Goldin Increasing Buyer's Premium

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by CardPadre

"Thank you for your continued trust in Goldin."

"Never get cheated": no, wait, that's a different one...

[glchen]

Originally Posted by Lucas00

Anybody know what's going on with Goldins shipping times? I have a friend who's been waiting over two weeks for his win to ship, and I've been waiting nearly a week and a half for mine. That is unacceptable for a large auction house. I've never had it take longer than 3 days, and I've bought from many different AHs.

To be fair to Goldin, I think this really depends on how the payment is made. If you send the payment by personal check or ACH, the auction house needs to wait for that payment to clear which often takes 2 weeks. This is common for all auction houses across the board. I sent my payment to Goldin via wire, and they took one week to ship after my payment. I thought this was a reasonable shipping time. I would also expect around a week if you paid by credit card.

The part that I do think is unreasonable for Goldin which I mentioned earllier in this thread is that in their invoice, Goldin states that if they do not receive payment within a week, they will start adding late payment fees. I still believe this is completely unreasonable, and they should revert to the industry standard of 2 weeks to receive payment. Often times, if you drop a check in the mail, it will not even arrive at the destination in one week, so I think this is unfair.

[1952boyntoncollector]

always comes down to what the sales are...really doesnt matter all the speculation...maybe they use some of that extra money to advertise or harass people on the phone to check out their auctions more..

[Lucas00]

Originally Posted by glchen

To be fair to Goldin, I think this really depends on how the payment is made. If you send the payment by personal check or ACH, the auction house needs to wait for that payment to clear which often takes 2 weeks. This is common for all auction houses across the board. I sent my payment to Goldin via wire, and they took one week to ship after my payment. I thought this was a reasonable shipping time. I would also expect around a week if you paid by credit card.

The part that I do think is unreasonable for Goldin which I mentioned earllier in this thread is that in their invoice, Goldin states that if they do not receive payment within a week, they will start adding late payment fees. I still believe this is completely unreasonable, and they should revert to the industry standard of 2 weeks to receive payment. Often times, if you drop a check in the mail, it will not even arrive at the destination in one week, so I think this is unfair.

I did pay by card the day after winning, so as soon as possible. Gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited a week and a half to post about this. What made me really make the post was my friend who won an item from the 28th and paid asap had been waiting even longer. Obviously if he was still waiting, mine from days later was not getting shipped anytime soon.

Taking 2 weeks (2 and a half for some at this point) to ship auction winnings that were paid for the day after winning is unacceptable. They have a warehouse and a full team dedicated to shipping items. Many one man shows that run auction houses ship next day after payment!

I don't even think ebay allows this long, and they have the most lenient shipping rules of anyone.

I suspect my post here sped things up, as it should've. I would definitely be more understanding if Goldin came out and said something, maybe half their shipping team quit with no notice. I'd obviously be more understanding, but no statement was made.

[philo98]

I wrote to Goldin to delay my package and got a confirmation they would. Answe to not ship out to last week of October. Received a notice from UPS yesterday that my items were delivered. No idea who signed for them since nobody is home and most likely they have been left outside in a public place for the next 1+ weeks. Will see what happens when I get back but a complete failure on the shipping team.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by philo98

I wrote to Goldin to delay my package and got a confirmation they would. Answer to not ship out to last week of October. Received a notice from UPS yesterday that my items were delivered. No idea who signed for them since nobody is home and most likely they have been left outside in a public place for the next 1+ weeks. Will see what happens when I get back but a complete failure on the shipping team.

I will say, and I'm not one to jump to Goldin's defense ordinarily, shipping requests introduce the potential for failure. Most if not all auctions have systems in place for shipping and anything that throws a curve into that system introduces the potential for failure.

A customer asks us to hold a shipment, or to send something to grading for them or any one of innumerable other small seeming changes and there's nothing in our software that deals with those requests so we add notes and send an email to the shipping person etc. but you are still introducing the opportunity for human error.

That doesn't mean we don't do our damnedest to get it right, but of the shipping problems we've had, 99% have come about because something out of the ordinary pattern that our system is made for is requested.

The real question will be, if the package is missing, will they cop to the fact that they made a mistake and take care of you. Let's hope so.

[justrun7]

Originally Posted by philo98

I wrote to Goldin to delay my package and got a confirmation they would. Answe to not ship out to last week of October. Received a notice from UPS yesterday that my items were delivered. No idea who signed for them since nobody is home and most likely they have been left outside in a public place for the next 1+ weeks. Will see what happens when I get back but a complete failure on the shipping team.

