These auction houses send out literally thousands of items a year, do they not get some sort of discount with their shipping service?

Scott-how are your Legendary winnings typically shipped? When you go into the FedEx or UPS web site, what does it come up with for shipping costs?

Peter-what did you buy and what were the shipping costs? You are obviously incensed at your treatment but you have provided no details as to what the issue actually is.

Jake-that seems to be a question for Bob. Is the auction house program that calculates shipping using their corporate rate or the rate that you or I walking in off the street would pay? I would hope that it is the former.

I wouldnt say im incensed at my treatment...i guess when you pay 14g's for a card...then i see the 19.5%bp...then 100 for shipping...it just seems excessive to me...i presume its mainly for insurance?!

It's partially the insurance:

Wouldn't they have a blanket policy that covers anything they ship?

Most likely, but they still have to pay for the blanket policy itself. In hindsight I shouldn't have made my comment about high shipping costs, as in reality, they weren't that high....it just seemed high to me at the time and someone made a comment about me getting special charges, which I don't think I generally do.
As someone who co-runs a small auction house I can safely say that we are happy to just pay for all of our shipping costs with the shipping/insurance we charge. I doubt any company in our industry is getting rich off of the shipping...and no, that doesn't mean I like to be overcharged, I just think, in retrospect, this matter is insignificant compared to other things going on in the hobby. If there is an issue with shipping on an invoice it's best to contact the company you are doing business with and try to get it worked out. If you can't, and you don't like the situation enough, then don't bid with that company anymore (this doesn't have to specifically do with only Legendary). best regards and happy collecting!!

+1

I recently shipped a baseball I sold for $2,000 to a fellow board member. With priority shipping, insurance, and delivery confirmation shipping costs came close to $40. It gets expensive even at the post office.

Postal insurance is over 1% of the value of the items shipped, unless you go registered mail. If you do it takes forever for packages to get anywhere. Adam, if you won $500 worth of cards and they were shipped in a priority mail box the insurance and shipping would probably be over $10 if it was the smallest box and over $20 if it was a bigger box.

I don't remember, but I generally win a bit more when I bid with them, so the packages are justifiably larger than this one should be. I'll re-post here after it arrives.

Jay, that is correct if the auction house is paying for insurance via the USPS. However, any business can purchase a policy that covers shipping on a blanket basis, not item by item, under any carrier that provides delivery proof [USPS, Fed Ex, UPS, etc.]. No well-run merchant would spend money per item when a blanket policy would provide the same coverage for a far lesser price, unless a decision has been made to externalize the costs. However, Fed Ex Ground's insurance [its Declared Value surcharge] is not the rate stated in the post in this thread--it changes every $100 [I just ran a cost analysis with Fed Ex on its web site to ship from LA to NYC on a 1# package at values from $100 to $1,000 and it doesn't match those figures]. What I suspect is really going on is one of two things:

(1) The auction house is externalizing the cost of the insurance by using a formula that doesn't represent actual costs of insurance actually purchased; or

(2) The auction house is externalizing a flat cost of a blanket insurance policy by utilizing a formula in its cost accounting.

Neither is per se "good" or "bad" in and of itself, but both are strategies designed to externalize a cost that may be non-existent or internal and unrelated to the rate charged. Now, whether that cost is real or not depends on the precise nature of the coverage that the auction house has. Normally, a policy that covers the consignments while in the hands of the auction house will either have a bulit-in shipping coverage or a rider that covers it for a separate flat fee.

I for one honestly believe this is a source of revenue for the auction house, unless someone has direct proof otherwise I'm still gonna believe it.

Adam-I'm sure they have blanket coverage and are just using the third party calculators to come up with a reasonable charge. Their actual cost should be less, after allocating some pro rata share of the policy cost, but when you add in the cost of running the shipping department, including materials and labor, I would guess that they are not getting rich on what they charge for the shipping. My guess is that they are just trying to break even on the whole shipping process. If they can achieve this then the roughly 20% buyers premium covers the cost of running the rest of the auction house and yields whatever profit there is. This profit must come out of the buyer's premium since very few consignors pay consignment fees(many auction houses offer negative consignment fees).

I've never sold through Legendary, but according to their website they have a 15% consignment fee.

For comparison SCP charged me around $23 for a decent sized framed piece and one card. The total value was around 700. It was shipped UPS with Signatute including insurance.

