Auction house fees.

MarvinDay

I've been considering selling a collectable camera that I own (It would probably sell for about £1500) and to avoid scammers on eBay, I've been thinking of using a face to face auction house based in London.

The place I was considering using charges:
£15 + VAT for photographing and research for each lot,
1.5% of the selling price for loss and damage cover,
Seller premium of 15% + VAT.

If the camera sold for £1500, my total fees would be £315 giving me £1185 take home.

Their buyers premium is 25% + VAT meaning that if someone bid £1500, they would have to pay an extra £375 + £75 VAT.

This means that for this one item selling for £1500, the auction house would be getting £637.50 after they have paid the VAT.
I know they have expenses but still, that seems like a hell of a lot to me.

Belenus

Do you have a shop reasonably local to you that buys and sells cameras?

Albermarle

Those fees sound about right/normal, although I agree it is a lot.

greyteam1959

Sound about right to me.
That's why when I had to dispose of my late parents household furniture etc I used Facebook Market place & not an auction house.
The fee's would have taken nearly 30 % of any money received IF the goods had sold.
Even with them not selling there would still have been storage fees etc

DullGreyGuy

MarvinDay said:

I've been considering selling a collectable camera that I own (It would probably sell for about £1500) and to avoid scammers on eBay, I've been thinking of using a face to face auction house based in London.

The place I was considering using charges:
£15 + VAT for photographing and research for each lot,
1.5% of the selling price for loss and damage cover,
Seller premium of 15% + VAT.

If the camera sold for £1500, my total fees would be £315 giving me £1185 take home.

Their buyers premium is 25% + VAT meaning that if someone bid £1500, they would have to pay an extra £375 + £75 VAT.

This means that for this one item selling for £1500, the auction house would be getting £637.50 after they have paid the VAT.
I know they have expenses but still, that seems like a hell of a lot to me.

Are you sure it will sell for £1,950? I thought you meant someone would be willing to pay £1,500 and so you need to deduct off the buyers premium before calculating how much you'd get.

Anything involving contingent fees tends to look relatively high, if they are really depends on what proportion of items actually sell as your success fees have to not only cover the expenses of selling your item but also all the other items that dont sell. 

I've always either sold on eBay or if its AV/Photo equiment then on another forum that I've been a long term member of. In principle the later is more risky but you can choose who you trade with and only engage with long standing members that have bought from several others.

Undervalued

It is like anything where an "agent" is involved (which is effectively what an auction house is), you have to consider how much you could reliably get for the item selling it by other means. You also need to consider the value you put on your time and to what extent they are protecting you from possible unscrupulous buyers.

Many years ago I used to have some dealings with aspiring artists. Some were adamant they wouldn't give an agent 25 or 30% of their work so self righteously kept the whole 100% of little or nothing whilst trying to sell their own work!  

soolin

DullGreyGuy said:

MarvinDay said:

I've been considering selling a collectable camera that I own (It would probably sell for about £1500) and to avoid scammers on eBay, I've been thinking of using a face to face auction house based in London.

The place I was considering using charges:
£15 + VAT for photographing and research for each lot,
1.5% of the selling price for loss and damage cover,
Seller premium of 15% + VAT.

If the camera sold for £1500, my total fees would be £315 giving me £1185 take home.

Their buyers premium is 25% + VAT meaning that if someone bid £1500, they would have to pay an extra £375 + £75 VAT.

This means that for this one item selling for £1500, the auction house would be getting £637.50 after they have paid the VAT.
I know they have expenses but still, that seems like a hell of a lot to me.

Are you sure it will sell for £1,950? I thought you meant someone would be willing to pay £1,500 and so you need to deduct off the buyers premium before calculating how much you'd get.

Anything involving contingent fees tends to look relatively high, if they are really depends on what proportion of items actually sell as your success fees have to not only cover the expenses of selling your item but also all the other items that dont sell. 

I've always either sold on eBay or if its AV/Photo equiment then on another forum that I've been a long term member of. In principle the later is more risky but you can choose who you trade with and only engage with long standing members that have bought from several others.

This is the important bit above, if it sells for X amount on eBay then at a bricks and mortar auction buyers would expect to pay considerably less than X and that would include all their buying costs.

I am a regular buyer at auction houses, my bids always factor in my buyers premium, and if I am buying to sell then I would also workout my profit margin as well. So item sells for £100 say on eBay, I would expect to bid no more than say £30  absolute maximum, possibly less to account for my buyers premium and my on costs of re selling.

The only difference in your item would be if it is likely to go to an end user rather than someone who would resell. I’ve often been wildly outbid by buyers who want the item for themselves, and not to resell, and in that case they only have to worry about the total cost, not the re selling on costs.