Buyer's premium, auction houses and you

[gunboat82]

Originally Posted by Leon

Number 3 and 4 can be true at the same time.

There are costs to doing business.

I read all of the rules going in.

How is anyone negatively impacted if they read the rules?

Lastly, I have never felt negatively impacted by playing in auctions. Maybe I am an optimist? Maybe I am missing something here?...
.

I think you might be defining "negatively impacted" to mean "taken advantage of," whereas I understand the question to be "who sacrifices the most value?"

I think most people go into auctions with their eyes open to the costs, so no one is really being swindled in that scenario.

I also think that, for most items, the consignors are the ones losing the most value because buyers factor the premiums into their bids. Maybe the convenience and reach of the auction house are worth it to the consignor, but I still think it's fair to say they're "negatively impacted" if the auction house is taking 22% off the top.

Obviously none of this applies to the high rollers who have one-of-a-kind items and relationships with the auction houses. But for the auctions where we see dozens of lower-grade Mantles, Cobbs, Mays, etc., I think the premium absolutely depresses the take-home for consignors, while not affecting me at all as a buyer (except that some auction houses make me do the math before I bid).