What is the rationale behind a buyer's premium on an auction

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Posted By: Josh Wulkan

if we just had a straight 30% fee, as Rob suggests, how many of you consignors would give us your great items to sell if you were charged 30% on your selling item? Sure, the buyer makes out, but how about the consignor?

As far as us trying the way eBay does it, why would we ever take anything on consignment that would only sell for a couple of hundred bucks? If an item only sold for $200 and we took a % of that number, we're talking about making "pennies" (or a few dollars) on that lot. One of the best parts of our auctions is that we will take your entire collection and break it down to maximize your money. We can't sell every card, one by one, but we can break down a large collection to get the most money out of even the smaller items, by grouping them into lots that will sell for $500-$1000.

Also, as all of you know by reading this board, there are problems with eBay sellers - a lot of eBay sellers. You can't trust everyone on eBay and many of you have expressed your headaches from your dealings. What we (H&S, Mastro, REA, Hunt, Barry, etc...) offer to you (the buyer) is reliability. You know that when you bid on something and win it, you will receive it, in the condition described and pictured and if not, you have a human being to talk to, who will work out any problems in a professional manner, so that you stay a bidder, consignor or participant in our auctions. If we eliminated the BP or sellers fees, there would be no major auctions in the hobby and you'd have to go back to dealing with potentially "headache" sellers on eBay, exclusively.
I don't believe you or us want that.

I hope this is clear and answers Adam's question, a little bit.

thanks,
Josh