Auction House Shipping Price, what is reasonable?

[mcap100176]

Hunt's website is by far and away the worst I have ever tried to navigate.

I was registering with them a few weeks ago. I stopped when I got to requirement of entering credit card information. There site was https, they had a Verisign logo by the credit card information tab, but that wasn't enough for me. I emailed them stating I wasn't comfortable entering my credit card information on a non-secure (non-https) page and they assured me that their site was secure (and I could register by phone with the credit card information). I just wasn't buying it. Plus, I don't like that they can charge the credit card if someone doesn't pay but winners can't pay by credit card. I don't remember having to enter credit card information for registering anywhere else.

Plus, their website is really that bad.

[ruth-gehrig]

Huggins was very reasonable! 2 FedEx boxes one being 15lbs and the other 10lbs for $50 total

[perezfan]

This has been my "shipping charge" experience, after 30 years of doing this. Just my personal opinion, after participating in hundreds of these auctions...

Best of Class:
REA
LOTG
BST

Somewhat reasonable:
Heritage
Huggins & Scott
Inside the Park
Mile High

Mild Ripoff:
Lelands
SCP
Goldin
Grey Flannel
Clean Sweep

Big Ripoff:
Mears
Hunt

[Bicem]

Extortion:
Christie's

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by Bicem

Extortion:
Christie's

No doubt... they're so egregious, I must've blocked them from my memory.

[bobbyw8469]

I just paid $15 for 5 single cards from Hunt. People routinely pay high charges from these auction houses but routinely bitch about pay $6.50 for the exact same lot from Ebay.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Whatever I charge is reasonable, whatever anyone else charges is excessive...

Seriously though, I know people aren't interested in looking at things through the auction company's perspective but let me just throw out a scenario.

My company specializes in doing, in addition to the great items that we all hope to get, lower value lots to maximize the return for the seller as opposed to doing a bunch of bulk lots which will then get broken up by the buyer to make a profit that should be going to my consignor.

We start ALL our items between $1 and $25 with no reserves. Every auction a ton of items go for under $10. My commission + Buyer's Premium on a lot like that would be $4. Shipping could easily be $7. Plus I have to pay someone to pull the item box it up print the packing slip and bring it to the post office. A single card is easy but on larger purchases it can take a half hour just to make the package. We charge actual postage (plus insurance on invoices over $200) plus $5 for materials and time. We lose money on shipping every auction. Hopefully by this Spring's Pre-War auction we will have private insurance so we don't have to buy additional postal insurance, and we are very creative in our attempts to keep the actual postal costs down as much as possible. Using Regional Rate boxes, going UPS on larger packages where the Postal rates get insane etc.

None of this even takes into account the time it takes me to generate all these invoices (what I am doing right now for last night's auction) which is usually between 4 and 8 hours of drudge work of weighing and figuring package size so we invoice accurately.

Are there companies out there that gouge? Absolutely. However, just assuming that everyone is profiting off of shipping isn't really accurate.

Just my 2 cents.

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by perezfan

This has been my "shipping charge" experience, after 30 years of doing this. Just my personal opinion, after participating in hundreds of these auctions...

Best of Class:
REA
LOTG
BST

Somewhat reasonable:
Heritage
Huggins & Scott
Inside the Park
Mile High

Mild Ripoff:
Lelands
SCP
Goldin
Grey Flannel
Clean Sweep

Big Ripoff:
Mears
Hunt

I would throw in another category, Very Reasonable, and put a few of the smaller to midsize auction houses who have charged me reasonable shipping AND properly ship items (always cards for me).

Very Reasonable:

Sterling Sports Auctions
Brockelman Auctions
Birmingham Auctioneers

Brian

[oldjudge]

Originally Posted by mcap100176

Hunt's website is by far and away the worst I have ever tried to navigate.

I was registering with them a few weeks ago. I stopped when I got to requirement of entering credit card information. There site was https, they had a Verisign logo by the credit card information tab, but that wasn't enough for me. I emailed them stating I wasn't comfortable entering my credit card information on a non-secure (non-https) page and they assured me that their site was secure (and I could register by phone with the credit card information). I just wasn't buying it. Plus, I don't like that they can charge the credit card if someone doesn't pay but winners can't pay by credit card. I don't remember having to enter credit card information for registering anywhere else.