I sent my items to their vault while I was away and then requested my shipment from the vault when I returned. It was actually cheaper too.

[Madi$on18joshua]

Originally Posted by jsfriedm

Goldin has apparently increased their buyer's premium to 22%. I agree, of course, that all bidders should be doing the math and know the full cost of their bids, so I am not claiming deception or anything here. But given that 20% is pretty standard and the proliferation of auctions and auction houses should in theory make competition more intense, is anyone surprised that Goldin is raising, rather than lowering the buyer's premium? Do we think other auction houses are likely to follow? Does anyone expect this to hurt Goldin at all?

What is salt in the wound for me is their turn around time! I paid via ACH on October 5. They told me I could expect my items to be delivered mid-November!!!! How is that even possible?

[kengoldin]

Hello all
I am writing to reply to obvious concerns about current shipping turnaround times at goldin.
I will be as brief as possible.
I am very aware of these issues.
I have prioritized TRADING CARD SHIPMENTS above all else.
Whatever timelines you may have been told if you corresponded with CS at goldin, please disregard. This will be fixed ASAP and timelines drastically moved up .
Keep in mind that many items , especially in weekly auctions, are stored in and shipped from the PSA vault. For those items, there is no way to avoid 2 different shipping locations and 2 different ship dates. That said all available resources are being put into effect to speed up everyone’s ship timelines with the goal being by the end of October elite, we are back to our normal shipping schedule and turnaround times you have been accustomed to in dealing with us since 2012.
If you wish, you can stop reading here, below is more detail.

As some of you know (i realize many may not ) I very recently took back the reigns as CEO of Goldin. The prior CEO had the vision of being everything to everyone, and being able to sell $15 cards the same way as $15,000 cards. (that clearly was never and is not my vision). Weekly auctions were built and the company accepted items with no minimums, anything went. This lead to some auctions containing as many as 7000 lots, and came at us EVERY WEEK. These massive weekly auctions with low value lots severely backed up every aspect of goldin. That CEO is no longer at goldin, and I took back over. The first thing I did was put measures in place to stop the influx of very low end items clogging the pipeline. (It’s not as easy or as fast as it sounds ) but those efforts are working. Bottom line, I do NOT think $10-$100 items is in our wheelhouse, and I always envisioned a Tiffany/rolls Royce style company with white glove service to match. That is NOT the type of service you are getting today if you are in this shipping backlog and I clearly understand that. With that said, please know that the we have stopped the cause of the backlog, and will be working as priority #1 to clear it asap, with my stated goal of being able to ship October elite (which closes October 28) in our normal shipping time.
In addition, with respect to the vault shipped orders, I am working with PSA to put a system in place so that for our elite auctions (everything besides the ‘weekly’) 100% of the items will ship from our building. This will allow goldin to have better control over the produce and stop the multi shipment from multi locations. This likely will not be put in place until November or possibly December however.
My email is ken@goldin.com
If you have a specific issue, or question you would like answered, please email me directly. Please do not PM me here, as I rarely log into my account to read them, and I cannot reply with a copy to others in my company to help you like I can if you email me.
Thank you for your patience in our dealing with this cleanup, and it will be short lived. I clearly recognize slow shipping and unhappy customers is not the ingredients to running a successful business.
Thanks
Ken Goldin

[doug.goodman]

My winnings from the Prestige auction this weekend were shipped today...

[Exhibitman]

My wins from Scott's auction that ended 10/8 were waiting for me at work yesteday. Nice!

[Mrc32]

Originally Posted by kengoldin

Hello all
I am writing to reply to obvious concerns about current shipping turnaround times at goldin.
I will be as brief as possible.
I am very aware of these issues.
I have prioritized TRADING CARD SHIPMENTS above all else.
Whatever timelines you may have been told if you corresponded with CS at goldin, please disregard. This will be fixed ASAP and timelines drastically moved up .
Keep in mind that many items , especially in weekly auctions, are stored in and shipped from the PSA vault. For those items, there is no way to avoid 2 different shipping locations and 2 different ship dates. That said all available resources are being put into effect to speed up everyone’s ship timelines with the goal being by the end of October elite, we are back to our normal shipping schedule and turnaround times you have been accustomed to in dealing with us since 2012.
If you wish, you can stop reading here, below is more detail.

