Consignment Fees
 

Hello members,

I wanted to get your advice on something.

I have sold a few different items to high end sports auction houses for $10,000+.

I have always just assumed the consignment fees are non-negotiable (15-20%). However, I was informed that sometimes you can negotiate the seller fees.

My question is, should I have been able to negotiate ZERO fees on those items $10K and above? If not, what is the dollar amount where auction houses will eliminate those seller fees?

Any advice would be much appreciated for any future sales I might have.

Thanks!

Most auction houses don't charge any fees when you sell items to them. But it dose not surprise me they would try.

Presuming you mean consigned?
 

If you consigned items most auction houses would not charge a consignment fee for10k+. If you actually sold the items to them and they deducted a fee - shame on them!

To be clear there are sellers AND buyers fees. On a 10k consignment you generally shouldn't need to pay a sellers fee and can usually get a few percent back from the buyers premium. If the AH says no to any points back just PM me, I will hook you up with several AH advertisers that will.

That's good to know. Would that only apply to $10,000+ consignments Leon?

There's no set rules, but I doubt a consignment valued under $10k, you'd get any percentage back from buyer's premium. I'd even think the piece might need to be valued $15K+, but if Leon can hook you...jump at that.

Not necessarily. Every situation and company is different. I have a pretty good rapport with most of our advertisers and am always eager to help them and our members. I have given serious thought to having a Net54 consignment consulting service but haven't moved forward on it yet. I have been able to help numerous members in the past. And I work cheap ie....free.

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I'm not looking at a percentage back from the buyer's premium, but consignor's paying a seller's premium, with this many auction houses to choose from, is ridiculous. For consignor's that DO pay it, that means the auction house is getting 30% (maybe more) off YOUR consignment. 20% from the buyer and 10% (at least) from you. That is too much, IMHO.

AH's have been doing this for 25 years+, nothing new...in fact, historically the seller's premium used to be 20%.

I think more and more these days, you can negotiate.

Wow Robert Edwards charged me 15 10 and 5% on my items it was 60000 worth of memorabilia kind of upset knowing I should have gotten zero

That money should have gone in my pocket

Just as helpful as knowing consignment fees, I would be curious to know which auction houses send your info to the IRS

Thanks for all the helpful information. Has anyone ever known Heritage give a portion of the BP in addition to waiving the sellers fee?

I've also been curious, is there a dollar amount that triggers and AH to report to the IRS? I've never received any tax info before, and always have to report it on my own.

When we are talking about very low consignment fees ( even zero) are we talking the total amount of a consignment offered to the AH of $10k+ or an individual item ?

Just to chime in with more data...

I have never paid a consignment fee, and as Leon mentioned, for large consignments I have always gotten a small % kick-back of the buyer's premium. But of course you have to ask for these things if they are not offered. If the AH says "No" I would pick another one - there is always someone who wants to make money off your stuff. I have also gotten a guaranteed minimum sell price on a consignment (not a reserve) - the item did not hit the minimum and the AH paid me anyway, as agreed, at a loss to them; of course, overall they still did quite well off me.

As an auction owner, but of a different type than the large online houses I can offer some perspective.

First, sellers commissions in the general auction world can still run up to 40%!!! In competitive specialty fields the trend has been the seller's fees dropping and a portion of that being passed on to the buyers. This is due to the competition to get great material.

If you have something that is not considered great material an auction house is less likely to discount or eliminate the seller's commissions let alone share buyer's premium.

The total amount of your consignment may not have a ton of bearing on your commissions as it is really more dependent on each individual lot. If you consign 100 lots worth a total of $60k that 's a TON more work than one $60k lot.

For instance, our auction is a small live only auction. A normal sale grosses about 20k. We want individual lots of $50 and up, but at every auction we have lots that go for $20. We charge a buyer's premium of 10% and we have 7 employees at the auction plus all the hours of cataloguing and photography, advertising and hall rental etc... If we charged no seller's commission on ANY item we'd net $2000 which wouldn't cover costs. Now if you have an item that I know will interest some of our well-heeled buyers I almost don't care what it sells for, I will sell it for no commission. For example I have a guy considering selling a DR J. Rookie in 8 and a Rose Rookie in 4.5 along with some other decent cards. I would take the Dr J. and the Rose at no commission, but his other cards come through our doors a lot more often and won't attract any buyers on their own so commission on them can range up to 20% depending on price realized.

Anyway, on my end my commissions aren't some mysterious process, rather they're a practical reality, but again my auction is world's away from an REA or a Heritage where their average items are the kind of things I get maybe once or twice a year.

Any questions about auction practices in general feel free to PM me!

If it is commonplace stuff, esp. graded cards, the BST here or eBay is the best way to sell it. I've had some AHs reject my recent consignment efforts and have readily sold the items on eBay at better than the net with the AHs would have been.

Except in rare cases, in the sports field if an AH wants to charge a commission and BP, I wouldn't consign to them because there are plenty who don't charge a commission. In other fields, though, you may not be able to negotiate even over a great item. I was amazed that I wasn't able to get rid of the commission with an entertainment memorabilia AH, even with a strong consignment. They simply refused to discuss it. Rather than handing them nearly 40% I opted to sell the items myself. If that is a failure I can always go back there.

At least now people won't think I'm lying!