All Auction Houses 25% BP? when will it happen?....

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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

I agree with Jim C that this is more an issue between auction house and consignor than auction house and bidder because a bidder takes the bp into account when deciding how high to go. It is interesting the significant rise in the bp over the past years (from 10% in the early '90's to as high as 25% today). I guess that reflects the increased competition among the auction houses to get quality consignments and their need to slash/eliminate the sp to do so. What I find intrigung is that I would think the substantially higher prices for baseball collectibles would exert a downward pressure on the bp for baseball auction houses, counteracting to at least some degree the need to raise the bp to make up for the lower sp. Afterall, if a portfolio of cards that was worth say $25k five years ago is now worth $100K, then even if the sp is now lower, the fourfold increase in value of that consignment would still seem to result in a higher profit to the auction house even at the old bp.