Plus, their website is really that bad.

Hunt’s web site is far from perfect, but I have never had any trouble navigating it and bidding. On the other hand, Hunts people are incredibly nice on the phone and very responsive to questions and requests. I like the auction very much!

[Exhibitman]

Throwing in a good word for Lelands:

Last auction I won from them was over 2,000 cards and it was heavy because the vast majority were in albums and sheets. Lelands charged me $65 to ship it, which was very reasonable IMO considering what I've had to spend to ship similar heavy packages across the country.

The worst gouging I ever got was from Skinner in MA. Not only was the shipping cost 20% of the price, I had to use a third party packing/shipping service because Skinner didn't do it in-house, and they broke one of the cabinet cards I bought with their crappy packing.

There is no excuse for charging more than a few bucks above the flat rate box rate to ship anything that can be shipped via USPS flat rate box. I know some AHs think they have to use special packaging to present a corporate image, but really, none of us collectors care about image. I mean, look at the scruffy bunch of ruffians at the National. Half the attendees look homeless but have five figures in cash in their jorts.

I'm a big fan of how REA handles it: a flat price, you know it in advance, you don't have to worry about a nasty little surprise.

[andypcl]

I just had to post this for you guys. I won 4 little buttons in a smaller Western Americana auction for a winning bid of $250. I knew what I was getting into because it was clearly stated on their website so I bid accordingly, but it's an amazing 44.6% for commission, tax, postage and handling....

Session 4: Firearms, Cowboy, Bottles... (2020-02-17 08:00 PST)
4196 Early Baseball Pins (112403)
250.00 62.50 25.00 337.50
Handling 5.00 0.00 5.00
Shipping 19.00 0.00 19.00

Totals 274.00 62.50 25.00 361.50
Payments 0.00
Owing 361.50

[Snapolit1]

It depends. Many factors. If I bought a card for $15,000 and someone threw it in a $7.99 priority mailbox I’d be a little pissed.

If someone charged me $7.99 shipping for a $2 card I’d be a little pissed.

No simple answer.

Some of you guys act AHs don't do anything and whatever they make is highway robbery. Yeah, other than soliciting items, dealing with consignors, getting auction organized, photographed, promoted, dealing with printers, dealing with bidders, irate phone calls, problems with post office, packing supplies, time and effort to get
Many many packages to shipper, dealing with no payers, dealing with pissed off consignors ..... yeah. Piece of cake. Can’t imagine any aggravation at all.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Some of you guys act AHs don't do anything and whatever they make is highway robbery. Yeah, other than soliciting items, dealing with consignors, getting auction organized, photographed, promoted, dealing with printers, dealing with bidders, irate phone calls, problems with post office, packing supplies, time and effort to get
Many many packages to shipper, dealing with no payers, dealing with pissed off consignors ..... yeah. Piece of cake. Can’t imagine any aggravation at all.

I think I just fell in love...

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

I think I just fell in love...

Ha.

[Leon]

Shipping is a substantial part of the game. I don't mind reasonable shipping charges but companies should be mindful and not overcharge by too much. Actual shipping cost plus a few bucks is fine by me.

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

It depends. Many factors. If I bought a card for $15,000 and someone threw it in a $7.99 priority mailbox I’d be a little pissed.

If someone charged me $7.99 shipping for a $2 card I’d be a little pissed.

No simple answer.

Some of you guys act AHs don't do anything and whatever they make is highway robbery. Yeah, other than soliciting items, dealing with consignors, getting auction organized, photographed, promoted, dealing with printers, dealing with bidders, irate phone calls, problems with post office, packing supplies, time and effort to get
Many many packages to shipper, dealing with no payers, dealing with pissed off consignors ..... yeah. Piece of cake. Can’t imagine any aggravation at all.

[cammb]

Why the big deal about auction houses? Did anyone check the shipping prices that sellers on eBay are charging for the last year?