Adrian Cowdry asked me to post the below (he tried to join but hasn't gotten past the bot-blockers):
"I worked for Cameo as a freelance movie memorabilia consultant for about 16 months and I had to distance my self.
Many of you will know who I am and that I am proud of my international reputation. I have worked with many of the old hand dealers and still am. I was consultant for Bonhams up until January 2008, in June 2008 I contracted a particularly agressive form of Cancer after battling that I needed to get back to the work place, I went to Cameo as they had a good reputation with a few collectors and dealers. I wanted to get a movie memorabilia auction going on a regular basis and expand. Cameo liked the idea. As you can imagine with my contacts after many years in the business I brought in some excellent contacts and clients. The first auction we did took about four months to organise.
I will not go into lengthy details however I was a little naive, a few lots were selling under the reserve, but some lots were going above reserve. If Joe Shmo had 10 items in the auction and say six were at reserve of £500 with discretionary reserve (10% if the running wasnt going well) so the item could sell at hammer at £450. That has to be the lowest reserve. If Joe's other items had a poster say at £1000 and the auctioneer gets £1800 hammer then what was happening at Cameo the auctioneer was making sales because the £800 above reserve was counteracting the lower prices the auctoineer was selling at so a £500 reserve with 10% discretion might be sold for £300. This was too low...but this is what the practice was at Cameo and the auctioneer told me this. I didn't question it as I was the consultant and although I didn't think it right I didn't know if it was the done thing. It seemed that it was a discretionary thing.
So the sale was over and then one or two customers renaged on their purchase...This happens and I warn anyone who goes to auction this can happen and you as a consignor can be disappointed. The auction house does not have an obligation to pay the consignor if the purchaser does not pay...But when some of the higher priced items were renaged on then we have a problem where many items were under sold. I then had a battle on to get the finances sorted out. One of my clients was short changed. In the end he accepted what he was paid because he didn't have the time to dally, consequently he would deal with Cameo no more. Thankfully this client still has great trust in me, which is a privalige. Another client was waiting to be paid for many months...in the end he had to visit the UK, I took him down to Cameo they paid him cash. And lastly one of my friends as well as a client was not paid, and still hasn't been paid. I am now seeking the help of The Sheriffs in the TV show.
Cameo have sent out posters to wrong clients, and some are unscrupulous enough to keep them...I know of one such incident because I saw a poster being sold by a dealer/collector who hadn't won the particular poster at Cameo, there was no comeback because he could have said he swapped it with the owner. I am sure there are many dealers/collectors who have had trouble with Cameo, I would uge you to back me up and write your experiences down.
I would add one of my clients was very happy with the result he achieved via Cameo, but he was diligent in making regular trips to collect his income and also he had expensive friends if that makes sense. Most of us do not have that luxury.
I will keep you updated as much as I can on my situation.
But rest assured that Came are crooks and from my point of view I wish I hadn't been desperate for work and joined them in what I thought was a genuine enterprise.
Adrian Cowdry"
