Nussbaum Antiques & Fine Art

Excellent customer service and friendly business owner. Every time I walk into Nussbaum Antiques I see something new and am greeted with a friendly hello and warm smile.

Some time back, I took a porcelain doll to the shop to ask for an appraisal, as I am an insurance agent and was going to insure the doll on my policy. I don’t know the name of the man I talked with, but he took one look at the doll, told me, «THIS is not an antique, it couldn’t be more than 50 years old and we don’t write up anything if it’s not antique.» He then turned his back on me and walked away from me without another word, not even a thank you for coming in to their store. If I need an appraisal on anything else, I’ll likely NOT use them.

It was my unfortunate experience to be a customer of Nussbaum Antiques for five years. My experience began with Nussbaum handling an estate sale for my family in 2010, which went well and was managed professionally. I have no idea if we got top dollar for our inventory, but the firm did a good job of setting up our merchandise, accounting for what was sold, paying us, and carting up what wasn’t sold.
If my interaction with Nussbaum had ended here, I’d give them a five star rating. Sadly, it did not. Everything about the relationship went down hill relatively soon after the conclusion of the estate sale.
Nussbaum kept about $ 6−8K worth of inventory that did not sell. I live quite a distance from Louisville, and I expected that I would get an accounting on at least an annual basis and preferably a semi-​annual basis. I did not. I would call periodically to check in on the status of my account. My calls were virtually never returned. I would email to three different addresses for information. My emails were not returned. The only way I could be in touch with the owner of the shop, Scott Nussbaum, was to call his numbers repeatedly and hope to be lucky enough to catch him on the rare occasion that he’d pick up.
One of the reasons I called him was that he and his partner had mentioned several times that the most expensive item in the remaining inventory was close to selling. They would give me a date when the supposed customer was going to pick the merchandise up and I would get a substantial check. The date would come and go and I would have to go into a cycle of calling repeatedly to find out what happened.
Earlier in 2014, an attorney friend wrote Nussbaum a letter telling him that I was contemplating legal action unless I got a full accounting. Nussbaum called to inform me that the item referred to above had sold and that I could expect a check soon. Six weeks went by and there was no check. At that point I hired an attorney who had to take the antique store to the point of drawing up the papers for a law suit for me to get paid approximately 33−50% of the value of the goods I had left in Louisville. Of course, the attorney’s fees constituted a significant portion of the small amount of proceeds I received from Nussbaum.
So, there’s my version of an unpleasant story. Draw your own conclusions.

This is one of the best antique shops in the state. I bought a great silver belt buckle here just recently. Scott Nussbaum is a featured expert on the KET show called Kentucky Collectibles.

Frank and friendly owner. Highly recommended particularly if you are looking for art.