REA increasing their BP and making other changes

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by bandrus1

Can somebody explain to me the reasoning behind adding a BP vs taking a total amount of a final hammer price?

Is there a known psychology that people will bid higher with BP's vs total price

It started with Christie's and Sotheby's in the art auction world (I forget which one but this is what we were taught in auction school) using BP as a tool to be able to say to consignors "Hey we're only charging you X% the other guy is charging Y%. Of course when you add X% and the newfangled BP it equaled, or even surpassed Y%, but when you're the first to do something it works. Of course you also get copied, and the other company followed suit pretty quickly because they got tired of hearing "The other company only charges X%"

It's pretty hard to get away from once a the market starts to do it. This may well actually be to get them competitive again with Goldin and Heritage on the CONSIGNMENT end of things, because, as we all know, BP SHOULDN'T make a difference in the money an auction makes as people SHOULD account for it in their bidding.