auction fees and the damage done

[dmats33312]

Originally Posted by Fballguy

Buyer's premium is the biggest scam running. How have collectors not revolted against this archaic policy?

Cause it doesn’t matter to the buyer, in the end the price is the price whether I’m paying BP or not and if the price is in the range I want to pay doesn’t make a difference. Cosignors on the other hand I can understand hating BP especially if there are commissions on top.

[Fballguy]

Originally Posted by dmats33312

Cause it doesn’t matter to the buyer, in the end the price is the price whether I’m paying BP or not and if the price is in the range I want to pay doesn’t make a difference. Cosignors on the other hand I can understand hating BP especially if there are commissions on top.

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This is the fallacy collector's tell themselves to help them sleep at night.

[Yoda]

I believe that some AH's give a small % of the BP back to favorite consignors for high value cards. Clearly, that is not the case here.

[oldjudge]

If there is a minimum buyers premium shouldnt there be a maximum buyers premium? Isn’t there a cap as to how much your buyer’s experience can be enhanced?

[oldjudge]

Originally Posted by Fballguy

.

This is the fallacy collector's tell themselves to help them sleep at night.

No fallacy at all. When I bid I set a limit as to what I will pay for each lot and bid to that level or less. The level is my total cost including buyers fees, tax, shipping, etc. I don’t care how you name the pieces, for my part you can call them auction house vacation fund, I just care about the aggregate number.

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

No fallacy at all. When I bid I set a limit as to what I will pay for each lot and bid to that level or less. The level is my total cost including buyers fees, tax, shipping, etc. I don’t care how you name the pieces, for my part you can call them auction house vacation fund, I just care about the aggregate number.

Exactly. Call the final price what you will, so long as I know in advance how to calculate it. The fallacy is the guy who thinks he really would have/ should have won that card for $250 it it weren't for that nasty, unfair, hidden, undeserved and evil 20% BP that adds another $50. As if no one would have bid the card to $300 if there was no BP.

As for the minimum BP, that does suck but at least it was disclosed. It sends a clear message that the AH prefers to sell higher dollar items and encourages bidders to think about bidding on multiple items. Makes sense at some level, but it can be harsh to some, as we now see.

[jamest206]

I paid, and await. No biggie to me, just a reminder why I should not be bidding half asleep in bed. Greg Morris on Ebay is doing a fine job with their auctions, and REA has been 100 percent professional since I started purchasing from them as well.

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by jamest206

I paid, and await. No biggie to me, just a reminder why I should not be bidding half asleep in bed. Greg Morris on Ebay is doing a fine job with their auctions, and REA has been 100 percent professional since I started purchasing from them as well.

But Heritage no longer gets your business, correct?

[Exhibitman]

The simplest thing would be to take the % out of the overall sale price, like eBay, but then that % of people who either miss the BP or cannot do the math to factor it into their bids would not overbid. Multiply that by thousands of bidders a year and the advantage to the house is apparent.

FWIW, I bid on some cheap HA lots tonight and the system noted the $29 BP on the bidding page, so no mystery there.

[Bigdaddy]

Originally Posted by dmats33312

Cause it doesn’t matter to the buyer, in the end the price is the price whether I’m paying BP or not and if the price is in the range I want to pay doesn’t make a difference. Cosignors on the other hand I can understand hating BP especially if there are commissions on top.

So how much should the OP have bid for the card in the first post if he was willing to shell out $3X to have the card added to his collection??

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

So how much should the OP have bid for the card in the first post if he was willing to shell out $3X to have the card added to his collection??

I'm not sure I understand your variable $3X here, but I'd have intentionally paid about $50 for this card. Knowing in retrospect that I didn't win anything else in the auction, and knowing now what the shipping/handling charges are, I should have put in a max bid of $4.90 for the card. I would have been outbid, but a winning bid of $4.90 would have given me an invoice total of $50.

Edited to add: In this case then I guess X would be 16.67 and my bid would be about $0.29X for a bill of $3X.

[x2drich2000]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

I'm not sure I understand your variable $3X here, but I'd have intentionally paid about $50 for this card. Knowing in retrospect that I didn't win anything else in the auction, and knowing now what the shipping/handling charges are, I should have put in a max bid of $4.90 for the card. I would have been outbid, but a winning bid of $4.90 would have given me an invoice total of $50.

In case anyone is wondering, HA does provide details on how shipping and handling costs are calculated and offers an estimated shipping button that you can click near the bottom of every item listing.

[oldjudge]

Originally Posted by x2drich2000

In case anyone is wondering, HA does provide details on how shipping and handling costs are calculated and offers an estimated shipping button that you can click near the bottom of every item listing.

It would be nice to take this further and have a button that showed total cost, including tax, shipping, and BP at the bottom of each lot description. I know taxes vary, but once you are logged in the auction site knows who you are and can be programmed to individualize the quote.

[x2drich2000]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

It would be nice to take this further and have a button that showed total cost, including tax, shipping, and BP at the bottom of each lot description. I know taxes vary, but once you are logged in the auction site knows who you are and can be programmed to individualize the quote.

The grand total would be nice to see in one place and I like the idea of calculating the tax. The only issue I could see is winning multiple lots combining shipping in that case, but if you gave the total for that one lot knowing combined shipping would cost less, that would be a great start.

I really don't care to defend HA, when bidding on an item on the item page they do show you the amount with buyers premium, they give you the option to calculate shipping, and you should know your tax rate. Nothing on the cost for them should come as a surprise. That said, I wish all auction houses at least provided that all that info.

[Peter_Spaeth]

For at least the 1000th time on this site, the premium and what you call it are meaningless. I am willing to spend, say, $120 for a card, plus tax and shipping. If it's ebay, where ebay makes its cut from charging the seller a portion of the hammer price, I'll bid $120. If it's an auction house with a 20 percent "buyer's premium," I'll bid $100 and pay $120. It's the same thing. Rob has been fighting this for years, but never explains why, just rants and raves about buyer's premiums as if the buyer is being forced to pay more by the greedy auction house. He isn't. It's purely a matter of allocation between the auction house and the consignor.

The premium could be 30 percent, or 50 percent, or 90 percent. I don't care at all. The consignor is the one who should care, because they're only getting the hammer price.

If someone bidding in an auction in this day and age is so out of it that they don't realize a BP is going to be added to their bid, well, that's their funeral.

[oldjudge]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

I'm not sure I understand your variable $3X here, but I'd have intentionally paid about $50 for this card. Knowing in retrospect that I didn't win anything else in the auction, and knowing now what the shipping/handling charges are, I should have put in a max bid of $4.90 for the card. I would have been outbid, but a winning bid of $4.90 would have given me an invoice total of $50.

I think it would be nice if going forward any auction house with minimum BPs put a footnote to that effect in cheap lot descriptions. Otherwise, it is better to skip the auction route and just buy that type of card on eBay or from a dealer.

[dmats33312]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

So how much should the OP have bid for the card in the first post if he was willing to shell out $3X to have the card added to his collection??

It’s in the terms of the auctions rules at any you go, it isn’t complicated