Posted By:
ramramJosh (et al.)-
I know you understand this but let me throw it out there for the sake of discussion with others:
Let's say you charge a 30% consigner's fee (CF) and no bidder's fee (BF). Another auction house charges 15% CF and a 15% BF.
The bidder in the other auction wins a lot for a bid of $1000. He pays $1150 for the item. The consigner gets $850. The auction house gets $300.
Now, if he's bidding in your auction on a similar lot, he bids $1150 and wins it. Since there's no BP,he just pays $1150, the consigner gets $805 and you get $345. In this scenario you actually come out ahead. You could actually only take a 26% CF, and no BF, and all things would come out about equally with the other auction house, at least in this scenario.
If the consigner and bidder both have any brains they will figure this out. But, (and that's a big "but") if they can't figure that out, then you might have a problem. I think that's where we're at....some people have more money than brains and don't fully comprehend the fee shell game...IMHO.
Rob M.