[Aquarian Sports Cards]

For the sake of information here's a little history. As someone who officially finished auctioneer's school today I think I can provide some perspective!

Realize that many, if not most, auction trends start with the big boys like Christie's and Sotheby's. There was a time when there was no such thing as a buyer's premium, many small general auction companies still don't charge one. But back when there was no such thing seller's commissions for the most part ran between 30 and 40 percent.

Price fixing scandal aside, competition for the best material made auction companies try and figure out a way to make themselves more attractive to potential consignors. They did this by lowering fees. However they couldn't just make less money so the Buyer's Premium was born.

That being said it was often not necessarily the dollar value of your item that determined the commission charged, though in effect that's what it looked like, it was the notoriety it could bring the auction. If a consignor had a couple of Picasso's, the auction company would indeed be tempted to give a sweet deal to that consignor knowing that it would bring eyes to their auction for the Chagall's etc... It's not because the Picasso is going to bring a high value, but rather it is going to bring bidders.

That has gotten slightly lost in the translation to the card world. Obvious items like the Wagner or a Baltimore Babe Ruth accomplish both notoriety and value, but more and more the scale has slid to value only in our industry.

Remember though, that commissions were originally 30 -40 percent. So if an auction house is hitting buyers for 20%, they are still looking for at least that extra 10%. Again on a truly epic item eating that extra money (or even giving up some of the 20%) is OK, but for a $1,000 item, with all the expenses the big houses have, it's just not reasonable to expect them to not only charge you nothing, but cut you in for a share of the Buyer's Premium.

There was a mediocre mystery novel I read a while back where one of the protagonists worked at an auction house in London. In it the character detailed that auction houses loved reselling the same item repeatedly, because they were the only ones who actually made a profit. Once they sold the item three times they had pocketed more than the item was worth. Well those days are gone, and that's a good thing, but unless you bring something truly special to the table a reasonable commission plus premium is anything under 30%. Ask me in a PM how much we charge!