Canceled my winning bid…

I've been buying at auctions for about 25 years. The one thing I learned early on is to factor in all costs with my bid. If it's a coin I have been looking for for a long time I will place a strong bid to guarantee a win.

Based on the cost of the item in this post I think it would be best to stay away from bidding on cheap stuff overseas. It's not that item was bad but, it's the cost to bring it to the USA. I don't know any auction house that doesn't charge for shipping. Also because it is coming from out side the USA there are customs documents that need to be filled out buy the shipper. They have to do them or the package will get stuck in customs. This means the auction has to do extra work to ship the item. Thus you will pay more.

 

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heritage charges 19.00 (even for a 1.00 coin) and most local auctions are 15-18 percent, auction companies sometimes make a lot more than the consigner...

 

That is crazy !! It's like the other day, I saw this ad for items for 1cent but the shipping was 14.95 !! Their not making money, yeah right !

 

I won a lot in a German auction recently. Unfortunately I only won one group. Shipping was 45 Euro for DHL. I was pissed but paid it. It showed up 1.5 months later in a plain mailer from the German post.

If I hadn't won the highest graded Class F anonymous follis I have ever seen, (including DO specimens), I would still be livid about it.

 

I see a lot of people here are complaining about the "costs" (fees). What most people don't understand is the cost of doing business. An auction company is really no different than any other business. They have a lot of costs people don't realize. Even a lot their employees don't think about. Before complaining to much try to think about the process and the number of people involved.

 

People even complain about eBay's fees, which are much cheaper.

 

True!

 

that is really crazy.

 

Importing ancient coins into the US can be a legal problem for some examples.

 

An auction house wants the benifits of profiteering on mass retail without the risk of holding inventory, and the rest of the business expenses. The heck with that.

Business expenses are part of the price for all items everywhere. Only auction houses and ticket master get away with slapping additional charges to the price after the purcchase decision is made. That would be consumer fraud at Walgreens.

 

I think that the OP should be banned from all auctions. When you bid on heritage It’s clearly listed that there’s an Auction fees in this fee is actually seen When you bid prior to submitting. If you don’t know what the auction fee percentages are prior to auction You just have no business involving yourself in Any auctions.While you can debate the shipping and handling to complain about the auction fee shows how important it is to know what you’re doing before buying Or bidding.

 

that is rather extreme, I would think.

 

I don't think it's at all extreme. Try paying a little attention to what you are buying. A 100 percent buyer's fee is no different than a 5 percent fee as long as it is posted up front.

You bid...you pay...not that difficult a proposition.

 

Actually it is a difficult proposition and an extreme reaction. Being banned from ***all auctions everywhere and for life*** is extreme. And, as you should know, this is a market skill people have to learn. Foisting costs on the sale price is actually a TRAP and it shouldn't be allowed. And this is not even a FLAT fee, but priced by percentages. The percent should be built into the hammer price and it should be the burden of the seller because it is fundementally misleading and is illegal in standard retailing.

 

if it’s too confusing for somebody to calculate how much money they owe for a fee then it’s probably too confusing for them to participate in auctions. The exception of eBay I have not seen a single auction where the price is the total price and not the base price with the commission added. This is America you’re free to do whatever you want but the flipside is if you agree to do some thing you should do it. The math involved is really not very complexAnd so I really don’t think you get a pass because you can’t add 20% onto your bill as I said before if there was an issue with disclosure of a shipping bill and or it was unreasonable and not disclosed That’s a different issue. Otherwise see above

 

For the record, auctions are not anything like 'standard retailing'.

 

No, the practice should be made illegal, as it is confusing to EVERYONE, not just some.

 

Really? Everyone? Don't paint with such a broad brush. It seems there's quite a few here with more of an understanding of how auctions, buyers premiums, taxes, shipping and the like all work to a final price.

 

Not in the US and not in US business law. You are way off now and bloviating politically about a fantasy that you hold. Markets are regulated completely. What you say in commerce, how you say it, how you price, how you enter a market, how you behave in a market are all subject to ligation and regulation. This practice of sneaking fees into auction hammer prices has been allowed until now for a number of reasons. One is that until recently, auctions were largely, but not exclusively, a small part of the overall market, that was largely practiced in circles of experts that with very sophiscated buyers. Or it was used to clear merchandise by government or banks under forfitior law, or to facilitate moving exclusive product to an exclusive market where ownership of merchandize was diverse, such as with cattle and such. With the rise of auctions as a tool for the general market, it is worth evaluating these laws because they are essentially deceptive and exploitative. Pointing a finger as someone and saying they need to be banned from all auctions forever solves NOTHING in terms of the problems this thread discusses legitimately.

 

NO it is too hard to calculate what your are bidding in real time when you need to add fees and 20% to what your a bidding while the clock is counting off and the auctioneer is rambling.