Quote:
Originally Posted by parkplace33
How negotiable are consignor fees? I have heard some consignors getting 0 or negative fees?
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Depends entirely on the value of the consignment and how bad competing auction houses want the item. A few years ago I had a sealed case of 1979 Topps Cello baseball that I offered to several auction houses to see how low of a consignment fee I could get. We're not talking an extremely valuable item but the last couple that had sold prior to this auction brought about $24K at the hammer price. I actually got a 2.5% fee in my favor from one auction house. I was extremely happy but the night of the auction the site went down during extended bidding and they did not carry over to the next day. They claimed they got the system up around 10 PM although I could never get in and ended it at midnight. Needless to say, the case went out at $15K which was a grand less than I had in it. So, the great consignment rate in my favor was worthless. Of course, the auction house still made $2625 on the item collecting a net 17.5% fee. I know why so many auction houses keep popping up.