Auction House Commission are….
percyb
Posts: 3,322 ✭✭✭✭
After looking at the price of the 1975 No S Roosevelt dime it gave me great pause: Just curious why auction house commissions are 10 percent or higher. Thoughts.
https://forums.collectors.com/home/leaving?allowTrusted=1&target=https://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/1655587/1975-Roosevelt-Dime-No-S-PCGS-Proof-67-Toned-with-Balance-of-Proof-Set-Documentation-The-Ruth-E-Discovery-Coin
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Auction House Commisions are:
…highly competitive.
And six-figure consignors receive pretty favorable terms.
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...clickbait.
This.
Auction house fees of 10 to 20% are used to pay for premium consignors to place their coins. The fees on those premium coins are very low.
Auction houses also have to pay for payment processing, advertising, cataloging, website maintenance, customer service, etc.
And you clicked, right? It worked.
I click on threads with few responses hoping to be helpful and offer something new. Threads with lots of responses probably have a response similar or the same as the one that I would have offered.
I agree with the other comments and would add that the commission on the No-S dime was probably zero (or less) to the consignor. With a single item of that value an auctioneer can afford to give back part of the buyer premium and still make a very healthy profit. As @typekat said this market is competitive and as @jmlanzaf said, auctioneers have many expenses although a single high value items requires less work than a consignment of lower value items that require more cataloging and catalog space.
Commissions are not always 10% or higher. As mentioned, favorable clients may get favorable rates lower than a 10% commission.
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The fee for consignors isn't where the money is generated. Right now a buyer will pay between 18-25% on each lot with a bit more coming from the standard handling fees and shipping. I can't see how that percentage go can any higher. If it does, logic tells me that the auction houses will cause lower bids.
Right now it's hard to comprehend that for every $1,000 in bids it costs me an additional $200+. That seems hardly sustainable.
One should consider the vigorish when calculating their high bid.
Sometimes in the late innings that can get messed up and you overbid. I have done that a few times, but not often.
10%?
Try bidding in an antiques or art auction where the buyer pays in the neighborhood of 30% or even more.
Not sure what sellers pay in those types of auctions but I think it's also high.
its not for some me included. id rather so to a bigger show and look there instead of giving it to them, jmo
Yes, but payroll costs will be the majority of expenses.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
Especially if you got air miles.
I do believe the consignor fee at GC for coins over $1000 is 0. That's pretty good.
Probably and that is part of virtually every category i mentioned.
I think it's rather funny when you look at the ebay thread where people are demanding that ebay hire numismatic experts to crack down on fakes. At the same time, people complain about auction house costs that are used to provide the kind of expertise they apparently want ebay to somehow acquire for free.
Everyone always thinks they should be provided more at a lower cost. On the other hand, I've never heard anyone willing to cut their own salary and benefits.
I don’t recall anyone on that eBay thread demanding them to provide experts for free. If anything there are probably people who posted on there that would be willing to provide some of their time pro bono for vetting listings of coins that were flagged as being counterfeit.