Heritage Buyer's Fees?

I've bought coins from Heritage auctions in the past and always consider the buyers fee in my bids. This is true with any auction house I've dealt with. I've used Great Collections to sell coins in the past since they have relatively low fees (5% for coins under $1000 plus a individual coin fee). The other auction houses charge more. The bottom line is, they are for profit businesses, just like coin dealers.

 

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Is there a monetary cap on the buyer's fee at any of these big auction houses?

So for instance, if you buy a coin for $1 million at 20% buyer's fee at XYZ Auction house, do they have a maximum cap of say, $100K so you don't pay $200K extra? Or, maybe it's a tiered structure? I haven't checked.

Also, it may actually be better to use CC for purchases depending on the cash/certified check/wire transfer/etc. discount, and the cashback that your CC offers.

 

I'd definitely put that into a spreadsheet to automatically calculate the total actual auction price. Since I already know what my maximum bid price is, I'd know exactly what I'd pay in advance with little effort.

If anyone's interested, I can make a spreadsheet for all of the auction houses and make it available for anyone to use. I'll just need someone to hunt down all of the respective variables, and the type of auction format the House uses.

 

It's possible that high money volume buyers get a break on the buyer's premiums. If so, it's not made public. Maybe someone has inside info or it's come to light in lawsuits. Because auction prices realized are posted as hammer plus premium, auction houses might be found guilty of deceptive business practices (in civil or criminal proceedings) if the premium was less than advertised. Many auctions houses have a "no exceptions" clause on the buyer's premium in the terms and conditions too.

There is a lot more flexibility in dealing with sellers than buyers. It's rumored (and I believe true) that if you consign a huge amount (hundreds of thousands of $), not only do you not pay a seller's premium, but may get a kickback from the hammer prices. If you get into the 7-figure range, everything is open to negotiation prior to the auction.

I imagine that Pogue got a kickback for consigning his coins to Stacks Bowers. He got a few other perks too, like special slabbing, solo deluxe catalogs, viewing at multiple venues, and right to withdraw lots during the live auction.

Cal

 

Most auction houses will not accept credit cards or PayPal for invoices more than a couple thousand $ or so. Check, MO, or bank wire is required.

Cal

 

A while back Superior sold a multi-million dollar collection. The contract's wording said something to the effect of no charge to the seller. The seller [actually I believe it was the seller's estate] sued, claiming the wording meant the seller got all the buyer's premiums too. A jury bought that argument, Superior took a major hit. Pretty sure contracts are worded more carefully today. By the way, one of the founders of Currency Auctions of America [which became part of Heritage] was a lawyer, so doubt if Heritage ever had such sloppy wording in its consignment contracts.

 

Somebody mentioned Great Collections at the 10 percent buyers fee. David Lawrence has auctions every week with no buyers fee.

I've bought many times from Heritage. Like others suggested it's a matter of calculating the 17.5 percent into the maximum one is willing to pay.

With the really big coins -- defined as totally out of my league, now and forever -- I'm willing to bet the fee is less of an issue for those buyers.

 

The 17.5 % or 20 % doesn't bother me; as others have pointed out, you can just do a little math and reduce your bid to allow for the buyer's fee. What is a problem sometimes is that $19 minimum per lot. Especially in their on-line auctions, there are often lots I am interested in that are worth maybe $25 - $30. Allow for postage, and you end up bidding three or four dollars on a $30 lot!

 

Lower your bid so the end result is what you are comfortable paying.

 

My head hurts now, LOL. I see now, and will try it out on something cheap first, such as SAEs, or such. Thanks again to all.

 

Is there a buyer's premium if you buy on Heritage via the "make an offer" option?

 

Sellers I think, but from what I've read most of those coins aren't really for sale

 

Ok. If I read it correctly, it said only the seller pays a 10% premium but waives paypal fees for this service. Just wanted to make sure I read correctly as there are long and convoluted explanations of it on their site. Thanks.

 

I sold a make an offer coin I won at a Heritage auction a number of years ago. The offer was substantially more than what I purchased the coin for.

 

I wanted to add that I paid a seller fee but didn't think the buyer paid a buyers fee.

 

Thank you much for the post. If I go to PCGS and see listings of sales, does that includes the additional 17 to 20 percent?

 

I believe it does include the buyers premium.

 

At HA auction archives, the sold prices include BP.

 

And if one is looking at the PCGS listings of sales, the Heritage number does include the BP.

 

All the prices in PCGS Auction Prices Realized are hammer plus buyer's premium regardless of auction company. Where you need to be careful is in using digital or paper listings of auction companies for prices realized. These days, most include the buyer's premium for auctions held the last 10-15 years. Older prices realized, such as those you might download from the Newman Portal, are often hammer prices only.

There are occasional errors of commission and omission in PCGS prices realized. Sometimes if you click on an entry, you'll find that it's a coin that is in the wrong category (denomination or style or other). If a price for a particular coin appears out of place in the listings, click on it and you may find it's a mistake. They often leave out a CAC notation for coins so approved, so if CAC is important, you'll need to click on the individual coins to see if they had a sticker.

The problems with PCGS prices realized are few though, and it's my go-to guide for prices. It can be very useful for bidding in future auctions and for bargaining with dealers. If you point-out that their initial asking price is higher than any auction price in the last few years, they may give you a better price. Sometimes you can spot the same coin being offered by a dealer in a recent auction listing, which gives you some idea of their cost (assuming they actually own it).

Cal