As some of you know (i realize many may not ) I very recently took back the reigns as CEO of Goldin. The prior CEO had the vision of being everything to everyone, and being able to sell $15 cards the same way as $15,000 cards. (that clearly was never and is not my vision). Weekly auctions were built and the company accepted items with no minimums, anything went. This lead to some auctions containing as many as 7000 lots, and came at us EVERY WEEK. These massive weekly auctions with low value lots severely backed up every aspect of goldin. That CEO is no longer at goldin, and I took back over. The first thing I did was put measures in place to stop the influx of very low end items clogging the pipeline. (It’s not as easy or as fast as it sounds ) but those efforts are working. Bottom line, I do NOT think $10-$100 items is in our wheelhouse, and I always envisioned a Tiffany/rolls Royce style company with white glove service to match. That is NOT the type of service you are getting today if you are in this shipping backlog and I clearly understand that. With that said, please know that the we have stopped the cause of the backlog, and will be working as priority #1 to clear it asap, with my stated goal of being able to ship October elite (which closes October 28) in our normal shipping time.
In addition, with respect to the vault shipped orders, I am working with PSA to put a system in place so that for our elite auctions (everything besides the ‘weekly’) 100% of the items will ship from our building. This will allow goldin to have better control over the produce and stop the multi shipment from multi locations. This likely will not be put in place until November or possibly December however.
My email is ken@goldin.com
If you have a specific issue, or question you would like answered, please email me directly. Please do not PM me here, as I rarely log into my account to read them, and I cannot reply with a copy to others in my company to help you like I can if you email me.
Thank you for your patience in our dealing with this cleanup, and it will be short lived. I clearly recognize slow shipping and unhappy customers is not the ingredients to running a successful business.
Thanks
Ken Goldin

I'm waiting on my winnings from the September auction. My payment cleared a week and a half ago. This seems like a reasonable explanation.

I stopped looking at the weekly auctions as it was just too cumbersome. I'm sure it was a bear to ship out thousands of 1988 Fleer Larry Bird PSA 7 cards.

Thanks for the update.

[Madi$on18joshua]

Originally Posted by Madi$on18joshua

What is salt in the wound for me is their turn around time! I paid via ACH on October 5. They told me I could expect my items to be delivered mid-November!!!! How is that even possible?

I wanted to say thank you to Ken Goldin!!! He read my post and reached out to me via email. After a brief couple emails I was sent a tracking number for my items which are to be delivered this Thursday!

Amazon has spoiled me on what I expect to be a realistic shipping timeframe and you came through for me! Thank you, Ken!

[Mrc32]

Originally Posted by Madi$on18joshua

I wanted to say thank you to Ken Goldin!!! He read my post and reached out to me via email. After a brief couple emails I was sent a tracking number for my items which are to be delivered this Thursday!

Amazon has spoiled me on what I expect to be a realistic shipping timeframe and you came through for me! Thank you, Ken!

Same here - squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Ken reached out to me as well and my winnings from September will be here Friday. Thanks Ken for the personal attention.

[CardPadre]

Wow, lucky for the personal attention. I spent mid-four figures in the Elite Auction (which is a lot for me) and would love if they had some kind of triage system where orders ship quicker at a certain spending threshold maybe. But maybe even that's still really low on the food chain for an Elite auction, who knows.

Nice National Chicle cards above, really pretty.

ETA: I did assume that since they alerted me my 2 cards would ship separately that maybe they were imminently due to go out...but nothing yet.

ETA: Tracking received this morning! Net54 woe-is-me post gets results. Appreciated.

[glchen]

Originally Posted by kengoldin

Hello all
I am writing to reply to obvious concerns about current shipping turnaround times at goldin.
I will be as brief as possible.
I am very aware of these issues.
I have prioritized TRADING CARD SHIPMENTS above all else.
Whatever timelines you may have been told if you corresponded with CS at goldin, please disregard. This will be fixed ASAP and timelines drastically moved up .
Keep in mind that many items , especially in weekly auctions, are stored in and shipped from the PSA vault. For those items, there is no way to avoid 2 different shipping locations and 2 different ship dates. That said all available resources are being put into effect to speed up everyone’s ship timelines with the goal being by the end of October elite, we are back to our normal shipping schedule and turnaround times you have been accustomed to in dealing with us since 2012.
If you wish, you can stop reading here, below is more detail.

