What to expect from AH consignments?

[raulus]

There does seem to be a tale of two worlds around here:

1) for really nice stuff with high price tags that will drive a lot of traffic to the auction (think 6 or 7 figures or more), then I’m hearing from a lot of people around here that there is no cost to the seller, and you would probably even get a piece of the bidder’s premium, depending on just how nice it is. I’ve never consigned items this nice, so I’ve never gotten this deal. But on this board, many have asserted its existence, so I am inclined to believe that it exists.

2) for the stuff that you describe, the deal that you described is what I’m used to getting. You might be able to get a slightly better deal from another auction house by shopping around. My guess is that the BP is going to stay with the AH, and it’s just a question of how low the seller’s fee will be, even potentially as low as zero, although that might be a stretch.

I will also observe that you have a few auction options that are less expensive but might be less effective, depending on your perspective, to wit:

1) PWCC. They tend to be vilified around here based on some of their past scandals, which I won’t recount for you here, but my recollection from reading their terms is that they will give you a good chunk of the bidder’s premium. I will hasten to add that there is some question about how many bidders actually go to their weekly auctions. They also typically only accept slabbed items, or if they do take raw, it’s at a much higher fee level.

2) Use an eBay broker like Probstein. You usually end up paying around 10%, maybe slightly less, and large well-known brokers tend to get a lot of eyeballs on eBay.

3) Sell it yourself on eBay. You will pay about 10% to eBay, and might not get the attention that you’re hoping for, depending on whether or not your items go viral and/or get outed around here.