Ebay vs Auction houses

[markf31]

With the close of last night's Legendary auction, I successfully won my first house auction. The process is still quite new to me and it go me thinking. Since I imagine most bidders account for and figure the Buyers Premium, shipping and (since I live in PA) sales tax with auction houses into their bids, what is the real advantage to using an auction house as a seller/consignor?

So for instance a bidder who would pay $600 out of pocket for an item, will bid up to $500 on the item, with the Buyers Premium and assocaites fees bringing him to around his $600 mark. Now the seller takes home $500 minus a 15% consignment fee...and walks away with $425.

I understand that for someone who isn't involved in the hobby/business of sports collectibles and wants to sell items that going through an auction house might make a little sense and maybe it makes sense as well for very high valued and rare collectibles, but for common collectibles and memorabilia I just don't see how it makes sense. Especially now with Ebay consignment companies becoming more popular.

Or am I just missing something??