Auction House Shipping

[buymycards]

Since this is 2011, I can't understand why auction houses don't accept credit and debit cards and Paypal. 17% BP plus high shipping charges should cover the fees. Most businesses wouldn't survive using the old, outdated, time consuming payment methods. Who uses checks anymore? Send me an invoice by email and I will pay it within 5 minutes using PayPal or a debit card and my item can be shipped right away.

As far as not having the staff available to ship items right away. It seems pretty straight forward. Let's see, I'm going to have 1000 items closing on the same day, maybe I should have enough staff on hand to handle the workload. Isn't that why the shipping charges are so high in the first place? To handle the cost of shipping, supplies, and labor?

The other thing I don't understand is why auction houses allow so much time for the winners to pay for their items. In most cases shouldn't the check be in the mail within a day of receiving the invoice?

Rick

[FrankWakefield]

I think auction houses don't add services because they don't have to.... We allow them to get away with it by continuing to bid.

As for allowing winners time to pay... the auction folks want that 'one more bid' to add to their commission. And the bidder-whales make that one more bid, then mention reneging on all of their bids if pressured to promptly pay. I've actually had a reputable house admit as much to me once when I was awaiting payment for a sale. I think as a seller you can ask that the house promises to pay you within a certain number of days, or you can ask for an advance on the sale price. The houses don't want to do those things, but I've had them do the latter.

[bxb]

Originally Posted by buymycards

Since this is 2011, I can't understand why auction houses don't accept credit and debit cards and Paypal. 17% BP plus high shipping charges should cover the fees. Most businesses wouldn't survive using the old, outdated, time consuming payment methods. Who uses checks anymore? Send me an invoice by email and I will pay it within 5 minutes using PayPal or a debit card and my item can be shipped right away.

As far as not having the staff available to ship items right away. It seems pretty straight forward. Let's see, I'm going to have 1000 items closing on the same day, maybe I should have enough staff on hand to handle the workload. Isn't that why the shipping charges are so high in the first place? To handle the cost of shipping, supplies, and labor?

The other thing I don't understand is why auction houses allow so much time for the winners to pay for their items. In most cases shouldn't the check be in the mail within a day of receiving the invoice?

Rick

Heritage accepts credit cards.

[ValKehl]

Rick - I believe that most of the major auction houses charge a BP that is greater than 17% these days.
Val

[iggyman]

Originally Posted by buymycards

Since this is 2011, I can't understand why auction houses don't accept credit and debit cards and Paypal. 17% BP plus high shipping charges should cover the fees. Most businesses wouldn't survive using the old, outdated, time consuming payment methods. Who uses checks anymore? Send me an invoice by email and I will pay it within 5 minutes using PayPal or a debit card and my item can be shipped right away.
Rick

I think auction houses would love to get paid right away and could live with the ~.03% fee, but they are afraid of paypal or credit cards, because of the possibility of reversing a charge. They want all the power if a dispute should arise.

Lovely Day...

[ValKehl]

What iggyman said +1, except that I think the fees are ~3% as opposed to ~.03%.
Val

[leaflover]

I've done business with most of them and rate Legendary the quickest to ship and Heritage, by far, the slowest.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by leaflover

I've done business with most of them and rate Legendary the quickest to ship and Heritage, by far, the slowest.

The Heritage vs SCP test - shipping

I won fairly large card lots from Heritage on November 10/11, and from SCP on Nov 19 (8 day head start for Heritage). Paid for both with cashier's checks. Heritage received their check on Nov 18 and has not yet shipped. SCP's lots are scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

Customer service

Heritage - responded to one email, stating that they received my check on Nov 22 and would ship in 7-10 days plus additional time due to the holidays. The signed tracking slip said otherwise: Nov 18.
SCP - timely shipping, so guess I'll never know - sounds like a pretty good business model.

[sycks22]

I called up Heritage yesterday to ask about my order that I paid 7 days ago and they almost laughed me telling me it'll probably not go out until late next week. I realize thanksgiving is in there, but when you pay via paypal it's instant and shouldn't take 2-3 weeks to deliver. That's why Goodwin / Legendary get a lot of my business - fast shipping and great customer service. They can't even use the excuse that they have a lot of items to ship out, their magazine is the same size at REA and they shipped the same day.