My two cents. I am not a dealer, merely a buyer, so ignore this if I am way off base about anything.
As a buyer, the fees do not bother me. The arithmetic is still the same. If I want to bid on a $1000 item and there are no extra fees, then I enter a bid of $1000. If there are BP and/or auction house fees (i.e 25%, or 45%), then I adjust my bid accordingly and bid $750 or whatever. Shipping is merely the cost I pay for buying remotely. The item cost to me is unchanged and my bidding budget is unaffected. If someone wants it more, they will outbid me regardless of any fees involved.
As a seller, the math becomes more difficult. Bruce’s chart certainly shows one way it can go but , as Todd pointed out, auction house fees are often negotiable (although I suspect dealers like Todd would get preferential treatment, and rightfully so IMHO given the sheer quality of his pieces as they will attract more eyeballs to the auction as a whole). All else being equal, the final money-in-your-pocket results will differ between auction houses to be sure, based upon the fees charged and the number of serious bidders attracted to the auction, but the differences can be analyzed and quantified and don’t seem to be that large. Rich’s overall point that certain houses consistently achieve higher overall prices also mitigates the effects of these fee differences.
Bottom line for sellers is that you are paying for all the promotion costs and for all those eyeballs. They seem to go hand in hand with higher sales results.
Tom the admittedly Ill-informed
On Jun 11, 2023, at 7:52 AM, Alan Heimann <alanheim...@gmail.com> wrote:
Think Grey’s comment is spot on…and if yr a veteran seller and Rich would be a good example , who prob has (as the examples he cited )constantly sought after titles..Star Wars ,Casablanca etc in his inventory which I would assume he obtained years ago or at a low price , one can safely assume if you consign those to heritage or Bruce ( not much experience with propstore)yr going to make out well and very well if the poster gets into a bidding war scenario … the sellers fees, though obviously not small potatoes, are acceptable..
BOOM!
Grey, I'm not surprised at the vitriol from some, as they have been trained for vitriol in this business for 2 decades with the sellers who comment or insinuate that all dealers other them themself are crooks, or that their fees are
too high, or that no one packages well, or no one describes well, or no one grades well etc.
this gets topped off with "60% of everything we sell goes for less than that other company's BP".
no dealer should be pissing on other dealers to try to gain a competitive advantage and in any corporate arena they would be crushed with lawsuits and settlements
at the same time, "60% of everything we sell goes for less than $29" (up from $15, and then $20) only cheapens the hobby in general, and it makes even cheaper buyers.
Here's what I say about Heritage:
when I can get the prices they get, which are in general - better than what can be achieved by myself, or in ANY other auction house in the USA - then I will stop sending them posters to sell for me.
There's no chance that another US auction would have gotten $12,000.00 for a 1949 international style Casablanca one sheet, and the proof is the $106 that one auctioneer got for the same poster 3 weeks later. Considering I had it for
sale for $2000, I don't care if HA took 1/3 of the result.
HA under Grey's tenure also got me $1680 for a Pulp Fiction regular style one sheet, $600 for a 1989 Batman one sheet or a variety of other incredible results since I started consigning material to them.
Recently they even got $10,000 for a Star Wars one sheet I sent in.
When other sellers can match these results, I think they have a box to stand on and chirp. Until then, they're blowing farts in the wind
Rich
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Heritage fees
Frankly, I’m surprised at the vitriolic discussion here.
I believe Heritage has carried on very well for all the years I was there and continues with no question about their practices.
Yes, there is a seller's fee and a buyer's premium.
These aren’t hidden, nor is the buyer in any way surprised, as that is spelled out. What’s more, you will pay for shipping.
As for the consignor, one may ask why they would do that, as the fees add up so as to seem unreasonable.
In an auction, one in which there are a number of bidders and many cross-over bidders from other venues, you can get outstanding results that are far and away better than one can sell privately for.
It is absolutely the best way to sell collectibles!
I suggest a personal email to Zach, and he can answer any questions.
If not, I suggest I am very conversant with their rates and could help as well.
Thanks
Grey
Dale
(With apologies to Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps) don't you mean like THIS?
eMoviePoster.com Commission Rates
We have carefully figured out how much time and effort goes into selling an item online, from start to finish. It takes the exact same amount of work to sell a $10 one-sheet as a $1000 one-sheet. The cost to us of the labor and overhead required to sell each
item is an absolute minimum of $12.50 each. The vast majority of buyers pay with credit cards or PayPal, which costs us roughly three percent of the total. Taking everything into consideration, we have arrived at the below commission rates.
