Well, I can't speak for livestock auctions but every auction I have been to which is many, all over Florida works pretty much the same as what I am going to describe. apologies for the huge diatribe in advance. My in-laws run an auction business doing mostly estate sales. They try to be as honest with people as possible by trying to be as knowledgeable as possible on things they sell. Because they auction off thousands of different types of things every auction it's impossible to authenticate everything. Granted, the really high end antiques and valuable items they do try to authenticate but there is always a margin of error involved forcing them to never be able to put a 100% guarantee on anything. That being said, all auctions are buyer beware, items are sold as is with no guarantees whatsoever due to the nature of the auction. Auctions can't rely on the honesty of their consignors for the most part becuase some of them outright misrepresent things they consign trying to get more money for them at auction or else the consignors have no idea what they have becuase they are not experts in antiques, collectibles or anything else they consign. My in laws even have a disclaimer on the contract auction buyers sign when they register for the auction stating the auction house can't guarantee anything and that the auction house can't give refunds. When an auction is finished, usually the same day the money goes to the consignors for the sale and the auction deposits the rest. Because of this it's difficult to near impossible to give a buyer his/her money back if they come back several days later claiming they thought something was this but it turned out to be that. The auction house would have to use it's own money to give them a refund becuase the consignor already has his cut. The auction couldn't give refunds as it would actually lose any profit it made on those items plus some. That is why my inlaws try their hardest to let buyers know the auction doesn't make any guarantees and everything is sold as is where is with no guarantees ..they put it in normal print (not microscopic..lol) on the buyer agreement buyers sign and also in huge print on signs in the auction building itself. It sounds harsh but that's how every auction I have ever gone to works.
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