My Experience with Catawiki My Experience with Catawiki PROS: Industry's low 9% bidder's fee. CONS: 1. After a recent upgrade in the autumn of 2022 it has become harder to get around the Catawiki interface. 2. Auction bidder can no longer see the sellers name and address nor contact them to ask questions to clarify condition of the items before bidding on their lot. 3. The descriptions of many of the lots are lacking proper descriptions for numismatic items. 4. Catawiki experts say that they don't want IBNS grading in the item description if the item is not graded by an independent party (slabbed, encapsulated) such as for instance - PMG or PCGS. Thus Catawiki gives preference to independent graders (which often make mistakes in identifying and grading paper money and banknotes) rather than IBNS grading standards. Remark: Catawiki and their numismatic experts are members of the IBNS themselves. 5. The imposed 51 word limit in the item description for Sellers does not always allow to explain the condition of the item and to include detailed description in some cases when the item is not new. No wonder sellers write "it is nice" instead of describing the condition in very detail since the 51 word limit often prevents to fully describe the item. 6. If a buyer (winning bidder) does not receive their shipment within 25 days after payment and does not submit a "CLAIM" to Catawiki, Catawiki pays the seller even if the goods are NOT delivered to the buyer yet. Then the buyer has to contact and deal with the seller instead of being protected by Catawiki all the way until the goods are delivered. Although Catawiki assures the seller that they will pay the seller only after the goods are delivered, but on the contrary a buyer seems to only be protected against non-delivery for the first 25 days! And how about those buyers who live in more remote destinations and if there is slow delivery of mail that takes 1 to 2 months or more? 7. You can not cancel your auction bid even if you made an innocent mistake or even if you found out that the item you bid on had a hidden issue not disclosed in the auction by the seller. 8. Catawiki website and software is sketchy and buggy, with occasional dead links. 9. A frequent event is when you submit a "claim" to Catawiki in order to keep on receiving their delivery support beyond the 25 days you get blocked from Catawiki for about 5 minutes: "Access Denied You don't have permission to access (link was here) on this server." 10. Catawiki support now takes weeks to reply and many questions and inquiries as well as complaints are left unaddressed and unanswered. 11. Catawiki experts allow sellers to write any kind of inaccuracies in the descriptions of their items and there is no way to contact the sellers before bidding on their items. Catawiki support ignores remarks abut multiple blunders in their listings and does not correct them before bidding begins. 12. Selling process on Catawiki may be long, slow and even dysfunctional in places. Catawiki requires the seller to provide their ID that shows both sides of the id such as drivers license or a passport, but then when they are provided a large image of the id both sides they reply they are unable to read it. Then they ask for a second document proving your residential status and street address and you will also be asked to register for German LUCID number even if you're not living in Germany and even if you are a private seller just wanting to sell off some of your collection or a single car. Registering for German LUCID is extremely complicated process with confusing instructions. 13. Some sellers take weeks to ship out the sold items and some buyers are slow to pay for their won items. 14. Some sellers make items photographed spread like playing cards thus obfuscating most of items within the spread = impossible to see paper items condition. Buyer (bidder) has to GUESS the condition of the items they are bidding on! Therefore bidding (buying) on Catawiki is very much like a lottery! 15. Messages sent to Catawiki support about the excess shipping charges by some sellers fell n deaf ears = no answer by Catawiki support. That is unacceptable since it means financial loss for the buyer!