I didn't bidded on this recent Legendary auction. I am worry I won't be able to receive my items after I paid in full due to their recent lawsuit results. Am I worrying too much?

Yes

Matthew

You feel there is a risk that we will not receive items paid for?

Matthew

Sorry, strike that. I spoke incorrectly.

If you are a willing bidder, despite what's happened (I am, but I wasn't buying in the dark days) you don't really need to worry about getting your items imo. From my view point, the current company seems to be running smoothly.

I have to apologize to legendary...I received my invoice yesterday for my winnings and the shipping was approx $30 less than quoted online.

I like to pay as soon as the auction ends...so I can get the card quicker...and I guess the initial online estimate was high.

Perhaps if I had called...I would have been told this...my bad!:confused:

they'll dry their tears with the bp money they made from the FM ruth, i wouldn't worry about it.

Quick shipping!!
 

I was very surprised to already get my winnings delivered yesterday (friday)..... after sending out payment via a personal check on Tuesday!!! With the USPS, I can't believe that's possible?!! I guess Legendary trusts me from past transactions without having to wait the customary 10 days for the funds to clear. Whatever the reason, I am very impressed/happy.

Matt

I also received my winnings yesterday, paid with postal money order mailed last Sat.

DJ

Matt, that's great that you've earned Doug Allen's trust; when he gets convicted of ripping you off you can write a nice letter to the judge on his behalf.

legendary delivery
 

anyone else still waiting for items won from Legendary? I paid @ Sept 11 via check, I'm getting nervous...

If u sent personal check...you'll most likely get it this week...1-1 1/2 weeks to clear check...same to ship...it'll come this week!

Peter, maybe in the "olden" days, but my check was received by them on 9/13, cleared the SAME day, and I called them 13 days later and they told me it was shipping that day. In today's day and age of higher electronics, it never takes 2 weeks for a check to clear, unless it is international, IMO.

yep, check received by them on the 11th...it is now 3 weeks later...two items. Makes me sad that I was not one of the "chosen ones" who received items 3 days after the auction ended. Favoritism? Isn't this why they're on the hot seat in the first place?

Ironically, I put a max bid on both items, and lo and behold, the final price ended up being my max bid. Whoever the under-bidder was had to know that I wasn't going a penny higher (since he/she/legendary had "tied" my max bid). Unlucky,...perhaps. Since I wanted both of these items, I suppose one could say I'm lucky instead (but penniless).

I can say definitively that I am NOT one of the "chosen ones". Anyone here lucky enough to be one?

I always send a cashier's check because I get them free from my bank with my account. Just to be sure there' s no issue on clearance. That said, the whole check-clearing thing does happen a LOT quicker now. Since you can scan an check with an app and have it deposited into your account, it should be more expedited. That said (part two), the phone can work wonders in clearing up an issue. I've always found someone at Legendary who will talk with you and try to speed things up if warranted. Good luck. Always fun opening those packages when they come in.............

I was merely paraphrasing their "rules"...buying a 14K card gave me no special priveleges...I paid immediately with a personal check...they took their maximum "as stated in rules" time for it to clear...they then took their maximum time"as per their rules" to ship the card to me...all in toll was about a 3 week turn a round.

Acceptable? not in my book...but this was/is stated in their rules?

In past years, shipping from big auction houses has sometimes taken a long time-- say a few weeks-- so I wouldn't worry too much about slow shipping. Not a new issue, nor isolated to Legendary. I just think it's due to it takes lot of time, effort and logistics to process and package 1,000 or whatever lots (ranging in size and weight from a baseball card to stadium seats) with how many hundred winners. It's not like someone on B/S/T selling one item to one buyer.

In the past, I think Legendary told me that after wins in 3 different auctions, they are more trusting that your checks are good, and will ship considerably faster. These days, however, I also receive free cashier's checks from my bank, so I just use these instead of personal checks, and the shipping is pretty quick.

Pete.....wasn't insinuating you or anyone else specifically. Just that I would probably have called if it went 3 weeks past when they received the check. You obviously have won items in multiple auctions and spend the coin, so don't know why that would have happened that way. Is it a one-off thing or is it a routine occurrence that your stuff is late? Maybe next time around a call a couple days after mailing might grease the wheels....

In the future...I will most likely send cashiers/bank check to expedite the process.

"If you want to hear about not getting respect, every time I enter a bank the guard undoes the snap on his holster." -- Jim Ignatowski

I love Jim!!!