Hello, Every week Catawiki sells very interesting Militaria items, ww1/ww2 post war and weapons from the 17th century. But what I notice a lot is that people for example bid on a item like an Iron Cross 1870 first class. This medal can go away for 3.000€ or USD. Catawiki claims to have their auctions controlled by an auctioneer that collects himself and has many experience. This is not true, I have seen many examples people sold items like the Verwundetenabzeichen (German wounded batch). This batch has a M16 Stahlhelm when from ww1 and a M35 Stahlhelm with Swastika when dated from ww2 (National Socialistic Germany). Catawiki sold the ww1 version with the title 'ww2'. Very big mistake and easy to see. Furthermore the 1870 Iron Cross was an ugly fake it was made of one part and had no stamps. People bid hundreds of euro's on these auctions but its poor fakes sometimes. Yes of course original items are there too. I have been bidding along for almost a year now and have seen many examples like this. In total i bought 4 Auctions, one lot consisting of a ww1 Soldbuch and personal items and ww2 Luftwaffe soldbuch with Wehrpaß and some other papers, a USSR Flag from 1970's. Its very nice and was cheap but most of times price is too high. And fakes are there just like eBay. Never buy something just because the auction say its original! Be sure cause Catawiki.com can't be trusted!
I totally do agree with Friedhelm! I find that the main problem with Catawiki is that its expert auctioneers are no experts at all on many occasions. Recently I read another article about Catawiki on smartshoppingschool.com, and although it mainly speaks about jewelry and gemstones, it explains perfectly how “reliable” and “professional” the so-called specialist auctioneers are. Read more about how they manage to ignore obvious problems, misrepresentation, and scam (it is unbelievable!): Catawiki fake emerald scam - buyers lose thousands
