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I am totally put off bidding on Auction House lots due to the ever increasing commission costs. I was astounded to see that Astons are asking internet bidders to part with 23% before VAT on the hammer price. Add on the VAT and you are looking at paying 27.6% That is absolutely rediculous and nothing short off day light robbery. If you are using Invaluable for live bidding you will be paying a whopping 27%!!!!

The thought of spending £1000 at an auction and then having to cough up a further £270 for bidding really sticks in my throat.

Then there's the exorbitant shipping costs to be added, especially if they use an independent shipper!

YYS4BOB wrote:Then there's the exorbitant shipping costs to be added, especially if they use an independent shipper!

Indeed Bob, not to mention the 2 - 3% credit card charge as well. It makes Auction house bidding a fools game.

It's only a matter of time before EBay hits winning bidders with a buyers premium.

I do buy at auctions, but always factor all the add-ons into my bid. I will only ever bid what an item is worth to me, including all costs. This is a principle I employ where ever I buy models for the collection. At least I don't incur postage costs at Vectis as I always collect my wins at Sandown Toy Fair. I never pay the asking price at boot/toy fairs etc. Always have a barter, and if I can't get to a price that's acceptable, I'll walk away. There's always another model and another day.

Presumably there is no governing body to oversee all this nonsense and put a stop to it and until there is, they carry on getting away with it with some lame excuse about rising overhead costs!!!

Ghosthunter.

If I ever needed to sell my collection through an auction house I would be very concerned that these high commission charges would put off many potential bidders.

Added to which, the auction house charges to collect your items then charges sellers commission as well!
If you sell an item for £100 for example, you will receive between £80-£83 usually. The purchaser could pay up to £127.50 plus postage. Who says auction houses don't know how to make money./ Vectis hold up to 5 sales a month. Average of 600 lots per sale. The profit on say £700K hammer price per annum is considerable bearing in mind the percentages they take from the bottom (sellers commission), and add to the top (buyers commission).

as a buyer I dont care what they charge, I'll adjust my bids downwards to suit.

it will affect the seller more than the buyer, as they will be getting less due to lower bids.


25-28% will no doubt be the norm soon enough. If you want to laugh Tooveys have recently changed there fees ;

Change of Buyer’s Premium to 24.5% plus VAT (29.4% including VAT @ 20%) with effect from 21st March 2017

Change of additional charge for buying live online via http://www.the-saleroom.com to 5% plus VAT (6% including VAT @ 20%) with effect from 21st March 2017.

not seen the fee for collection as yet. guess we'll all be reading the fine print a lot more in future instead of just looking at the %'s

Have noticed that Astons postage charges have nearly doubled in the last 4 or 5 years