FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
You get what you pay for…in both my corporate and retail career I realise how much energy is actually required and more often than not (but not always) you do get what you pay for.
We are in touch with the market and its competitors and look at their business model compared to ours. As such…
Our Point of Difference is the following:
VL value proposition is that we provide all items thoroughly cleaned, serviced and tested to the best of our abilities. We spend alot of time and money into restoring our products so be mindful of this when you look at the price, you are paying for peace of mind that these vintage products are cosmetically restored and fully functional. Our products are reflective of their prices to ensure that you purchase as best as restored as possible and in working functional condition
So next time you are “price comparing” for vintage items ask yourself what other value are they bringing to the table: has the product been tested and restored, is the description and pictures accurate, are they easy to deal with, how quickly do they respond, do they offer flexible payment terms, does the product description detail all the information I need to know, what are their T&C’s, have I purchased this item before, what do their reviews and feedback say, etc
We are also registered and have a second-hand dealer license to ensure we comply with business certification and general good practice.
It’s easy, select the product/s from the VL collection and click on cart or checkout and follow the payment and delivery address instructions from there. You will receive an email with confirmation of your purchase and once we ship/post you will receive the invoice and tracking number as a pdf to complete the order. If you encounter any issues send us an email at georgeparker@vintageluxury.com.au or call us on 0418990402
Love Your Items, But I Live Overseas Or Interstate, Do You Post There?
Not a problem we post, ship anywhere and everywhere securely, reliably and affordably for you
Refer to https://www.vintageluxury.com.au/policies/shipping-policy
I Want An Item That Is Not Listed And/Or You've Sold Out
This is the fun part, we love sourcing (or resourcing) items that we don’t currently have. Send us an email with exactly what you’re after and we can take it from there. We also have friendly business contacts interstate for referrals
What Are Your Payment Methods?
When you checkout your payment options are (select "more payment options" button to pay for ones other than Shop Pay, Google Pay or Paypal):
- Shop Pay (accept all major payment methods Visa, Mastercard, and American Express debit and credit cards)
- Google Pay
- Paypal
- Afterpay
- Direct Bank Transfer (EFT)
- COD (cash on delivery)
We also accept other payment methods (including interest free payment plans) if you contact us we can arrange this very easily
All purchased items will receive an electronic email proof of purchase
How Do You Ship, Post, Deliver & Costs?
Refer to https://www.vintageluxury.com.au/policies/shipping-policy
Do You Accept Cash On Delivery?
Yes we accept Cash on Delivery however you will be required to make a non-refundable 25% deposit (via electronic payment methods) before arrival to accept the item (reason being is we have had customers come and change their mind on an item that could have been sold to someone else prior). You will get a electronic receipt/confirmation of purchase of payment method. If you decide not to proceed with the purchase on pickup VL will retain the 25% deposit
Our prices are reflective of the effort put into sourcing, servicing and restoring these beautiful pieces as such we often do not provide discounts
https://www.vintageluxury.com.au/policies/refund-policy
Can You Explain Your Product Rarity System In Your Descriptions?
VL uses both a subjective and objective approach in “calculating” Product Rarity score (1-5) and Product Condition scores (Overall condition, Cosmetic and Functional 1-10). We will talk about Rarity in this section:
This may cause debate, we are not trying to mislead customers in terms of ratings and the accuracy of them, what we are saying as SME in certain areas we track historical and current usage and data, keywords from searches, previous sales in certain product ranges (especially MCM), previous and current dealer sales, consumer demand and supply but most importantly/weighted more is the condition which is intrinsically linked to rarity. My left side analytic engineering mathematical brain wishes we had all the data to show how many of these items were produced (mass or bespoke), how many are left, what condition these are left in, how many people are asking for them, but the truth is you can’t and if you think you can objectively and mathematically calculate scores in the Rarity range then we would love to talk to you to gather more info to help us better provide accurate information. We are bold by even providing such rating systems, but its better than just pictures as others do. Firstly even before we buy an item we assess its rarity locally and worldwide, we avoid items that are massed produced (unless there is a high demand and consumer need) and look items that we know we can get the highest scores possible (we avoid anything less than 3/5 for rarity or 6/10 for condition) to ensure the consumer gets the best value. Our assessment is based on supply, demand, previous sales, amount of restoration required, etc If we have grossly overpriced an item and provide us evidence of the same item (based on our criteria above) let us know -> we may adjust OR keep the price as is, once again depending on how many watchers, bidders, availability etc. We do not low ball or cut prices just to flip items, we are not a business that just buys and sells (refer to our first FAQ question), but rather an assurance that you are buying an item that is fully restored as close as possible to its original state hence why some of our rarity scores are higher and not just linked to supply or availability. In fact having an item where there is excess supply there needs to be a POD hence our descriptions, restoration and of course customer reviews speaks for themselves.