If an item sells for: We receive this amount:
$20,000+ 10% of the selling price
$15,000 to $19,999 12% of the selling price
$10,000 to 14,999 14% of the selling price
$7,500 to $9,999 16% of the selling price
$5,000 to $7,499 18% of the selling price
$1,200 to $4,999 20% of the selling price
$600 to $1,199 22% of the selling price
$400 to $599 24% of the selling price
$250 to $399 26% of the selling price
$100 to $249 28% of the selling price
$70 to $99 30% of the selling price
$50 to $69 35% of the selling price
$35 to $49 40% of the selling price
$25 to $34 50% of the selling price
$13 to $24 66% of the selling price
$1 to $12 75% of the selling price
*The rates are for what is sold in each individual auction, not for your consignment as a whole. And note that we don't want ANY sub-$30 consignments, which is why we have set those rates so high, but they are still quite a bit lower than auctions with "$29
minimum buyers premiums".
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT OUR RATES: If you compare the above rates to those of other major auction companies, it may appear that we charge MORE than they do. BUT ACTUALLY, WE CHARGE LESS THAN THEY DO AT EVERY SINGLE PRICE LEVEL (see the link below
for a chart that proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt)! How is this true? Because they charge "buyers premiums" to every buyer (usually 20% or so), which means that a buyer of a "$1,000" poster pays $200 more, or $1,200 in all. The seller (you) then receives
$1,000 less their commission (usually 15% to 25%), which means that you receive between $750 and $850 on that poster that the buyer paid $1,200 for. But IN OUR AUCTIONS, when your poster auctions for $1,200, there is no buyers premium, and you receive $1,200
less 20%, which is $960, substantially more than the $750 to $850 you receive from any other major auction!
https://www.emovieposter.com/learnmore/?page=consign#intro
Bruce
This is ridiculous, is it really that hard to layout out a net return chart for potential customers.
Your items sells for 750 - 999.000 with buyers premium, you the buyer get .75 - .99 for that consigned item.
----- Original Message -----
From: "peter contarino" <mpexchangeu...@gmail.com>
To: "MoPo-L" <MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2023 3:34:52 PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Heritage fees
Hi Helmut,
Well I did get a perfunctory email, albeit no mention of how the BP affects
the final seller's net:
.
Hi Peter,
I believe your question was already answered.
Consignment rates vary depending on category and auction format. Heritage
sells over 40 categories of collectibles, all with very different markets.
As with every other auction venue, the seller’s fee (expressed as a
percentage of hammer) is deducted from the hammer price (winning bid
amount) realized by a lot. The seller’s fee is agreed to and memorialized
in a consignment contract.
If the seller’s fee was 25% of hammer for a lot that sells for $1000 or
less, the seller would net $37.50.
I’ve shown you where to locate buyer’s premium information for each
auction. Any bid you place on the website will tell you what the resultant
purchase price would be if you were to win the auction at that bid amount.
Zach Pogemiller
On Sat, Jun 10, 2023 at 11:49 AM <texasmu...@web.de> wrote:
> Peter,
>
> I hope you did not expect Heritage to answer your question? Since Grey has
> gone, Heritage is exclusively abusing MoPo for their auction spamming.
>
> Generally speaking, all auction houses charge from both ends: If a lot
> sells for $200, they add a buyer‘s premium of 20-35% and they charge a
> commission to seller as well, which is usually another 20-25%. If you are
> lucky, that leaves $150 to $160 in your pocket. But that‘s before the
> Paypal fees of course, or the (usually pretty brutal) wire transfer fee. In
> the pre-digital days Christies and Sothebys would also charge a hefty extra
> fee for showing an image of your lot in their catalog.
>
> Helmut
>
>
> > Gesendet: Mittwoch, den 07.06.2023 um 17:31 Uhr
> > Von: "peter contarino" <mpexchangeu...@gmail.com>
> > An: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
> > Betreff: [MOPO] Heritage fees
> >
> > Can anyone provide me with a link to HA auction fees please? I have been
> > looking at their site for 10 minutes and can't find anything. Everything
> > else under the sun is easily available.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Peter
> >
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