Opinions On Selling with Auction Houses

mexpo75

I wanted to know opinions from board members who have sold with the auction houses. I always try to sell at fair prices, but to do so on ebay, I find that I need to sell for higher amount to cover all of ebay and paypal fees. When selling higher priced cards (VCP, SMR over $1000) which auction house seems to do the best job and get the highest prices for your cards. Also, do any offer a no fee consignment for your cards? Thanks in advance.

Mike

bking

<< <i>I wanted to know opinions from board members who have sold with the auction houses. I always try to sell at fair prices, but to do so on ebay, I find that I need to sell for higher amount to cover all of ebay and paypal fees. When selling higher priced cards (VCP, SMR over $1000) which auction house seems to do the best job and get the highest prices for your cards. Also, do any offer a no fee consignment for your cards? Thanks in advance.

Mike >>



I'm interested as well. I have a high$ card or two to sell, and I'm in the midst of evaluating auction houses. One thing I've noticed is that some post misleading numbers as the "Amount realized" that actually include the buyer's premium. For example, a card may sell at $1000 (your gross), but they list it as $1180 (18% premium). When you take that (plus the consignment fees) into account, the only incentive I can see is IF they can fetch a higher price for you.

Now, based on my math (and someone please keep me straight here) a $1000 card auctioned on EBay might cost you around $40-45 in fees if you use a reserve, whereas an auction house will cost you at least $100 more. So, the question becomes - "can an auction house fetch me 10-15% more than an EBay auction?".

RonBurgundy

Don't.

bobbyw8469

I can only speak for myself, but I paid a 10% sellers premium and wound up with LESS than I would have on Ebay. When buyers bid thru Auction Houses, EVERYONE pays a hefty premium (15-20%). They account that premium into their bids. I have consigned based upon past sales where auction houses have sold cards for grossly higher prices than what the average selling price is. That is no longer the case.

bbuckner22

Plus, you normally have to wait to get your money until the auction ends. Some of the big houses do only one or two auctions a year. The 0% consignment fees they show only qualifies if you have very high end items to sell, otherwise they will charge you a % of the sale, plus their hammer fee.

bking

Does my math look right, BTW?

I figured on a $1K card auctioned that the Insertion fee would be < $1, and the FVF would be $37. Reserve set at $900 would be $9.

hammered

From what I've heard if you have ultra high-end items, the auction houses (I'd suggest REA) are the way to go. Reason being, they reach more high-end collectors that typically don't have time to browse Ebay.

Otherwise I'd stay with ebay.

WinPitcher

Unless I had a super duper rare card that was worth a ton of money I'd not use an auction house.

If I had a collection of sets PSA graded in 8 I'd do it.

For a few cards worth a few thousand in total I'd sell them myself or have a trusted friend with

an ebay following do it for a lil cut.


Steve

thedutymon

Good Morning,

Sale: 1966 Batman Black Bat #1 Registered set:

Mastro estimate without the Vig $8-10K

REA estimate without the Vig $7-10K

Mile High Estimate without the Vig $10-12K

Goodwin Estimate without Vig $5-8K


E-Bay Reserved Auction REALIZED Price $17,777.00 Cost for Auction and shipping about $250.00!!

No and I mean No to Auction houses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am currently in the process of selling a 10K item that 3 of the above 4 said would sell for less than 5k!! The other said 8-10K but all of the Vig !!!

Sale price off E-Bay $9,900.00, will be paid with Cashiers Check. Shipping cost about $50-75 !!!!!

Yeehah

Neil

Mickey71

It would have to be a monster rare tobacco or Caramel type card for me to consign to an auction house. Stuff that's worth 1 to 2 thousand you will generally get hosed with an auction house. Plus I've heard alot of promises as to how auction houses will display your item in the catalog and then your completely graded set will be on page 48 and about 1 inch of page space with a junky photo. Although, if anyone has the 62 Maris-Cepeda card in an 8 a major auction house sold one for $5000 while Ebay had one for $150 at the same time. I will not believe the results of that auction no matter what. By the way, I have one for sale for $4800 to the underbidder; but so far no takers.

storm888

Except for museum-quality items, I would stick with EBAY.

The trick to a smooth sale on a high-dollar item is to keep
PayPal out of the transaction. PP and the scamsters they
enable are the only real downside to using EBAY for such
sales.

earlycalguy

I've never sold thru auction houses - only bought - and will probably never sell thru them. if I did I would not pay a seller's fee to them. there are enough quality auction houses out there that want the business and will sell for zero sellers fee.

lot's of complaints about about ebay and their fees but it's the best place to sell - as long as you know what you are doing

while you are thinking about which auction house to use...put your item on ebay with a realistic buy it now and it's likely to sell and you won't need the auction houses.

Dboneesq

<< <i>Stuff that's worth 1 to 2 thousand you will generally get hosed with an auction house. Plus I've heard alot of promises as to how auction houses will display your item in the catalog and then your completely graded set will be on page 48 and about 1 inch of page space with a junky photo. >>


I am proof of that! I have mentioned this several times, but I think it is appropriate here as well. When I had to sell my collection I was not yet an active member of these boards (Man, I wish I was!) I had sold on ebay for quite a while, but I thought the RIGHT thing to do was to sell thru a large auction house. SOOOOO, after speaking with a few I decided on Mastro. I was able to get away with a 2% sellers fee, but it was still a HUGE mistake!

The way they grouped all my material was TERRIBLE! I had low pop (VERY low pop) cards that were probably $30 SMR but were selling for $200.00 each. They put them in with a group of other cards and never even mentioned they were low pop! They took dozens upon dozens of unopened packs (50s, 60s and 70s) and lumped them all in one lot. They took some nice sets and lumped them all together. I had a lot of PSA graded cards that should have been listed, IMO, no more than 5 to a lot. They were also thrown together with dozens of other cards. ANYWAY, if I had to do it over again they would have been offered to Board Members first and then on to eBay. Yeah, it would have been time consuming, but IMO I would have netted another TWENTY-FIVE GRAND! A VERY costly lesson.

As others have said, if I had only a few pieces that were rare items and were valued at a few thousand each, an auction house is probably the way to go. Even Mastro was good for that, but they were NOT good for me.

Hope this helps a bit.