Profiles In History

Had a great day yesterday… won my auction… saw some amazing Hollywood costumes/​props/​memorabilia …truly Hollywood history with all the Lucille Ball items. Everyone at PIH were helpful and kind. Brought up-​to-​date with online, phone and in-​house bidding, disappointed in not «seeing» all the items in the catalog, but now I totally understand the preview dates — just kinda hard when one lives two hours away. Communication with PIH’s awesome staff is the answer … Thanks Lou! Your help was so appreciated!

I can understand the other reviewer’s frustration about the the privacy policy. As someone who used to work in the art world, it’s very tricky to balance a buyer’s real or imagined need for privacy with a desire to keep track of things that are ultimately the world’s heritage. I can’t say I have an answer. What I CAN say is that after attending my first live auction, I was seriously underwhelmed. It moved much slower than I imagined and after getting through little more than a tenth of the entire auction catalog by the three-​hour mark, I realized there’s absolutely no point in participating in POH’s auctions personally. The catalog is gorgeous with great photos and detail and with the opportunity to bid by phone or online in real time, there’s no need to sit for hours on an uncomfortable folding chair in an over-AC’d office and stare at a TV screen instead of actually seeing the physical item. Not knocking POH at all – just don’t waste your time driving out to Calabasas when you can sit comfortably at home.

I have to vent my frustration here.
Some of the greatest works of hollywood art is auctioned by this company and they have fantastic pictures of each and every item. However once props/​replicas/​costumes/​documents are sold they are never seen again because of Profiles companys policy of never revealing buyer info. But Profiles easily and gladly handed me someones personal info when the buyer did not pay for an item and was looking for a new buyer, in that case it was ok to break their own rules because Profiles was going to make a few bucks.