As an auction owner, but of a different type than the large online houses I can offer some perspective.
First, sellers commissions in the general auction world can still run up to 40%!!! In competitive specialty fields the trend has been the seller's fees dropping and a portion of that being passed on to the buyers. This is due to the competition to get great material.
If you have something that is not considered great material an auction house is less likely to discount or eliminate the seller's commissions let alone share buyer's premium.
The total amount of your consignment may not have a ton of bearing on your commissions as it is really more dependent on each individual lot. If you consign 100 lots worth a total of $60k that 's a TON more work than one $60k lot.
For instance, our auction is a small live only auction. A normal sale grosses about 20k. We want individual lots of $50 and up, but at every auction we have lots that go for $20. We charge a buyer's premium of 10% and we have 7 employees at the auction plus all the hours of cataloguing and photography, advertising and hall rental etc... If we charged no seller's commission on ANY item we'd net $2000 which wouldn't cover costs. Now if you have an item that I know will interest some of our well-heeled buyers I almost don't care what it sells for, I will sell it for no commission. For example I have a guy considering selling a DR J. Rookie in 8 and a Rose Rookie in 4.5 along with some other decent cards. I would take the Dr J. and the Rose at no commission, but his other cards come through our doors a lot more often and won't attract any buyers on their own so commission on them can range up to 20% depending on price realized.
Anyway, on my end my commissions aren't some mysterious process, rather they're a practical reality, but again my auction is world's away from an REA or a Heritage where their average items are the kind of things I get maybe once or twice a year.
Any questions about auction practices in general feel free to PM me!
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