Auction House thievery Lelands style

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by gzman

Hi Scott,
Is there any reason for an auction house to have a separate % insurance coverage if they have a policy covering their entire operation like Collectibles Insurance?
Mailing and Shipping – For shipments to your customers anywhere in the world. Temporary and permanent shipping coverages are available to accommodate your delivery needs.
Thanks for your insight!

Because that policy isn't free so why would you get the coverage for free? It costs thousands of dollars a quarter, even for our coverage which I am sure is lower in dollar value than the huge companies. We basically figured out, over the course of a year, what the insurance cost us compared to using postal or carrier insurance per package and pass along a HUGE discount (less than 50%) compared to the various carrier rates.

We lose a good amount of money on shipping every auction (we charge actual postage or shipping plus the discounted insurance rate plus $5, which in most cases doesn't even cover the supplies let alone the labor) so the idea that now we're going to insure for free is a non-starter. But I get it, half of the posts I respond to seem to take the point of view that auctions don't deserve to make money because they make too much money...