Any answer the explains the practice as a requirement for a company to turn a profit is just obfuscating the fact that the practice is specific to auction houses. I don't have to pay a buyer's premium at the grocery store. The amount that buyers pay and that consignors receive and that the house nets doesn't change in the presence of a buyer's premium relative to what it would be without one unless some bidders are failing to properly calculate how much they're committing to paying when they place their bids. The real answer I guess is just a quirk of history. There's no reason to expect that if auctions were invented today that the practice of dividing the price between a bid and a premium is something that would occur to any business.
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