What to expect from AH consignments?

[jh691626]

Hi all--

This has probably been covered ad nauseum, but as a newbie to all of this I had a couple of questions:

I am wanting to consign about 10-12 items (tickets, autos) to an AH. The value on most items is $100-200, a couple are ~$500. Small potatoes for a big auction house. It does seem to me that the biggest AHs do get the best prices, looking carefully at this kind of item and past sales, though it is of course very variable!

I went to two auction houses to ask about these. One was willing to take most of them, and wanted 7.5% on top of their 20% buyers premium. The other would take them, and wanted 10% on top of their 20%.

This seemed like a lot (30% total vig!). I realize these are puny items for them and maybe barely worth their time, so maybe this is just the reality and that is fine. But it seemed like more than I expected and more than I thought I'd seen in discussions around here. Is this normal?

Thank you and sorry if this has been discussed to death and I am just late to the game.

Jeff

[bobbyw8469]

That is entirely too much. They are basically telling you they don't want your consignments in a roundabout way. No one likes to hear that their consignments are "not good enough" for a particular auction house, but that is what they are telling you. I would hold onto the items or try to get rid of them yourself.

[bobbyw8469]

Originally Posted by bobbyw8469

That is entirely too much. They are basically telling you they don't want your consignments in a roundabout way. No one likes to hear that their consignments are "not good enough" for a particular auction house, but that is what they are telling you. I would hold onto the items or try to get rid of them yourself.

Edited for clarification.....I misread what you are saying. So one auction house only wanted to charge you 7.5 and the other 10%??? That is great. You can't factor in the buyer's premium. That is not yours. You can TRY to get 0% commission, but the norm seems to be to extract a little bit from the buyers AND sellers.

[bnorth]

Bobby is correct on both posts depending on their fee.

This is my best advice I learned the hard way. You need to know exactly what one of their auctions your stuff will be listed in. I had a AH contact me about a set I was selling. I consigned it to them stupidly thinking it would be in their online auction. Nope they put it in their little rinky dink local live auction. I easily lost over $1000 because I didn't read the contract or ask exactly what one of their auctions it would be listed in. So when consigning be sure you know all the details.

[jh691626]

If it helps, they are all easy to post, PSA-slabbed items, like a Willie Mays or Duke Snider autograph on a baseball card. I'd say they are of medium interest--vintage players/cards, usually good players, likely to grow in value over time, but nothing like WOW.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by jh691626

If it helps, they are all easy to post, PSA-slabbed items, like a Willie Mays or Duke Snider autograph on a baseball card. I'd say they are of medium interest--vintage players/cards, usually good players, likely to grow in value over time, but nothing like WOW.

You should consider trying to sell them on the BST here first. No cost and no problem if they don't sell.... Be sure to vet your trading partners. You can always PM me or another moderator with questions.
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[raulus]

There does seem to be a tale of two worlds around here:

1) for really nice stuff with high price tags that will drive a lot of traffic to the auction (think 6 or 7 figures or more), then I’m hearing from a lot of people around here that there is no cost to the seller, and you would probably even get a piece of the bidder’s premium, depending on just how nice it is. I’ve never consigned items this nice, so I’ve never gotten this deal. But on this board, many have asserted its existence, so I am inclined to believe that it exists.

2) for the stuff that you describe, the deal that you described is what I’m used to getting. You might be able to get a slightly better deal from another auction house by shopping around. My guess is that the BP is going to stay with the AH, and it’s just a question of how low the seller’s fee will be, even potentially as low as zero, although that might be a stretch.

I will also observe that you have a few auction options that are less expensive but might be less effective, depending on your perspective, to wit:

1) PWCC. They tend to be vilified around here based on some of their past scandals, which I won’t recount for you here, but my recollection from reading their terms is that they will give you a good chunk of the bidder’s premium. I will hasten to add that there is some question about how many bidders actually go to their weekly auctions. They also typically only accept slabbed items, or if they do take raw, it’s at a much higher fee level.

2) Use an eBay broker like Probstein. You usually end up paying around 10%, maybe slightly less, and large well-known brokers tend to get a lot of eyeballs on eBay.

3) Sell it yourself on eBay. You will pay about 10% to eBay, and might not get the attention that you’re hoping for, depending on whether or not your items go viral and/or get outed around here.

[x2drich2000]

IMO it is highly dependent on the items and the auction houses. Some of the bigger auction houses do seem to get better prices, but not always. If you are paying more it may be a wash or your items could get lost in the shuffle and not get the same attention they would get from a smaller house. There are definitely auction houses that will take these items without charging a sellers fee. At this price point I would confidently say you are not getting a portion of the buyer's premium so it really is a question of do you pay a seller's premium or not. Do you have a previous relationship with the AH? How much time do you think the auction houses will need to spend on your items? Do they require research? Authentication? Details on why they are important? With items of a smaller dollar amount, it simply may not be worth the time and effort for the AH especially if they have a steady stream of items coming in and can spend that time on higher dollar items instead.