Shrinking Buyers Premium ?

[oldjudge]

Steve--Right now on any kind of decent consignment big auctions will return 7-12% of the buyers premium to the consignor. On really big items, like a Wagner or cards of that ilk, the auction house may return all or almost all of the buyers premium to the seller just to get that marquee item. With that in mind, lowering the BP would probably just lead to a like reduction to these rebates. Therefore, not only the buyer but also the major consignors would be unaffected by the change. The only ones helped by a reduction in buyers premium would be the small consignors (or ignorant consignors who don't negotiate a rebate). Their gain would be an auction house loss. I think it is to the advantage of auction houses to price high and negotiate down hoping that consignors will leave money on the table. If not for this why would some auctions, as an incentive, advertise no sellers premiums? Sellers what? LOL.