Most consumer psyche is that they want bargains, they always want the best quality for the cheapest price, if that is your Modus operandi then VL may not be the place for you, we take pride (time, resources and money) in restoring vintage items as such the product rarity takes this into consideration, the rarer the product is intrinsically linked to the amount of restoration we have put in it. Here is one example that explains it further:
Parker wraparound armchairs -> currently that we know of there are 3 in the market at a point in time, in the future this may increase or decrease, but we can only draw a line in the sand and write a description that these are either 3 (common) to 4 (rare) out of 5 (Gem). Now we take into account the condition of these chairs into the “equation” if the chair is in mint condition (or in this case fully restored) its bumped up a number to a 4. We also look at historic data, in our searches we have only seen another pair of these sold in the past year (and we know the sold price) which also helps us quantify our score and pricing. These are questions that we ask ourselves when we rate a product. Additionally how many replicas or fakes are out there (this helps us with the rarity of the brand and chair -> meaning replica rattan armchairs are out there as such Australian originals such as these Parkers are rarer). And finally the MCM and vintage age, we strongly believe supply and demand and population demographics play a big part as such time always sells an item, for the right buyer for the right price and the right time. These are questions that we ask ourselves when we score and assess a product.
At the end of the day a score is open to interpretation, it’s is up to the consumer to read our descriptions and let them do their OWN research on pricing vs rating vs demand, we are always happy to showcase items with videos, more pictures, take phone calls, video calls and soon to be on premise.
We hope you enjoyed this FAQ question (we love it as it questions alot of ideas and thoughts but is not straight forward or an objective calculation) and we already know there will be difference of opinions, do the right thing and voice them to us directly (give us a call) not openly and happy to have healthy discussions instead of trolling and tarnishing reputations. We firmly believe that we use a scoring model that we have put alot of fact and data based decision making but also taking into consideration its condition and restoration of those models.
Do You Have A Physical Store? Where Is Pickup?
We have a retail store which doubles up as our showroom, warehouse and workshop and has our MCM and Audio Visual products for display. This is located Building 4/339 Williamstown road, Port Melbourne 3207 via Appointment only (click on link or contact us page). All Luxury Goods are stored in secure, camera operated Jewellery store in Melbourne CBD and can be arranged for viewing very easily.
What Do You Mean You've Restored An Item?
VL uses an abbreviation called FC for the restoration process when it comes describing a product to a customer.
- Functional condition (structurally sound, works as expected)
- Cosmetic condition (nicks, marks, holes, scratches)
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Furniture: We specialise in MCM (mid century) furniture and provide light restoration or full restoration, this is explained below:
i) A light restoration means we clean, light hand sand and use an oil based wax or home brewed Danish oil to finish. These types of restorations are done as the product we sourced is already in good, very good or excellent condition and does not warrant a full restoration. We do the basic checks/tests and clean the basics. We would provide guidance as to whether you furniture requires a light or full restoration...we do not want to upsell, we are honest and provide our years of experience of what is required.
ii) A full restoration (gold service) entails pulling the item apart, re-gluing if required, filling with putty/wax/ suspected areas, full sand, reupholstering fabric, buying new foam, re-webbing (most likely required), and several coats of oil based wax (in satin) or shellac (semi gloss) finishes. This is usually done if the item is in very poor, poor, or average condition (think about it most MCM furniture fits in this category as they are 50+ years old). All the items that we have available for purchase fit in this category, however a full restoration will last you another 50+ years...we take pride in this as the completed product would be like it was purchased brand new in the era it was built. - Audio & Visual: Following a similar technique to the above there is a light and full (overhaul) restoration (both cosmetic and functional). For example a light restoration on a camera would be taking it apart and cleaning the lens (inside and out), viewfinder, whereas a full restoration would be taking it to our camera specialists testing the shutter speeds, running film through, deep dive clean, etc. Similarly with our audio equipment we have our audio technician who would excercise a full restoration including identifying resistors, capacitors, transistors and replacing them with new ones, testing audio quality. Most of our audio equipment goes to our technician who probes the item and decides whether it requires a light or full restoration. Occassionaly we source items we test them for several hours and do not need any restoration as they are in working condition. All items are stated restored follow this description and once again be mindful of this when selecting or chosing an item from our category as there is no return policy on items.
- Luxury Goods: We usually avoid sourcing items that require full restorations in this category so more often then not they are all fit in a light restoration category. For example all our gold and diamond jewelery gets a thorough clean and presented in a box. An exception to this would be our watches which follows a light and full restoration technique albeit our watchmaker is very experienced and knows particularly Omega watches intimately and we trust his guidance when it comes to the decision on whether a watch requires light (battery change, movement check, light clean, new glass), vs full (overhaul) which requires new parts, potentially new movement, clean and/or paint of face) etc
Do You Provide Tax Invoices For GST Purposes?
We are a registered GST business, all purchases made by customers will receive an email confirmation of the purchase, and several others once the products have been delivered. To receive a GST tax invoice please place order with an email address vs a phone number (limitation of shopify)
What do we not do?
We don't buy privately or provide valuations on family heir looms or items you have. We do not provide a buying service, we suggest you do your own research on "how much" this is worth type questions...we get dozens of these requests per week