How much money do you make?

That's insanely high for any coin of value. The average is no where near that for US houses unless you're talking about like 20 dollar coins where the listing fee would be a huge part of the seller fee. Even for seller plus buyers fee 20% is high especially if you're talking about 1000 dollar coin

 

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And they collect their fees again?

 

Really? For ancient coins, the buyer's fee alone is usually at least 20% these days.

 

If you shop around it's pretty easy to find places with a seller's commission of 10% (with a minimum fee, of course).

 

Yes. I have had around 20 coins (won from Heritage) with a urgent e-mail, "action required" Heritage then will tell you an anonymous buyer is making you a offer for $6400 on a coin you recently won for $3900. They will charge (20% fee) on the buyer / but not me. Other auction firms do not offer this service.
John

 

This is a really nice feature! Hope other auction houses add it at some point, though at 20% I’m very envious of all the dough Heritage must be rolling in

 

Yeah! I am tempted to quit lawncare and start an auction house use the cash to add more stuff to my coll.

 

I am very sorry to hear you had to sell your collection under those circumstances. If anyone else finds themself in a similar situation and needs the money immediately, ask the auction house if they accept your coins/collection as a consignment to their next auction and if they can pay you an advance right away. Many auction houses will do this to secure the consignment and the advances are usually around 30-40% of retail value.

 

I would agree. I get letters/ e-mails from over twenty auction house each year bugging me that they need consigners. They usually offer like you stated 40-50 % cash money up front. I am glad Donna is actively collecting/ and we can enjoy having her on CT
John

 

"It varies" is as accurate as one can get

I expected and saw as usual a host of comments about high commissions charged.
- Roma and CNG employ vast numbers of staff, all at degree level, whose sole job is to photograph, research and write up coins. And both have expensive premises in London, and/or host multi table booths at large coin shows needed to ensure consignments are as easy as possible. It's very expensive

- a quick look at Sixbid or Numisbids shows it's hardly a monopoly that allows one to charge high prices. The landscape is fiercely competitive and both quality (competence) and pricing play a factor.

The prices charged by the most active firms - in volume of ancients sold that's certainly Roma and CNG reflects this competitive business environment. It's should be no surprise that those firms with the largest throughput also are known for achieving higher prices and for the quality of their cataloguing. As a seller that matters far more than whether their commission is 10% or 5% or 0$

 

I haven't sold many coins at auction for years, but about 10 years ago, I sold most of my collection of middle and high grade Roman Imperial coins thru CNG. At that time, there was a $50 minimum consignment fee per lot plus a percentage of the hammer price. This meant that anything valued under about $200 was significantly eaten up with the commission. Nevertheless, I knew as I do today that CNG would bring substantially higher hammer prices than all but a handful of other European and American auctioneers.

This has influenced my buying patterns as well. Although consignment to auction is not the only way to sell coins, it can bring the highest return even with high consignment commissions, especially for high quality/rare items. For this reason, lately I tend to target coins with values > $500, knowing that they will ultimately be sought after for consignment by prospective auction houses, and my share (or my heirs share) of the hammer will be optimized.