Buyers premium question

[mechanicalman]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

The burden is only on the consignor though, not the buyer. Assuming rational buyers and that buyers' premiums depress hammer price, it's irrelevant to the buyer who just factors it into his total price, and the effect is on the consignor who realizes a lower price.

I think you missed my point, which implies that I didn't make it clearly enough. Please allow me to clarify. Of course, it's the seller who pays for both sides of the selling fees, but I believe an AH splits the margin into seller's commission and buyer's premium to create the PERCEPTION of a lower burden on the selling side. If you went to Memory Lane with a $5k card, and they told you it would be a flat 35% sellers fee, most people would balk at that. But for some reason, a 15% free + a 20% BP seems more palatable to most, for reasons I don't understand.