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Posted By: Rhys

You have to be careful with reserves in major auctions. I do not know what the policy is with Sports, but in other collectible areas there is a substantial fee involved for no sales. My father was one of the Nations Leading collectors of Lionel and American Flyer Toy Trains. He consigned some big ticket items to Christies about 10 years ago and they offered to put reserves on them, which he did. What they did not tell him is that they charged their same 20% fee whether the item sold or not and it was based on the reserve price. My father ended up paying about 5K just to have some of his items returned to him which did not sell in the auction. I doubt this is the norm for sports, but it would not surprise me if some sort of fee was involved to the consigner if they choose a reserve and the item does not sell.

Rhys