SCP Auctions: 25% Buyers Fee!!

[Moustache Gang]

Readers,

Consider yourself lucky we have the GUU auction to find great game used material and only have to pay a 15% buyers fee. I say that because I did notice on another post that someone was upset the fee went from 10% to 15%.

I just called SCP auction to sign up for their live auction. The team there was very professional and my only question after signing up was, "What is the hammer fee?" She politely advised 25%!!!

Usually SCP has an auction catalog. This is the first time I did not receive a catalog.

So remember some may be upset with 15%, but 25% without a catalog is a bit much to take.

Mark

[JimCaravello]

Now 25% is a lot for sure......that is interesting.....you really have to factor these fees into your bidding. Years ago when you bid on something, the hammer fee was an afterthought. Today - you really have to look at each bidding increment and work through the hammer fees to make sure you don't go overboard and overcommit............

[5kRunner]

Wow! That is up from the 20% they charged in January. 15% seems like a bargain compared to 25%.

They did send out catalogs, because I received one about 3 weeks ago. Maybe you were removed from their mailing list?

[BULBUS]

These out of control fees are going to drive bidders and consigners away from these auctions. At 15%, they were out of my league. In the 5+ years that I have been collecting game used, I won 1 auction for AM and 1 from Mastro. I don't even look at their catalogs anymore. Here, Ebay, and occasionally Steiner (I say ocassionally because they now charge a buyers premium) are my sources.

[sammy]

Is anyone actually surprised at the increase in the auction fee to 25 percent?

I have been, as some say, "whining" about this for years, but no one really seemed to care.

Glad to see the 25 percent fee actually got some attention.

I remember when it was raised to 15 / 17.5 / 20 percent and people whined.

All the others will soon be raising their fees too.

Just curious, at what rate will you say enough?

I'm thinking about 40 to 50 percent will be the standard rate in few years.

[kingjammy24]

without large amounts of quality consignments, an auction house is nothing.

auction houses typically fetch a higher hammer price than ebay. how much more though? has anyone ever come up with any stats? is the amount that they fetch above ebay more or less than their consignment rate?

paying a 30% consignment fee doesn't make much sense if your item only realizes a 10% higher price over ebay. eventually, consigners will do the math and realize that the higher prices attained by auction houses may not compensate for the significantly higher consignment fees. as a consigner, with a choice of ebay or auction house, you're certainly not going to watch a good portion of your profit be eaten up by the consignment fee.

rudy.

[cohibasmoker]

Let's do the percentages, if the hammer fee for an item is 25% and the consignment fee is 30% for the same item, it seems that the auction house will pocket 55% from the sale for an item they didn't even own.

Now that's a sweet deal.

Jim

[lund6771]

Now 25% is a lot for sure......that is interesting.....you really have to factor these fees into your bidding. Years ago when you bid on something, the hammer fee was an afterthought. Today - you really have to look at each bidding increment and work through the hammer fees to make sure you don't go overboard and overcommit............

I always have a calculater near by when I'm bidding on anything...I don't know how you can't factor in the hammer fee...

it's part of the price right?