If I was consigning to an auction, I would have no problem with being charged the actual grading fee, plus postage. The consigner should however, be able to negotiate a lower or "no" fee, depending on the individual case. After all, once the card(s) is/are graded, the auction company will undoubtedly see a higher profit simply due to increased bidding.
As for being charged a fee for the auction company employee's time and effort in getting the cards ready and packaged for shipment to the TPG, isn't that really the same thing, or at least very similar to what they already do with any other item being consigned (preparing the item for auction)? Maybe not as far as packaging and having USPS/UPS/FedEx come by to pick it up (at least at that point...they do that though when sending the item to the winning bidder), but I see very little difference between the two; and certainly not enough for the auction company to charge the consigner for it.
Steve
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