You Favorite Auction House

[rlorenz]

Thanks guys for the advice....And your right condition is all in the eye of the beholder. but as I am a condition junky... i just looked at it like this....the auction houses take 20%...ish. but they also net a high price.....like PWCC or REA or what ever they will get a high price for the card as they will get by default more traffic.

if they net a higher price... add in my time to list them... if i am taking a loss but i gain time it makes sense to me. :-) thanks for all of the advice guys.

[smtjoy]

I have had great consigning experiences with LOTG and Sterling, I also think BST, Brockelman and REA are top notch.

When I first started to sell I sent small groups of cards to multiple AH's, basically to test the waters. I would recommend for you to do the same (if the AH only wants to auction all of them move on). That way it will protect you from getting hammered on selling everything as well as you will get a feel for which AH fits you and your cards best.

Nearly all my cards were graded so I dont know much on the raw cards, I would ask the board for any horror stories selling raw cards through an AH they have, also ask them to message you if they dont want to say it in public. I did this way back and was surprised/shocked at the feedback I got, i literately marked off 5 AH's from my initial list.

Good luck with your AH search and sale.

[Yoda]

I used to favor Heritage primarily for the depth and quality of their offerings, but no more simply because their mandate to include Florida sales tax. My understanding is that sales tax should be charged to residents at the point of sale, in this case Texas. I live in Palm Beach and Heritage claims since they have an office here I am subject to the tax. I have tried to find evidence of this office, is it a fully functioning branch or a PO box, but to no avail, and I have to wonder if they actually sent my sales tax dollars, paid in previous auctions, to Tallahassee or simply pocketed it. At any rate, I no longer deal with them, favoring my consignments these days to Love of the Game

[x2drich2000]

Originally Posted by Yoda

I used to favor Heritage primarily for the depth and quality of their offerings, but no more simply because their mandate to include Florida sales tax. My understanding is that sales tax should be charged to residents at the point of sale, in this case Texas. I live in Palm Beach and Heritage claims since they have an office here I am subject to the tax. I have tried to find evidence of this office, is it a fully functioning branch or a PO box, but to no avail, and I have to wonder if they actually sent my sales tax dollars, paid in previous auctions, to Tallahassee or simply pocketed it. At any rate, I no longer deal with them, favoring my consignments these days to Love of the Game

John, there are a lot of reasons to dislike certain auction houses, but you really can't be angry with Heritage for doing what they are required to do by law. I would be extremely surprised if they were pocketing the tax money due to the ramifications if they were ever caught. You also need to keep in mind that Heritage does a lot more than just sports cards and even if one of their offices specializes in something else, it still affects the taxes for the whole company. For your info, here is a link to info on their FL office I got in 30 seconds of searching google. Florida Office.

DJ

[Yoda]

Originally Posted by x2drich2000

John, there are a lot of reasons to dislike certain auction houses, but you really can't be angry with Heritage for doing what they are required to do by law. I would be extremely surprised if they were pocketing the tax money due to the ramifications if they were ever caught. You also need to keep in mind that Heritage does a lot more than just sports cards and even if one of their offices specializes in something else, it still affects the taxes for the whole company. For your info, here is a link to info on their FL office I got in 30 seconds of searching google. Florida Office.

DJ

If I have misunderstood state tax law, then my argument for casting dispersions about Heritage's policy doesn't hold water. and I do feel a lot better about them having a bona fide Palm Beach office. Still I feel I am at a
disadvantage to, say, a bidder from Wyoming, where I doubt they have an office, who can bid without having to factor in the sales tax 'penalty.'

[BeanTown]

No doubt its a disadvantage for a buyer to live in a State where the AH collects tax. Looking at the one person who represents Heritage in Florida makes it where they have to charge tax for everyone in that state in all their auctions across the board! Why wouldnt they just make her 1099 employee and do all their customers a favor. Huggins and Scott have like 20-50 reps throughout the Country. From what I understand employees are 1099 and only make money by the consignments they bring in. So, this way they can service many customers.

Jeff P now works for LOTG. Does this mean tax will be charged to people from Wa? Im sure many AHs have employees that live and work in different States. Question is does this mean they now will start charging tax where they have representation?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by BeanTown

No doubt its a disadvantage for a buyer to live in a State where the AH collects tax. Looking at the one person who represents Heritage in Florida makes it where they have to charge tax for everyone in that state in all their auctions across the board! Why wouldnt they just make her 1099 employee and do all their customers a favor. Huggins and Scott have like 20-50 reps throughout the Country. From what I understand employees are 1099 and only make money by the consignments they bring in. So, this way they can service many customers.

Jeff P now works for LOTG. Does this mean tax will be charged to people from Wa? Im sure many AHs have employees that live and work in different States. Question is does this mean they now will start charging tax where they have representation?

The law says who can be a 1099 and who can't. Typically a worker cannot be both an employee and an independent contractor at the same company. An employer can certainly have some employees and some independent contractors for different roles, and an employee for one company can perform contract work for another company. But the law states the requirements to be a 1099 and my guess is Heritage is just following the law. And yes, it does suck for those that get taxed on the front end of the sale. But there is no doubt Heritage is just doing what they have to with their full time employees.

And to answer the question of fave auction house, all of our advertisers are my favorites.