1. These Terms and Conditions apply to all transactions relating to the offering and consignment of items by a vendor (referred to as “you”) for sale on a Shop which may be hosted on our own website, www.thepedestal.com, and/or elsewhere including on one or more third party aggregator websites (in each case, referred to as the “Shop”) by The Pedestal Limited, trading as The Pedestal or on The Pedestal (referred to as “we” or “us”), and may not be varied unless agreed in writing in advance by one of our directors. 

2. When you offer us one or more items for consignment on the Shop (an “Item”), we will provide you with our proposed Reserve Price for each Item.

In the event of an Item selling on the Shop, Fees and charges (‘Charges’) will be deducted from the Reserve Price, and the balance will be paid to you.  

See paragraph 4 below where The Pedestal’s Charges are set out.

Pricing proposals are given after due consideration and to the best of our knowledge and experience, but cannot be taken as a guarantee or statement of value. It may be necessary for us to vary any proposal which is given “unseen” from images or after initial inspection once we have the chance to inspect fully and research the Item.

When we list your Item/s on the Shop or elsewhere the published price to be paid by the purchaser will include sums to cover our buyer’s commission and listing fees levied on and to be paid by The Pedestal.

3. If we do not think that the Item is appropriate for listing on the Shop, or if you do not agree with our pricing proposal, the consignment will not proceed and any Item already delivered to us should be collected from us under the terms of paragraph 12 below within 14 days of you being so notified, unless you and we instead agree to a consignment of the Item for auction.

4. Once the pricing of each Item is agreed, we will issue a contract (“Contract”) setting out the agreed terms including the Reserve Price and our fees and charges (“Charges”).

We will list the Item on the Shop for an Initial Period of 6 months. The listing of the Item may be renewed for a further period of 6 months, unless otherwise agreed. The Initial Period date is the date on which the Item is listed for sale on the Shop.

Our standard charges are as follows:

-          Vendor commission, charged at 15% of the Reserve Price

-          Loss and Damage waiver fee, charged on sold items at 1.5% of the Reserve Price  

We will also charge a fee to cover the cost of illustration.

All charges are subject to VAT charged at the prevailing rate.

5. By signing the Contract, you appoint us as your agent pursuant to these terms and conditions, warrant and undertake that you have the right and title so to do and that the sale of the Item will not breach any applicable law or regulation and that any relevant tax and duties on the import of the Item or otherwise have been paid, and indemnify us and our purchaser/s, if any, against any breach of this warranty and undertaking.

We reserve the right to ask new clients for identification and proof of address.

6. All Items will be fully catalogued and illustrated on the Shop and condition reports will be available upon request to potential purchasers.

If the Item is sold by us, copyright in the illustration/s will be retained by us and we may publish the image for our marketing purposes.

If the Item is returned to you unsold, copyright will pass to you provided that all Charges owed to us have been paid, and provided that we also retain the right to use the image/s for research, marketing and cataloguing purposes.

7. We will take responsibility for loss or damage caused to such Items whilst they are in our possession unless the Contract specifies otherwise. The valuation of the Item in such event will be the Reserve Price of the Item whether the item is sold or unsold, and net of what would have been our Charges.  

We cannot, however accept responsibility for any loss or damage however caused relating to wear and tear, warping or shrinkage, woodworm or other such pest, or to any Item which has been specified as “Fragile” in the Contract. We will also not be liable for damage to gilded or plaster picture frames or to picture frame glass.

8. You are entitled to withdraw any item at any time upon notice to us in writing, provided that we have not at the time of receiving your notice received an offer to purchase the item, and provided that if the withdrawal is during the Initial Period you will pay us a withdrawal fee equal to 100% of what would have been our Charges based on the Reserve Price.  

9. Notwithstanding paragraph 9 above, if at any time after consigning an item to us you agree to sell such an item to a purchaser who had previously made an enquiry regarding such Item to us, we will be entitled to charge you a fee equal to 100% of what would have been our Charges based on the Reserve Price for such Item.

10. You agree that we are entitled to deduct from any amounts received by us (a) our Charges referred to in the Contract and/or in these terms and conditions (b) any VAT or the like required to be deducted under applicable law and (c) any interest earned on the proceeds of sale between the date on which we are paid and the date on which we account to you.

11. In certain circumstances, including deliberate forgery, the purchaser is entitled to rescission of the purchase contract and refund of sums paid. Under such circumstances you agree that we have the right, without limitation, to withhold all sums otherwise due to you, or if we have already accounted to you, to recover all sums paid to you. If you disagree with our cataloguing of any of your items or with the contents of any condition report please inform us immediately, failing which you are deemed to have approved such.

12. Any item unsold at the expiry of the Initial or any Renewal Period must be collected at your expense from such address as we inform you, no later than 14 days after such expiry date, unless we have both agreed to continue the consignment or unless alternative arrangements have been agreed, failing which we will have the right to charge you storage charges and/or to arrange delivery of your item/s at your expense and/or sell the item at auction including a third party auction in order to defray the cost of such charges.

13. We will not release your item/s to any purchaser until we have been paid in full.

14. Sums received by us from purchasers will be held by us on trust for you and other vendors (as the case may be) in a segregated account, subject to deduction of Charges to which we are entitled.

15. We will account to you for all sums owed, which will be net of all fees and charges owed to us by you on this or other transactions which you and we may have engaged in, within 28 days of the date on which we have paid in full by the purchaser.

If the purchaser has not so paid within what we consider to be a reasonable time, we may take legal steps against them subject to agreement with you including as to costs, but we reserve the right to rescind the purchase. Under some circumstances the purchaser may have the right to cancel a purchase made after the sale for a certain period after collection or delivery, and in such circumstances we will account to you only after the expiry of such time period.

Settlement will be by bank transfer unless otherwise agreed, and must be made to an account in your name which you have notified to us in the Contract. In the event that a fee is to be levied on the bank transfer, this fee will be deducted from the vendor's auction proceeds. We are not obliged to investigate the credit-worthiness or bona fides of any potential purchaser and nor are we obliged to enforce any rights which we may have against any such potential purchaser.

16. General Terms:

a. These terms are made and must be construed under English law and any disputes arising from them or from the Contract will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

b. All Charges and any other sums referred to herein or arising herefrom are stated net of Value Added Tax but may be subject to VAT or the like at the rate or rates prevailing at the time of any transaction.

c. We will hold and process your personal data according to the conditions, for the reasons and on the bases set out in our Privacy Policy which you may access here and as envisaged by these terms and conditions.

d. All transactions are conducted according to our discretion. We may refuse to accept an offer from any potential purchaser and otherwise regulate the Shop, any consignment, listing and any potential transaction and all associated proceedings as we deem most appropriate.

Our decision in relation to any dispute relating to any item or transaction which may arise during or after any consignment is final.

We may (but are not obliged to) host the Shop on our own website or on any third party site and may accept offers to purchase in person, by telephone, or online via our own or a third party Shop.

We will not in any event be liable for any listing or failure to list any Item or to register or accept any offer whether caused by breakdown of communications technology or otherwise.