As some of you know (i realize many may not ) I very recently took back the reigns as CEO of Goldin. The prior CEO had the vision of being everything to everyone, and being able to sell $15 cards the same way as $15,000 cards. (that clearly was never and is not my vision). Weekly auctions were built and the company accepted items with no minimums, anything went. This lead to some auctions containing as many as 7000 lots, and came at us EVERY WEEK. These massive weekly auctions with low value lots severely backed up every aspect of goldin. That CEO is no longer at goldin, and I took back over. The first thing I did was put measures in place to stop the influx of very low end items clogging the pipeline. (It’s not as easy or as fast as it sounds ) but those efforts are working. Bottom line, I do NOT think $10-$100 items is in our wheelhouse, and I always envisioned a Tiffany/rolls Royce style company with white glove service to match. That is NOT the type of service you are getting today if you are in this shipping backlog and I clearly understand that. With that said, please know that the we have stopped the cause of the backlog, and will be working as priority #1 to clear it asap, with my stated goal of being able to ship October elite (which closes October 28) in our normal shipping time.
In addition, with respect to the vault shipped orders, I am working with PSA to put a system in place so that for our elite auctions (everything besides the ‘weekly’) 100% of the items will ship from our building. This will allow goldin to have better control over the produce and stop the multi shipment from multi locations. This likely will not be put in place until November or possibly December however.
My email is ken@goldin.com
If you have a specific issue, or question you would like answered, please email me directly. Please do not PM me here, as I rarely log into my account to read them, and I cannot reply with a copy to others in my company to help you like I can if you email me.
Thank you for your patience in our dealing with this cleanup, and it will be short lived. I clearly recognize slow shipping and unhappy customers is not the ingredients to running a successful business.
Thanks
Ken Goldin

I think this was a very fair and reasonable response by Ken to explain the shipping time situation.

[CrazyCow]

I personally think that everything has become worse over at Goldin, in the past I could negotiate and get at least 10% of the buyer's premium without any problems, today it is difficult to get anything at all.

I usually sell cards and tickets in the $5,000 - $70,000 range.

Today I have some auctions going, I managed to get a 110% deal on them but it's the last time I sell anything over at Goldin, I have decided to transfer my sales over to Probstein instead.


----------UPDATE!----------

I have to take my hat off as I was contacted by a representative from Goldin, they have listened to my concerns.

I have always had a good cooperation with Goldin in the past and after this conversation I feel that we are back on that track.

This proves also that Mr. Goldin cares about us slightly smaller players in the hobby, a big star to him and his staff and thanks again for taking the time to contact me, I appreciated it a lot!

[BeanTown]

Originally Posted by CrazyCow

I personally think that everything has become worse over at Goldin, in the past I could negotiate and get at least 10% of the buyer's premium without any problems, today it is difficult to get anything at all.

I usually sell cards and tickets in the $5,000 - $70,000 range.

Today I have some auctions going, I managed to get a 110% deal on them but it's the last time I sell anything over at Goldin, I have decided to transfer my sales over to Probstein instead.

I would look also at REA and Heritage as well with those values. I’ve never consigned with Goldin and don’t think I ever will since they do not have a public number for customers to call. I’ve been frustrated in years past waiting in responses for auction descriptions, shipping options, and payment methods. Not too mention possible rebates on consignments. So, I hope Goldin enjoys being a virtual company which includes the vault and all. I think I’ll stick with the old fashion way of dealing with a brick and mortar kind of company where I can still talk to someone live on the phone from time to time.

[Snowman]

I'm with you there. I had a $25k card and a few $10k to $15k cards that I was going to send to Goldin, but they are going to PWCC and REA now. Goldin has become rapacious, and as consigners we simply have better options.

If a consignment company wants my business, they can have between 5% to 10% of the all-in price paid by the buyer for anything above $1k. If they want more than that, they're getting my middle finger instead because there are plenty of great options at those rates that will yield just as strong of hammer prices.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by Snowman

I'm with you there. I had a $25k card and a few $10k to $15k cards that I was going to send to Goldin, but they are going to PWCC and REA now. Goldin has become rapacious, and as consigners we simply have better options.

If a consignment company wants my business, they can have between 5% to 10% of the all-in price paid by the buyer for anything above $1k. If they want more than that, they're getting my middle finger instead because there are plenty of great options at those rates that will yield just as strong of hammer prices.

