I will be bidding 3% less. I think 20% was ample.

picked up a few cards in REA's auction that ended Sunday night (into Monday morning). Invoice received later Monday, paid immediately via e-check, cards delivered the next day (Tuesday 6/24) via FedEx overnight. I was impressed!

I won a card with a bid of $35. Then you get the BP, plus an absolutely ridiculous $10 shipping charge and with tax we get to $54.23. You'd think for 10 bucks they'd ship priority but no it's USPS ground. Total racket, total ripoff. Understand the economics are better for bigger cards and the shrewd buyer can pick the right spots, but sheesh.

All of this is known to you before you bid. If you didn't like the costs, why did you bid?

I was aware of the bp and tax, but the $10 shipping should be priority. Just a blatant ripoff. I'll get over it, but I reserve my right to complain. And if you have a problem with that you can STICK IT!

+1

Send me your address and I will send you the $3 you feel is owed to you. It's a win-win....

I just feel this represents more battering for the poor, beleaguered customer/collector. Since Covid the market has been in turmoil with card price rises for high value items reaching astronomical levels. As such, the market has become segmented with much more skin in the game and those with deep pockets, who now see top cards as an investment hedge against other assets, are dominating the high value graded card market.
I realize that most bidders should factor in the BP into their total costs when bidding but an extra 3% just might be too much for some collectors and they can't chase that grail.

+1. I have bought thousands of cards off eBay these past few years and haven’t seen one example of a seller charging $10 to ship a single PSA slab basic USPS shipping. It’s a screw job plain and simple. Of course I can eat the extra $5. Save your money for that next $100k Ty Cobb, Leon.

But what would you expect from a company that just raised the price of its service by 15% (from 20 to 23)? Hopefully it results in a decline in volume as sellers seek alternative options. Their analytics are banking on that not happening. Time will tell.

REA charges shipping, handling and insurance based on the following chart from their auction terms so yes, $10 is a lot if you only buy a single, low priced card. However, that also includes their packaging which is always very good (in my experience) and some minimal amount for insurance.

If they shipped priority, the cheapest price is around $10 and goes up from their based on weight so they would be losing money when you include their costs for packaging. Overall, their shipping has always seemed reasonable to me especially compared to what many other AHs charge.

18. Shipping and Handling Costs. Items will only ship once paid in full. As a convenience for bidders, REA utilizes a standardized fee schedule for packing, shipping, and insurance based on the total invoice amount (across all lots of the bidder), with three exceptions as noted below.

This standardized fee schedule is $10 per invoice valued at less than $500;
$15 per invoice valued between $500 and $999;
$20 per invoice valued between $1,000 and $2,499;
$25 per invoice valued between $2,500 and $4,999;
$35 per invoice valued between $5,000 and $9,999;
$40 per invoice valued between $10,000 and $19,999;
$55 per invoice valued between $20,000 and $49,999;
$75 per invoice valued between $50,000 and $74,999;
$100 per invoice valued between $75,000 and $99,999;
$150 per invoice valued between $100,000 and $249,999;
$200 per invoice valued greater than $250,000.

The three exceptions to this schedule are as follows: (1) International shipments - if shipping to an address outside of the United States, the bidder must pay all applicable packing, shipping, and insurance charges as well as any applicable taxes, duties, or import fees; or (2) large or heavy items inherently requiring significant special packing, crating, and shipping (such as stadium seats, framed items, bulk lots, and graded lots or sets) along with items on which shipping carriers assess dimensional weight guidelines greater than a standard package (such as bats, pennants, or sheets); or (3) items of significant value requiring bonded, insured, and/or secured transport by special carrier. These lots subject to an exception are clearly identified in their respective descriptions as requiring special packing and shipping charges. Winners of these lots may be billed for packing, shipping, and insurance charges with a separate shipping invoice (to allow REA to communicate with winners to be responsive to their shipping preferences). Unless requested and paid specifically by the bidder, or coming within exceptions (1) or (3) above, other items are not insured in transit to the winning bidder. REA will ship using the carrier or carriers of its election and subject to availability for the intended destination.

$10 is about the least we charge for shipping. We are actual costs plus $5 for time and materials so we get a few that are a tad under $10 every now and then but people don't seem to realize that envelopes, paper, tape, ink and a person to put them all together are an actual expense.

I usually cringe when I see auction house BP going up. But this is a business designed to make money and REA only followed what other auction houses did first (Goldin, Heritage). In addition, Brian is about the most honest guy in our hobby. I can't quibble with his decision.

