Auction Letters - BEWARE

[Shoeless Moe]

and am glad you started it. I was unaware of the difference and potential problems. I recently (this week) inquired to an auction house about one of their current items and it comes with the "letter". He actually explained that it was not the "full letter", so between them and Frank heres post I have become enlightened.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by Shoeless Moe

and am glad you started it. I was unaware of the difference and potential problems. I recently (this week) inquired to an auction house about one of their current items and it comes with the "letter". He actually explained that it was not the "full letter", so between them and Frank heres post I have become enlightened.

I echo your comments, Shoeless. I don't deal with any auction houses myself, but I have been educated and enlightened today.

[RichardSimon]

Anybody think 3 card monte when you read this thread?

[David Atkatz]

If one relies solely on a third party, whether he be a simple collector, a dealer, or a full-fledged auction house, he will eventually be burned.

And is there a bigger scam than "auction letters"? An authenticator either believes an item is good, or he doesn't. What the hell can anything less than a "full letter" (itself meaningless IMHO) possibly mean?

Stop embracing the bullshit.

[keithsky]

Never could understand the buyers premium in the auction houses. Sellers preminm yes for the privalige of selling your item but the buyer gets hit with 3 fees. The cost of the item he won. Next a 19 or 20% buyers premium which is the biggest joke, then a shipping fee which is always inflated. So 3 fees and the seller just one fee. There are a few auction houses that don't charge buyers prem and it's great. It's just like Ebay buy the item and pay for shipping. Simple. Sure there is cost which they all say but if some companies can do without a buyers prem and have successful auctions then they all should try. Maybe do it one time and see how it goes. When it gets to 20% for the privilage of throwing my money away to buy an item I go elsewhere. What if you went to a store to buy an item, went to the cash register paid for the item, paid the tax, (since there is no shipping) and then they hit you with a 20% fee for shopping there on top of everything. Same deal.

[keithsky]

I won a bat in an auction with a auction letter and found out to send it to PSA would cost me about 15.00 to ship it and the cost to authenticate which to me I thought they already did with the auction letter cause it was on PSA letter head so I figured that was going to be about 35-50.00 then for PSA to ship back which there shipping fees are ridiculious so guessing 20.00 it would have cost another 100.00 for all that. What the H#ll. What a scam for the auction houses to get out of paying authentication fees and pass it on to the buyer, another cost. Ebay sucks but it's cut and dry. You know what everything is going to be. keith janosky

[RichardSimon]

I go back far enough to remember when there was no such thing as a buyers premium.
But the auction houses started to give some sellers lower and zero commission offers to get them to consign their merchandise so they started to make the buyer pay a premium.
Meanwhile the buyers premium does change the bidding so in the end the seller does not really benefit to the extent that he thinks he does.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by keithsky

Never could understand the buyers premium in the auction houses. Sellers preminm yes for the privalige of selling your item but the buyer gets hit with 3 fees. The cost of the item he won. Next a 19 or 20% buyers premium which is the biggest joke, then a shipping fee which is always inflated. So 3 fees and the seller just one fee. There are a few auction houses that don't charge buyers prem and it's great. It's just like Ebay buy the item and pay for shipping. Simple. Sure there is cost which they all say but if some companies can do without a buyers prem and have successful auctions then they all should try. Maybe do it one time and see how it goes. When it gets to 20% for the privilage of throwing my money away to buy an item I go elsewhere. What if you went to a store to buy an item, went to the cash register paid for the item, paid the tax, (since there is no shipping) and then they hit you with a 20% fee for shopping there on top of everything. Same deal.

In any business that is a "for profit" business, there has to be profit or there will be no business. The key is to finding the company willing to take less fees, overall, and get the same or better realized prices. It's that easy. I would forget about if it is a buyers, sellers or exaggerated shipping fee. Just add them up, whatever they are, and you will have a premise to go one when selling or buying. Also, regardless if it is a buyers or sellers fee, it's coming out of the sellers items' proceeds. Buyers understand and figure it into the equation when bidding. I know I do.