REA and PWCC give back 15% of the BP?

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by calvindog

REA and PWCC give back 15% of the BP?

Heh, I see what you did there...

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by calvindog

REA and PWCC give back 15% of the BP?

Not for inexpensive items obviously, but yes, they usually will give you somewhere between 110% to 115% of the hammer price for higher end cards in my experience, if that's what you're asking (which is technically different from getting back 15% of the 20% BP).

That said, in a perhaps welcomed twist of fate, someone from Goldin called me today, after reading the forums, and said they would be willing to match the 115% of hammer price for some of my nicer cards in an effort to earn my business. So their rate is definitely more negotiable than I had previously thought, and I can respect someone caring enough to reach out personally. I'm always more inclined to work with someone that wants to earn my business.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Snowman

Not for inexpensive items obviously, but yes, they usually will give you somewhere between 110% to 115% of the hammer price for higher end cards in my experience, if that's what you're asking (which is technically different from getting back 15% of the 20% BP).

That said, in a perhaps welcomed twist of fate, someone from Goldin called me today, after reading the forums, and said they would be willing to match the 115% of hammer price for some of my nicer cards in an effort to earn my business. So their rate is definitely more negotiable than I had previously thought, and I can respect someone caring enough to reach out personally. I'm always more inclined to work with someone that wants to earn my business.

I'm more inclined to work with an AH that has earned respect over the long term with collectors in the pre-war hobby and it certainly is not Goldin or PWCC no matter how much step n' fetch it they do to "earn your business".
I've had AH's do me favors and I've done them favors, we both have to make money, that's a given, a good AH relationship goes way beyond that IMHO.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

I've had AH's do me favors and I've done them favors, we both have to make money, that's a given, a good AH relationship goes way beyond that IMHO.

I got into a spat with Patrick Ryan over this topic a few months back. He argued that you need to do AHs favors from time to time by saying, "yes, sir!" when they call you and ask for certain items to be consigned in order to "maintain your good relationship with them". I laughed at him. Told him he was somebody's sucker. If your AH sales rep tells you that you owe him consignments in order to keep in his good graces, then you're talking with the wrong AH (or at least the wrong sales guy).

[CrazyCow]

Originally Posted by CrazyCow

I personally think that everything has become worse over at Goldin, in the past I could negotiate and get at least 10% of the buyer's premium without any problems, today it is difficult to get anything at all.

I usually sell cards and tickets in the $5,000 - $70,000 range.

Today I have some auctions going, I managed to get a 110% deal on them but it's the last time I sell anything over at Goldin, I have decided to transfer my sales over to Probstein instead.

----------UPDATE!----------

I have to take my hat off as I was contacted by a representative from Goldin, they have listened to my concerns.

I have always had a good cooperation with Goldin in the past and after this conversation I feel that we are back on that track.

This proves also that Mr. Goldin cares about us slightly smaller players in the hobby, a big star to him and his staff and thanks again for taking the time to contact me, I appreciated it a lot!

[SyrNy1960]

Originally Posted by CrazyCow

----------UPDATE!----------

I have to take my hat off as I was contacted by a representative from Goldin, they have listened to my concerns.

I have always had a good cooperation with Goldin in the past and after this conversation I feel that we are back on that track.

This proves also that Mr. Goldin cares about us slightly smaller players in the hobby, a big star to him and his staff and thanks again for taking the time to contact me, I appreciated it a lot!

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy things worked out for you. But when I see posts like this, I think of band-aids. A person has an issue, they express their pain and injury, a band-aid is applied, they are happy, then it's back to normal business again. Consistency is important. Again, happy things worked out for you!

[CrazyCow]

Originally Posted by SyrNy1960

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy things worked out for you. But when I see posts like this, I think of band-aids. A person has an issue, they express their pain and injury, a band-aid is applied, they are happy, then it's back to normal business again. Consistency is important. Again, happy things worked out for you!

Yes, I'm satisfied that a good agreement still can be reached.

What bothers me now is that the payouts are lagging behind, Goldin writes in its terms and conditions that payment is made no later than 10 business days after the buyer has paid, I still have not seen the smoke of any money and we have passed the 10 business days mark from my last auction.

As a sports card and memorabilia dealer I need a constant cash flow, I can't wait several weeks, in some cases months for a payout after the buyer has paid.

