OPINIONS: Auction House Retail Pricing
70ToppsFanatic
Posts: 2,106 ✭✭✭✭
Hi,
Wanted to get some opinions on an example of auction house retail pricing that I found to be
excessive.
I became aware that one of the major auction houses that had recently finished an auction
had available a group of the items that had recently sold in their auction (the winning bidder had
cherry-picked what they wanted from lots they had won and wanted to sell the "leftovers").
So I inquired about getting a price for all of the leftovers. The hammer price of these items,
INCLUDING buyers premium, was around $10,000. So the auction house comes back to me
with pricing of nearly $24,000!
$10,000 was probably consistent (plus-or-minus 10%) with current market references. I
get it that this is a what-the-market-will-bear kind of industry, but 140% over market????
Am I off-base for feeling like this auction house is being overly aggressive here? I mean they
just made a large buyers premium (and probably a consignor's premium as well) on these very
same items and here they can now move the "leftover" group in a single transaction with very little
additional work.
I wouldn't have blinked if they had asked for 10%-15% over the final hammer price, but this
just seemed over the top.
Thoughts?
Wanted to get some opinions on an example of auction house retail pricing that I found to be
excessive.
I became aware that one of the major auction houses that had recently finished an auction
had available a group of the items that had recently sold in their auction (the winning bidder had
cherry-picked what they wanted from lots they had won and wanted to sell the "leftovers").
So I inquired about getting a price for all of the leftovers. The hammer price of these items,
INCLUDING buyers premium, was around $10,000. So the auction house comes back to me
with pricing of nearly $24,000!
$10,000 was probably consistent (plus-or-minus 10%) with current market references. I
get it that this is a what-the-market-will-bear kind of industry, but 140% over market????
Am I off-base for feeling like this auction house is being overly aggressive here? I mean they
just made a large buyers premium (and probably a consignor's premium as well) on these very
same items and here they can now move the "leftover" group in a single transaction with very little
additional work.
I wouldn't have blinked if they had asked for 10%-15% over the final hammer price, but this
just seemed over the top.
Thoughts?
Dave
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Dave