Buying & Selling

 Attending the auction
  • Arrive early and register for a bidding paddle.  To register, bring your driver's license and a major credit card, read the NOTICE TO BUYERS in the catalogue, and you are set!!   We encourage you to attend the preview and inspect the items prior to the day of the sale.  You may also pre-register at the preview.

 Absentee Bids
  • If you can not attend the sale you may leave an Absentee bid.  In this case, we will act as your agent an place the bid for you as if you were attending the sale personally.
     

 Phone Bids
  • If the first two options do not suit you, then you may wish to be on the phone bidding live.  In this case, fill out the Absentee/Phone Bid Form.  Please note LAMA is on Pacific Time.  We encourage you to be on a "land" line as cellular and digital phones are not as clear and sometimes unreliable.
     
  • There are no dollar bidding requirements to be on the phones.  However, we have a limited amount of phone lines available for bidding, therefore submit your request early.  This service is on a first come first serve basis.

 Selling with us

Because we are a specialty house with auctions specifically on designs of the 20th century, we "vet" the material we will accept for auction.   We feel this is imporant to insure we are the BEST market place for your valuables.  Further, we only accept items on consignment - we do not own material in our auctions.  We feel owning material would be a conflict of interest for our consignors (it is important to ask other auction companies how much material they own in an auction).

Consignment Information

Call for a FREE auction estimate
or email photos to peter@lamodern.com

Los Angeles Modern Auctions
PO Box 56748
Sherman Oaks, CA  91413

(323) 904-1950 or fax (323) 904-1954
 email shannon@lamodern.com

See "Selling with us"

For each auction, we publish a full color catalogue.  In addition, we promote the auctions around the country as well as online through eBay Live Auctions and this website.  We also publish many marketing tools, such as direct mail campaigns and advertising in perspective magazines.  Further, many auctions have been reviewed in international newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, ArtNewspaper, and the Washington Post.

For our services we charge a sellers commission.  Our commission is a percentage of the sale based on many factors; how large the consignment is, the value of the consignment, shipping, etc.  Our fee is all inclusive - no hidden fee's such as insurance, photography or a "buy-in fee" if the item fails to sell.  Our commissions are the lowest in the business, we are very competitive with other auction companies.

We take items no less than 2 months before the auction - as it takes us time to catalogue, photograph and produce a catalogue.   Therefore, submit your consignments early!

To get started:
 We ask that you either send images of the items or make an appointment to see them in person.  We accept emailed images or via post to: 

Modern Auctions, Inc.
Po Box 56748
Sherman Oaks, CA  91413
(323) 904-1950

I have been in this business for over 15 years and have conducted over 40 auctions dedicated to this very specific field.  I am personally very passionate about this field and I am very proud of our auctions.  Please consider consigning with us.

We look forward to working hard for your consignments!

Peter Loughrey
Director