Consignors:: At what point do you get pissed when not paid by an auction house??
 

Actually a 2 part question I guess

When do you normally expect to be paid after an auction ends??

After how long of not being paid would you be quite pissed off ???


PS the auction house is irrelevant at this point since I figure my question is for consignors' expectations of any/all auction houses

thanks for all opinions Bill Latzko

I expect to be paid within 2 months. If 2 months go by and there is no communication from the auction house I would be angry.

It varies from house to house, sometimes it's spelled out in the agreement, sometimes not. Probably a question that should have been asked prior to consigning rather than after.

We have always paid consignors the second Monday following the auction, so technically 11 business days. Which is one of the reasons we have so many repeat consignors.

Scott
B&L Auctions

www.b-lauctions.com

I usually figure a check will show up in a month to six weeks, though I have not consigned large items...usually $500 to $1000, usually with the mid sized auction houses. I had one that took longer, but it was on an auction that really went for probably four times what I or the auction house thought it would go for so I don't blame them for delaying payment until they were double sure everything was good.

I think it is two months. I've consigned once with Heritage for an auction that ended Nov 10-11, and according to the contract, the settlement date would be Dec 27th. I called them on Dec 28th since I had not received payment yet, but they basically said they mailed it out on Dec 27th, so I would receive it the following week, which I did.

I've also consigned with Goodwin twice. The first time, I actually purchased more than I consigned, so I just had my payment partially offset by my consignments. The second time, it also took a couple of months or a little longer, but much of that was because Bill was working on selling some of my lots that did not have bids, and needed to wait an additional time for those payments to come in.

In summary, I wish both auction houses would send payment sooner. However, it was nothing that I didn't expect, so I was satisfied with both, and I would consign with both places again. (I would probably lean towards Goodwin, however, since they don't have a seller's commission.)

Also remember it can depend on how long it takes for the winner to pay. If the winner is a late payer, that will slow your payment and that is not the auction house's fault.

:eek: HOLY Sh$t!!! I'm sorry but what a joke!!! How/why should getting "your" money take so long:confused: They should be sending out payments no later than 14 days after a check clears or payment has been made (if M.O. or wire trans etc.) Just like they require payment on won items!!

And sellers get mad when people on ebay don't pay in 5 days..:p

Now I know why everyone keeps selling on ebay, even if they hate all the rules/changes...

"Also remember it can depend on how long it takes for the winner to pay. If the winner is a late payer, that will slow your payment and that is not the auction house's fault."

This seems to be an issue with some of the bigger auction houses...surprisingly...it seems some of the "whales" take a long...long time to pay their bb card bills...which in turn will affect how quickly a consigner is paid.

What if the winner doesn't pay....
 

I do not consign to auction houses so I'm not sure how this works but.....

What if the winning bidder of your item doesn't pay......does the auction house eat it and pay you the money from the item? Or do they return the item?


How often does this happen?

I have never consigned anything to an auction house, but I was thinking the same thing.

And sometimes buyers (some of whom should not be buying in the first place) get their goods, never pay and then are let off the hook for their massive obligations. What a country!

You need to send high dollar and/or rare cards to the auction houses. There is generally a certain limit that "whales" will pay on ebay and they typically don't scour ebay like the rest of us. For example, a Felix Mendelsohn Ruth went on ebay for ~11K, and then was flipped to Mile High (and after a crossover) went for over 30K.