And the Goldin customer service just sends out an response that they can't do anything about it, not what I'm used to!

[Snapolit1]

Many years and never had an issue with Goldin shipping. If I grab a 250$ item I don’t expect it will be the most important thing on their agenda the following day to move out the door.

[CrazyCow]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Many years and never had an issue with Goldin shipping. If I grab a 250$ item I don’t expect it will be the most important thing on their agenda the following day to move out the door.

Also have never had any problems with either shipping or payments, but since they were sold to eBay the processing times are longer, at least when it comes to payouts.

[rjackson44]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

One word.

"Netflix"


The casual collector, inheritees, and athletes who have accumulated lots of stuff but don't have a collectors mentality will go with the guy who flies around on private jets and gets world record prices (according to a television show they saw).

Hi dave as long as you my good friend does not charge me 22 percent i will always stick with you ..dave bergin rocks

[jjbond]

Originally Posted by Snowman

I'm with you there. I had a $25k card and a few $10k to $15k cards that I was going to send to Goldin, but they are going to PWCC and REA now. Goldin has become rapacious, and as consigners we simply have better options.

If a consignment company wants my business, they can have between 5% to 10% of the all-in price paid by the buyer for anything above $1k. If they want more than that, they're getting my middle finger instead because there are plenty of great options at those rates that will yield just as strong of hammer prices.

Being new to consignments....is this how it works? Say you send a card to an AH, and it sells for $2000. You'd get something like 105% or 110% of that? (and nothing else out of pocket?). And so auction houses just make their $ on the remainder of the BP?

(And do sellers set minimums....or the AH?....or do you just trust enough eyes get on your card that it reaches projected market value?)

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

if you get a piece of the BP on a single $2000 item you are doing very well.

[CurtisFlood]

Originally Posted by BRoberts

Lol. Yes, Probstein is the answer. Lol.

That guy is a different dude. Couple bad experiences with his outfit.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by jjbond

Being new to consignments....is this how it works? Say you send a card to an AH, and it sells for $2000. You'd get something like 105% or 110% of that? (and nothing else out of pocket?). And so auction houses just make their $ on the remainder of the BP?

(And do sellers set minimums....or the AH?....or do you just trust enough eyes get on your card that it reaches projected market value?)

Nope. Not how it works. Run of the mill stuff from a one-off consignor, you are not going to get a great deal. If you are a good consignor (regularly consign good material that sells for a cumulative four-or-five figures a year) or you are a good customer who spends a good amount with the house, you should bargain for zero commission--you get 100% of the hammer price, the house gets the buyer's premium. You can also get a good deal if you are an influencer or a referral from an important customer or consignor and the house considers it a good business move to take less. If you are offering a really great (expensive) item, that is when you can bargain for a guarantee (a number you will get paid regardless of the sale price) or for a piece of the BP. If I had a T206 Wagner, for example, I would insist on the greater of a guarantee or 115% of the hammer price.

Guarantees and % above the hammer price are all a matter of leverage. Your $2K item is not going to get you the leverage to ask for these things. Your $2 million card, you can probably get anything you want.

I don't begrudge the house making a living; people gotta eat. I do get ticked off when Mr. Private Jet has to jack up his cut to feed his lifestyle.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Nope. Not how it works. Run of the mill stuff from a one-off consignor, you are not going to get a great deal. If you are a good consignor (regularly consign good material that sells for a cumulative four-or-five figures a year) or you are a good customer who spends a good amount with the house, you should bargain for zero commission--you get 100% of the hammer price, the house gets the buyer's premium. You can also get a good deal if you are an influencer or a referral from an important customer or consignor and the house considers it a good business move to take less. If you are offering a really great (expensive) item, that is when you can bargain for a guarantee (a number you will get paid regardless of the sale price) or for a piece of the BP. If I had a T206 Wagner, for example, I would insist on the greater of a guarantee or 115% of the hammer price.

Guarantees and % above the hammer price are all a matter of leverage. Your $2K item is not going to get you the leverage to ask for these things. Your $2 million card, you can probably get anything you want.

I don't begrudge the house making a living; people gotta eat. I do get ticked off when Mr. Private Jet has to jack up his cut to feed his lifestyle.

Everybody has their own way, for me I never ask to get in the pockets of the AH and never accept an AH getting in my pockets. So when I consign a $1000 card I'm not paying anything but I'm not grinding on an 8000 card either.
Works for me but YMMV.