[raulus]

My understanding is that a number of AHs have a private placement service that they offer, in exchange for a fee.

Naturally, that service is usually more like a pocket listing - the only people who know that an item is available are the handful of people who are likely to have the means and inclination to actually buy it.

But this could just be a natural extension of that service. Instead of only a select few knowing that a piece is available for a handsome price, now everyone can know about it, which in theory should increase the number of potential buyers, and therefore should increase the number of successful sales, and with it the commission earned for those sales.

As an added bonus, if a consignor gets tired of waiting for the right buyer to come along for the fixed price listing, then I'm sure they can easily switch gears and just list it in the next auction. And for the auction house, that's likely to be an added feature that the AH finds to be extra succulent.