Terms & Conditions

 

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. The opening bid price is the minimum price, unless indicated otherwise in the sale/display itself. The sale is conducted is US Dollars ($). On standard auction sales (not "buy or bid" sales) the auctioneer reserves the right to accept BUY bids, and on his discretion will allow bids of 3x or more the current bid level to be considered BEST bids, which will entitle that bidder to win the lot in question outright.

 

4. The auctioneer is responsible for the management of the sale itself (except for the functioning of external services such as the bidding platform of Bidspirit), and for the handing of transactions as a business in general. The auction house reserves the right to prepare and carry out sale and transactions in the fullest sense: the setting of prices and value estimates, the scripting and presentation of descriptions, images, and more - including the submission of bids on behalf of bidders who cannot participate directly, the selection of sales formats for the auction, and the presentation of the sale simultaneously on multiple sites - and changes, adjustments, updates, cancellations, disqualifications and more as these relate to any the parameters of the management of a sale of the conduct of business in general. As a result, the auction house has the right to accept or decline - or disqualify - bidders or bids, and to set or change policies and procedures related to the registration of bidders or submission of bids, such as requesting photo identity or confirmation of contact details, and more.

 

5. 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.

 

6. Items can be seen in person by appointment, or displayed by live-camera to interested parties; additional images may be requested for free.

 

7. All lots are genuine as described. It is the responsibility of the purchaser to prove that a lot is not genuine or wrongly described. JerusalemStamps 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.

 

8. 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.

 

9. 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.

 

10. 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.

 

11. 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 18%, postage and relevant payment processing fees are added to the winning bid price. Israeli residents are charged VAT on the sale.

 

12. Lots are sent by registered air mail ("Priority ECO Post"); 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.

 

13. 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.

 

14. Bidding or offering to buy lots outright at an auction is a serious commitment as it affects current prices in the sale, the usage/revelation of other bidders' maximum bids, 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.

 

15. 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).

 

16. On sales of ancient coins or items requiring special import documentation by certain countries, it is the responsibility of the buyer to obtain these documents.

 

17. Our auction is run using third-party software and development. While we make every effort to ensure flawless performance of and accessibility to our auction, we are not responsible for the software. Where accessibility issues arise or errors discovered we will take the needed steps to fix them, including offering alternate methods for placing bids and/or using manual methods for calculating auction results. Honesty, integrity and accuracy are our highest priorities. The developer cautions: there may discrepancies viewing the auction countdown clock, such as different times displayed if multiple pages are opened. This is due to the time it takes for the webpage to load up on your browser window (caused by the workload on your computer), as the “javascript timer” only begins when the page is fully loaded.


This sale is being displayed on a number of third-party sites, each with its own systems of operation, functionality and limitations. In order to run the sale simultaneously across different sites we may be forced to adjust elements of the sale to conform to the operating systems of those sites: this may include - but is not limited to - opening bid prices (where some sites will display whole numbers like "100" and others will display "99"), and the resulting price rises and the bid steps (some sites may allow/restrict the number or size of the steps, others may limit the bidder's ability to submit a bid amount of his choosing and force him to bid at pre-set amounts based on the bid steps). Regardless, at the end of the sale the winning bid amount will be adjusted to the bidder's benefit regardless of possible differences in the displayed prices between all the sites.


For participation in live auctions on our Bidspirit site, please be aware that your ability to bid may be affected by the quality of your internet connection: if your connection is weak you may experience slowness, choppiness, sudden changes in the bid levels or sudden conclusions of the bidding. We are not responsible for these issues and can only suggest that you use a better connection or submit absentee bids in writing before or during the sale.

 

18. In any case of doubt the English version of these Terms will be the binding document.

 

19. All matters arising on account of this Sale (except those of provision 15) shall be decided under the laws of the State of Israel, where the exclusive jurisdiction of the Jerusalem Courts is agreed upon.

 

20. Shown below are the minimum bidding increments. While bidders may submit bids of any amounts outside of our automated program, we reserve the right to adjust bids submitted from outside the auction program, upwards or downwards, to the nearest bid-step in order to maintain orderly rises in the bid levels and establish winners with a clear bid step difference between them and the runners-up.

 

Bid-Price Level:          Increment:

up to $49        ----------    $2

$50 - $99        ----------    $5

$100 - 199      ----------    $10

$200 - 299      ----------    $20

$300 - 599      ----------    $30

$600 - 999      ----------    $50

$1000 - 1999  ----------    $100

$2000 - 4999  ----------    $200

$5000 - 9999  ----------    $500

$10,000+        ----------    $1000