What do Auction Companies charge you ????

Proof

Any of the collectors who own some of these All Time Finest Sets and decide to auction them, could you provide any advice on the auction process ?
Such as, do you use a reserve ?

Do you receive part of the hammer ?

Does the Auction Company charge you a selling fee ?

Does the auction company go over your collection and try to upgrade coins for you ?

Do you negotiate terms with the auction company yourself or do you use an 'agent ', such as one of your trusted dealers.

From personal experience, I know that Heritage will charge the highest fees in all departments, because they claim to spend millions on advertisement, have the most registered internet bidders, etc., etc..

Heritage will try their best to have your coins not be reserved, because they will telephone you at least twice a week and tell you that "your coins will sell for moon money", but what if they don't ?
They do not put the "moon money hype in writing.

I really do not like the idea of no reserve. When I bid on auctions, reserves do not bother me, if they are at a practical level.
Auctioning a million doallar collection, if I had one, without reserves, would worry me to no end.

Auctioning collections in the multi million range has become "normal"
lately. Would appreciate any usefull info on dealing with The BIG ONE, Heritage, or the smaller, but well known companies.

After all, the numbers are quite high for fees charged by auction companies and for a million dollar collection could vary by many, many, thousands.

In comparison, a realtor charges 6% on a million dollar house, ( $60,000 ) and an auction company charges a minimum of 15% to auction your Million dollar set of coins, ( $150,000 ).

Do you think all auction companies should openly advertise their rate structure or are we better off having the fees up in the air and generally hidden ??

I think a lot of collectors on this forum know how to grade their coins and where to best purchase coins, but the end result is that most of these coins will eventually hit the auction block and I doubt that most are prepared for the AUCTION CONTRACT.

Any auction house experiences or tips would be appreciated.
I know the 'generalities' and would appreciate 'specifics'.

Another thought; maybe a well informed numismatist/coin dealer could start an "ASSIST TO SELL " business for liquidating coin collections, as in real estate, after all commissions are twice as high for coins as they are for your house.

michael

well i do not know from personal experience

but what i think i do know is that

with auction companies fees

you do not ever get what you deserve you get what you negoiate

and of course the best leverage is a good sellers market where the consignment you have are extremely desirable coins with superlative eye appeal rarity and
in hot demand coins with one or more stand alone coins and a fresh new to the market deal with a consignment worth at least the low 6 figure range if not more

michael

actually

in most all cases it is better to do consignment/private treaty through a dealer that you trust that specializes in the items you have and has buyers and/or private treaty to some advanced collectors that really waNT a specific coins or two or three or more in your collection

this is the best way to do it no doubt

MacCrimmon

Well, I've gotten 100% of the hammer on two consignments last year. The total was in the low 5-figs. However, I submitted them through a dealer friend.

If and when I consign my British material it will be for more than 100%. The super-mega consignments most likely neg. for up to 105% of the hammer in some cases. "Say what", Mr. Ivy, "you don't want to give me 105%, then I'll have to go to ANR with my 10 million dollar set of shiny baubles"!

BAJJERFAN

I have some coupons from Heritage for zero commission on smoe coins I bought from them if I ever decide to resell thru them. I think a lot depends on what you have to sell. Out of a full set of Morgans the common stuff will bring so so money unless its very high grade or exceptionally nice.

It takes forever to get paid too, once you sell.

coinguy1

If you have the right coins/consignment and know what to ask for, you can get in excess of 100% of hammer.

BAJJERFAN

I thought that you got ALL of the hammer price less negotiated commission and that Heritage got the 15% juice unless I am missing smoething. Does the hammer price include the 15%?

Proof

It would be very informative and helpfull if one of the auction companies would respond to this thread.

Personally I do not think any will. That is why I started this thread.
There are a lot of 'options' and auction companies would like to suck in the uninformed as often as possible. MORE MONEY !!!

So going through some sort of dealer/agent seems to be the best route for most, with a substantial collection.

BAJJERFAN

You consign a coin to Heritage at agreed upon 5% commission. The coin sells at the high bid of $1000. Heritage tacks on the 15% BP or $150 which makes the price to the high bidder $1150. Heritage also gets 5% commish or another $50. So they get $200 and you the consignor get $950. Correct? What is the hammer price? $1000? or $1150?

Proof

$1,000

Typetone

Hammer is the price before the 15% buyers fee. Example, the coin auction ends at $1,000. $1,000 is the hammer, buyer pays $1,150. I don't think that the buyer fee is negotiable. The seller fee is negotiable. As a seller I get hammer plus 3% to 5%. So in the example, buyer pays $1,150, I get about $1,050, Heritage gets $100.

This is done through negotiation. You can negotiate the sellers fee directly with Heritage. The standard is 15%, but you can actually get at least up to -5%, as in my example. You can negotiate a low, or no, or negative seller's fee (a rebate) if you have high value coins that you are willing to sell with reasonable reserves. Otherwise, some dealers have an arrangement with Heritage (and others) for their consignments. If you do business with the dealer, they might be willing to include your coins in their consignment. Check around with your dealer to see if they do that service for their customers.

Michael is correct, you get what you negotiate, not what you deserve.

Greg

roadrunner

I received hammer for an upper 5 figure consignment last year. Net effect is that at "hammer" you get 87% of the total proceeds, auction house 13%. While I may have been able to get a few more % by shopping around, I had a specific venue & location in mind, wanted to be more involved with the cat layout & description, possible upgrades, etc. Not all auction houses will give you freedom to input. In the end it worked for me. But next time I will probably be a little less apt to settle for hammer. Consignments in the lower 5 figures might have difficulty getting "hammer" from one of the top 3 or 4 auction houses. You may have to give a few more % away.

Like Michael said, get your facts, do research like this thread, then negotiate based on strength with the house. If you don't like the deal try elsewhere. And as Laura always says, if you don't have special coins, they probably will net you more out of auction.

roadrunner

BAJJERFAN

Why would you not get hammer price less negotiated commission?
What I would be asking is what will the auction company do to maximize my return?

morgannut2

Heritage starts out with offering you a 5% fee subtracted from the hammer price. Additionally, they want a standard 15% over the hammer price "paid" buy every buyer. Hence, if a coin sells for $1000 hammer, Heritage adds the standard 15% commission to make the Sale Price $1,150. The amount retained by Heritage of the total Sale Price (hammer + 15% comm.) is 13% of the the sale with the seller recieving $1000, or 87% of the total transaction. As a practical matter, some large dealers are able to negotiate so that they recieve some part of the Auction Company's 15%, depending on the value, rarity, and frequncy of the dealers submissions. I think most people would do better having a significant dealer negotiating for them--perhaps saving a percent or so with a big deal, and paying the dealer 1-1.5%.

majorbigtime

<< <i>-perhaps saving a percent or so with a big deal, and paying the dealer 1-1.5%. >>



Hmmmm. I'm missing the logic here!

saintguru

Mark is on the mark...If you have a reasonably notable collection the auction houses will pay ~5% over hammer...In the case of EXTRAORDINARY PEDIGREED sets, I have heard as much as +7-8%.

morgannut2

Majorbigtime--the logic is some dealers know what percentage the companies have (recently) been giving back of the 15% standard buyers' fee. This may put a dealer in a negotiating position (with knowledge I lack) so that even if I pay a dealer 1%, he will be able to get me a better deal than I would if I kept the 1%. There is a tendency to keep repeat dealers happy in the interest having at least a shot at major collections. Of course a tough negotiator will always do best for themselves-assuming they have some previous history to go on from prior negotiations by other collectors.