AH (PWCC) Reality Check Please

[nrm1977]

On a side note, I don't understand why someone would send items to a ebay "auction house". I truly never understood that. I can understand if you don't have the time to list, ship etc but, why on earth do people do this? It just doesn't register with me.


Nick

[glchen]

Originally Posted by nrm1977

On a side note, I don't understand why someone would send items to a ebay "auction house". I truly never understood that. I can understand if you don't have the time to list, ship etc but, why on earth do people do this? It just doesn't register with me.


Nick

The turnaround time to get paid is much faster for ebay consignment shops. For example, PWCC has something like 11 auctions per year. Probstein is year round (e.g., they list immediately after they receive the items.) REA only has 2 auctions per year. They need a lead time to receive the items so that they can put it into their print catalog. Therefore even thought they pay out consigments lightning fast, if the items you want to sell don't align closely with their auction dates, you might need to wait around 6 months after you send your consignments to REA before you actually get paid. Other auction houses may have auctions much more frequently than REA, but then they often don't pay until 45 calendar days until after the auction close, and they still require a long lead time before their auction starts to get it into the catalog. Therefore, if you need to raise cash quickly, and want a consignment shop that typically has much lower fees than most auction houses, then ebay shops are often the best bet.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by nrm1977

On a side note, I don't understand why someone would send items to a ebay "auction house". I truly never understood that. I can understand if you don't have the time to list, ship etc but, why on earth do people do this? It just doesn't register with me.


Nick

More cash, no work, and no dealing with the idiot eBay buyers is the main reasons. The idiot buyers are few and far between but really suck when you get one. I have no recent info, I do know a couple years ago you got a higher percentage of the final price from Brent or Rick because eBay was giving them huge discounts on their fees that they passed on to consignors.

[slidekellyslide]

I accidentally listed items that ended on election night and totally forgot about them. They ended between 8 and 9 PM EST. I totally forgot about them as I was glued to the television all night...it wasn't until I was about to go to bed that I realized I had combined invoices I had to send. I was surprised that all of my items sold very well.

Only Scott mentioned it, but I too sure wouldn't be surprised that an honest (non shilling) consignor didn't do so well on baseball cards with PWCC.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by nrm1977

On a side note, I don't understand why someone would send items to a ebay "auction house". I truly never understood that. I can understand if you don't have the time to list, ship etc but, why on earth do people do this? It just doesn't register with me.


Nick

There are a lot of reasons. eBay's selling policies scare some sellers who have no desire to deal with the specter of charge-backs and returns. Too many horror stories.

Raymond asked: "Do you net more money consigning on EBAY at 10% or through AHs at 20%?"

That's a really interesting question. I've found it cuts both ways.

First of all, the 10% and the 20% are not really the correct figures. With the charges for paypal added in, the eBay figure for a non-store seller is approximately 13%. As for the AHs, the issue is the combined cost of commission and BP. Most AHs now have to give out zero commission deals to get consignments but they still rake the BP off the top at anywhere from 15% on up to 23%. I was recently quoted a 15% commission and a 23% BP by an AH, and the rep refused to negotiate. I took my consignment elsewhere. If you can get a consignment deal at 0 commission and the BP is reasonable, does it really make sense to bother with eBay sales to save a few percentage points? For me, most of the time it does not.

Second, the raw math doesn't tell the whole story. Some bidders do not like to scour eBay for deals. I know several wealthy collectors who simply will not use eBay. I also know a number of tech-unfriendly collectors who will not participate in e-commerce. I was speaking with one over the weekend who said he received a catalog from an AH and was now going to bid by phone. eBay will miss those people.

Third, for some esoteric items of memorabilia, a good AH is a better choice for selling. I consigned a rare but obscure item to an AH recently rather than sell it on eBay and I was very happy with the marketing and the sale price. The relatively long lead on the catalog before the closing date and the motivated buyer base helped. I don't think it would have done as well on eBay with a seven day sale and bottom feeders. I also sold a rare item on eBay that I think benefited from the reach of eBay. It just depends.