very closely.

 

Ezi

[marci22]

I like going to the auctions and see how many lies I can catch.

Ezi

 

It's like a cruise sport.

[scottbee]

It's like a cruise sport.

 

I loved the constant "80% land gallery prices" claim.

[setsail]

My phone takes great digital pics and ships them to my PC for pennies, later becoming a digital print. HMMMMMM

[K9guy]

Do a search on Fine Arts Registry. Park West is in the middle of some very large law suits! I go for the free champagne!

[grand isle joe]

Do a search on Fine Arts Registry. Park West is in the middle of some very large law suits! I go for the free champagne!

 

Do a search on any major cruise line and you will find them in the middle of some large law suits. I'm not defending just pointing out that sometimes companies can be easy targets. I also go for the cheap "champaign" and one cruise apple martinis YAHOOOOO!!!:D We even purchased a couple inexpensive items.:)

[stompy]

I go to the park west auctions a lot, but I'll probably stop going. I never bought anything, but got two free prints that are really nice and it only cost the $35 shipping charge.

 

it's not really free then... $11.95 via priority mail, $2 for a poster tube... $35 seems high

[andrzej5914]

8-9 years ago I went on 2 Celebrity cruises and actually went to the Park West auctions and bought couple of items that are still on my walls today. I didn't buy the art thinking that it was an investment (you have to be an idiot to buy their selling jargon), I bought them just because I liked the prints. As far as I'm concerned, and that means the day I bought the prints and it's still true today, I got a nice deal.

 

One question. When I bought the prints on the Millennium and later on the Galaxy, I was able to carry the art off the ship with me.

 

It looks to me like that option is not available any more? Is that just true for RCCL or all other cruise lines that Park West works?

[silentbob007]

They have certain items designated as TO or Take Off. These are items that have ended their run and PW sells to make something on their "floor copy."

[zebra36]

I did not go back to read all of the post to this one , however, wasn't there a thread a few(?) years ago from someone that stated they purchased a picture of some sort which the sellers claimed was sold by mistake and wanted the piece returned. Does anyone recall how that ever turned out? I do recall there was a lot of back and forth communication as to the value of the piece and what was supposed to have been sold.

[ezi-amy]

Hi Everyone,

 

If anyone need any kind of information about any kind of art don't hesitate to ask.

Take advantage of asking a professional artist. It doesn't have to be about my paintings or with parkwest.

If you are buying from a local gallery or if you are curious about something just ask.

I love talking about the subject, Ezi

[teajak]

it sure is easy to figure out which posters have bought art from park west. Defenders of the faith...

 

Personally i wish they would move the auctions out of the centrum to some more intimate place, like the engine room.

 

Ll

amen!!!!

[crookedhalo]

I went in shorts, t-shirt and a ball cap with flip flops.

 

 

However did you get your ball cap to wear flip flops? Mine keep falling off:p

[weareallpirates]

For the love of God don't even go to a Park West auction.

Hubby and I, being naive newly weds, made the mistake of purchasing a few pieces of "fine art". Turns out, what you bid on is not quite what you will receive. As in you bid on a large canvas painting and they send you a piece of glorified poster paper!

Luckily our insane deal was about market value (if they're even authentic lithographs), but don't make the same mistake as another couple we saw spending 25K on worthless crap!!!

 

p.s. The South-African auctioneer Arthur Scheepers is a professional con-man, don't get roped in by his friendly banter and love of johnny walker black!

[Turk]

Years ago we bought a print from PW. The fine art registry is cracking down on this company. We may participate in one of the lawsuit. It wouldn't have been so bad if Park West didn't deface our woodblock print by adding fake signatures and numbering. It was a genuine print. It is now worth nothing and should be destroyed.

 

If anyone has gotten taken at one of these action I encourage you to participate at the above website.

[mjldvlks]

My opinion -- anyone who spends more than about $50 for anything on a ship without having a real good idea of the market for that item is nuts and deserves about what they get.

[TxBubba]

The old Park West Mantra still applies: Buy the art because you like it and want to hang it in your living room, not for an investment. :)

[NoleMini]

We bought several pieces on our first cruise with an art auction ($35 for a framed print, etc) none of which we have ever found anywhere else for that price- including ebay. We are not collectors, we like the pieces and to be honest, you can pay $80 for some "made in china" prints at Kirklands type stores - we have signed (not signed in the plate) pieces that we love. However, I do agree with some posters that there can be some shady things like running prices up for certain artists. We got things we liked, we still like them and generally pay less than $250/piece which as someone pointed out is less than the framing, and ours were usually take-off pieces that included the frames. Like anything in life, be careful and have fun!

[ezi-amy]

The number one rule in buying art from anywhere is that you have to like it, even if you are buying it for an investment.

