Consigning for Beginners
So you’re thinking about putting an item up for auction but want to know how much you’ll actually get for it.
Well, sometimes auction houses have absurd hidden fees and outlandish pricing. For real.
What? Did you just read… transparency? That’s right.
Here’s how it works. As an intermediary, we facilitate the buying and selling of goods. A little like Amazon (sans the billionaire CEO.) To cover the cost of facilitating this service and everything that goes into it (employee salaries, facilities, marketing, etc.), we charge a standard auction house commission between 20 - 50%. Let’s keep going.
Item didn’t sell? Pay up, Buttercup.
A very common practice in the auction industry is to charge sellers, aka consigners, what is called a buy-in fee. This is usually a minimum fee charged for selling an item at auction, paid regardless of whether it sells or NOT. The buy-in fee covers the time and resources spent on marketing their item to sell it.
To us, that’s a big no-no.
In the unlikely scenario that your item doesn’t sell, we do not charge you anything. Why? Because we think that it’s only fair that way. And because we <3 you.
Fun fact: 99% of our clients will feature their item in another auction if their item didn’t sell the first time around; however, there’s no obligation.
How to cheat the system
How can you get around paying us a big commission if you sell with us? If you consign an item worth $100,000, we know, we’re talking big bucks. Whether you have ludicrous landscapes, preposterous portraits, fantastic furniture, or jumbo jewelry, anything worth over $100,000 we will negotiate a special contact with you with lower commission fees.
You still with me? Good.
Let’s comb through the details of everything you just learned.
Buy-in: $0 (you don’t pay anything if your item does not sell)
Seller’s commission: we deduct a commission fee of 20 - 35% from the hammer price*
reduced seller’s commission for items or collections over $100,000*
For everything else, here’s how our sliding scale commission works:
- $500 - $4,999: 35% commission
- $5,000 - $9,999: 25% commission
- $10,000 - and above: 20% commission
*Hammer price: what the item sells for
Consignor - seller
What the Heck is it? The Reserve
Oh great, more auction terminology. This one’s easy. A reserve is a minimum price you are willing to accept for your item when it is offered at auction.
We advise you on what this amount should be during the valuation process. Each reserve is tailored to the item; there is no standard. However, it usually hovers around 50-75% of the estimate. So if your item is worth $10,000, the bidding might start between $5,000 and $7,500, for example.
Also, we won’t undervalue your item just to get it sold. We will use our years of experience to give you a fair, honest, and realistic estimate and reserve, with the goal of protecting the value you invested in your piece while getting it sold.
Pick Your Style
Whether you do things via your desktop, are on the go and prefer using your phone, or are old-school and like to get things done face-to-face, stache-to-stache… You can consign whichever way you want.
Fill out our online valuation form (1-week average turnaround)
Request a valuation via our app on Google Play or App Store (5-7 day average turnaround time)
Bring your item in for a physical valuation (slowest) - schedule an appointment here.
Or if you have a whole collection make an appointment for our specialists to come out to your location for an in-person valuation.
Still curious about selling at auction?
Check out the complete guide and breakdown. You can also take a look at how to buy. So there you have it, consigning for beginners. If you’ve got any other questions or have a specific item in mind that you’d like us to list then don’t hesitate to give us a holler.
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