+1

We box & ship quite a few items from our shop (the joys of retail!), and people never seem to realize this.

I think people understand it, they just think materials and labor are part of a company's overhead that gets factored into their fees, and that shipping charges should be just the actual cost to ship/insure the shipment. I send things through the mail daily in my line of work. And never once charge someone for the envolopes and time my secretary spends sending it. It's just the cost of doing business. So while I don't have a problem with charging shipping and handling as long as you are up front with your charges, I also don't think people complaining about it don't understand. They just think it should come from your profit margins, not an additional charge.

First, I think any business that has an actual shipping department is a little different than a company that has a secretary mail stuff occasionally.

Second, It's a lose/lose lol. So then I raise my BP to cover the expense instead of charging the $5 handling and materials fee and someone starts a thread talking about how evil I am for raising my BP.

Third, I would also point out that the $5 we add is actually woefully inadequate on most shipments. It's just those occasions when someone wins an inexpensive single card that can be sent in an envelope that it seems excessive. Those are a small minority of our shipments and we lose money every auction on shipping.

I specifically said I understand it and that I'm fine with it. I was just countering the claim that the people complaining about it just don't understand the costs that go into it. They do.

But you are inaccurate in your assumption that I have a secretary mail something occasionally. I probably send more mail every day than most auction houses. But again, that's not the point. The point is that everyone understands what costs go into shipping packages. That doesn't mean they will agree with how they are allocated. I personally don't care how it's allocated, as long as I know what it is up front. I was just explaining why some people don't like it.

Sorry, it was in response to you, but not "going after" you. More just a deeper dive into the auction side of the story. I agree that if you're surprising people with an outrageous shipping charge it's a jerk move, but some people insist on acting surprised even when everything is explained in detail!

Agree with this. As mentioned, I have bought a couple of thousand single-slab sort of purchases off eBay in the past six years and it is exceedingly rare for cards below $200 to be more than $6 for shipping. The exception would be priority shipping. But whatevah I guess. It matters much less for bigger cards so their attitude is clearly just to gouge the little guy because the little guy doesn't matter.

Anyone have any feelings on minimum BPs? I know that Heritage has long charged a minimum BP ($19 last I checked) and I see that Goldin charges $19 too. Do you think that the other members of the oligopoly going to turn to this as a mechanism for raising BP on sub.-$100 items without formally raising BP on lower priced?

I stopped bidding on sub-$100 items in Heritage because of the minimum BP. A friend sent me a note about a Goldin lot that had a $10 minimum bid but an effective price of $35+ to me ($19 BP, $6 shipping, $0.90 insurance, plus sales tax), so I didn't bid.

I ship very large items (bicycles) that can sometimes take 45-90 minutes of labor each for a mechanic to disassemble and box up. People most definitely don't understand the labor/time involved, even after we explain it to them. Some of them scoff at our labor charge and say that they'll do it on their own...and then bring it back a few hours later when they realize that they have no idea what they're doing. ;) :)

Slightly off target, but still REA. Anyone here consign to their April auction? If so, have you received your consignment check yet? This is the longest it has taken so far to get a consignment check from any of my past auctions.

Don't know if it's systemic but we've had a lot of complaints about checks taking forever lately also. We've sent replacements several times only to have the original arrive after the replacement.

You are the third REA consignor I have seen mention this about the April auction.

They send electronic checks to your email adress. Got mine about 3 weeks after auction close

My first monthly auction with them they sent me an electronic check. It took some time but was well within the range stated in the contract. This time is well beyond their contract terms and sadly I am getting the run-around from them as to when it will arrive. I have always had great experiences with REA in the past, but the last two auctions I have some concerns. Granted it is not some 6 figure check coming my way, but given the issues I had with them from the beginning I figured they would just cut the check and be done with it. Either way - I just wasn't sure if I was the only one or if it was something of an issue now.

edited to add my name: Bryan Long - I know the rules and completely forgot to make sure my name was listed.

---as a quick follow-up. I am by no means trying to downgrade or state they have done anything wrong. I was just curious if others were experiencing the same thing. I have know Brian for a long time (even though he probably doesn't remember me LOL) He has always been nice.

I mean, that's slightly different than shipping a baseball card. *shrug*

But again, the labor costs of employees can be factored in to your overhead and prices, rather than making it a separate handling fee. Of course, do what works for your business. But if you are having trouble convincing customers of the justification of your shipping charges, maybe the other way will work for you. I don't know.