You can get screwed with any art dealer or any gallery (most of them are reputable).

 

Don't give up on buying art, its a fantastic thing to have and enjoy for many years. Just do a little homework before you buy.

 

When we buy art from the ship (parkwest or princess cruise auction), I always inspect the art very closely, I even bring a magnifier with me to check on the signature and we never pay our visa bill until we receive the art and inspected to see that it is what we paid for.

 

This last December we were on Adventure of the seas and bought 2 pieces of art from parkwest. One of the pieces was a TO and when they delivered it to our cabin, I took it out and inspected it. It was exactly the one that we bought, the only thing that pissed me off is the way they packed it, they just rolled it and put tape on it and the brown paper around it. This showed me that they had no respect for the art they could have charged me an extra $10 and put it in a tube (they usually cost $2.50). I had to be very careful carrying it on the plane.

The second piece still didn't arrive, it was on canvas and they were going to frame it. When our credit card bill came we sent a note to the credit card company telling them that it was in dispute and we didn't receive it (we didn't pay for it). last week our credit card companty called me and asked if I wanted to get the credit back and cancel the deal (of course I said yes). Visa contacted parkwest and canceled the sale. Actually I am glad that this happened, They lost a sale and they don't seem to care and they don't care about satisfying their customers.

 

We are booked on Oasis of the seas for May. When we were on Adventure the parkwest auctioneer told us that they will not have parkwest auctions on Oasis, she said that is because the ship is too big and there is too much to do so there is no time for auctions. We know better, the reaso they don't have auctions one Oasis is that Royal Caribbean is being implicated with parkwest being suid. They are slowly trying to phase parkwest out of their ships.

[dleafy]

Just back from the Indy.

Went to the art auction, seemed very dodgy to me.

I know nothing about art, but went along anyway. The guy seemed really good at hyping the whole thing. i just got the overwhelming impression that people were being ripped off-not that I know for sure.

 

On a positive note, the champagne was quite nice!

 

Cheers

 

Davy!!!

[ezi-amy]

The limited edition on canvas by Zamy Steynovitz just arrived, I refused delivery.

It was bought in December 8 and was canceled by our credit card company two weeks ago.

I opened it and checked it before refusing delivery. It was supposed to be a regular edition and hand signed by the artist (Steynovitz died a few years ago). What parkwest sent was a PP 20/22 (printer proof, less valuable than AP Artist proof) there were numbers in the back and a seal but couldn't find the hand signed signature.

 

I'll let you know if I hear from them,.... screw parkwest.

[Mack2]

For the love of God don't even go to a Park West auction.

Hubby and I, being naive newly weds, made the mistake of purchasing a few pieces of "fine art". Turns out, what you bid on is not quite what you will receive. As in you bid on a large canvas painting and they send you a piece of glorified poster paper!

Luckily our insane deal was about market value (if they're even authentic lithographs), but don't make the same mistake as another couple we saw spending 25K on worthless crap!!!

 

p.s. The South-African auctioneer Arthur Scheepers is a professional con-man, don't get roped in by his friendly banter and love of johnny walker black!

Who keeps resurrecting this thread?

[dougp26364]

Who keeps resurrecting this thread?

 

That's what I was wondering. At least with questions about booze smuggling, chair hogs and how to dress on formal nights they have the decency to just start a new thread. Seems to me someone is bound and determined to keep hammering away at Park West.

 

Park West is what it is. That is just a seller of prints who's worth is only in enjoyment of the picture. They are not investments and, if anyone is buying them as an investment and they're not well versed in investing in pieces of art, well, IMHO they get what they pay for and that's an education in how NOT to buy art as an investment.

 

I have purchased two Thomas Kincaid prints from Park West but, not as investments and, I had researched prices so I at least had a clue as to whether or not is was a decent deal. The two prints I have hang in my house above our fireplaces. They look nice and they were considerably less expensive then what we had shopped at the Thomas Kincaid Gallery. I don't consider them works of art and, if they were ever stolen or destroyed, the most valuable thing lost would be the framing and not the print.

[Puffinater]

Who keeps resurrecting this thread?

 

It appears it is someone who is keeping everyone informed of what is happening with a Park West purchase. Does not look like dead horse beating to me.

[newmexicoNita]

My opinion -- anyone who spends more than about $50 for anything on a ship without having a real good idea of the market for that item is nuts and deserves about what they get.

 

That is up to the individual. I would waste my time buying art on the ship (I will admit, I have seen some pretty tempting pieces) but others will buy and enjoy their purchases whether it is a good or bad deal. Most of us do not intend on making money on these types of things, so if you like what you see and can afford it, enjoy. Not every penny we spend in our lives has to be a good investment, sometimes it is a fun one.

 

Nita