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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IdesOfMarch01, post: 2931529, member: 39084&quot;]I agree that the user interface to an auction can be improved in most cases.&nbsp; Most user interfaces are abominably badly implemented, usually by programmers and designers who have no concept of the features that will make the user experience better and easier.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m puzzled as to how customs fees and shipping fees can be estimated if you (1) don&#039;t know the country of the bidder (or if he&#039;s bidding from one country but shipping to a different one), and (2) don&#039;t know how the bidder plans to ship the coins.&nbsp; Maybe I&#039;m just ignorant here since my dealer handles all these issues for me, but I&#039;d like to be enlightened as to how you would have the auction house estimate these two items for you.&nbsp; Or maybe they just display the customs and shipping fees for the top ten countries from which there are bidders present?</p><p><br /></p><p>But these are user <i>interface</i> issues, and are different from whether or not the fundamental <i>structure</i> of coin auctions can be improved. </p><p><br /></p><p>The only fundamental <i>structure</i> issue I glean from your posts is: Who pays the auction house&#039;s fees -- the buyer or seller? </p><p><br /></p><p>In most but not all coin auctions with which I&#039;m familiar, the buyer pays most of the fees.&nbsp; In some instances I realize that the seller pays a fee also, but for many high-end collections (e.g., NAC&#039;s auction of Mike Gasvoda&#039;s 12 Caesars collection), I suspect that the auction house actually returns part of the buyer&#039;s fee to the seller.&nbsp; The prestige and value of auctioning a $5M - $10M collection make it worthwhile to <i>pay</i> the seller some of the fees collected.</p><p><br /></p><p>Is this the structural issue you think should be changed?&nbsp; If so, how?&nbsp; One way or another, if an auction house needs 20% of the hammer price to make a profit and stay in business, they&#039;ll collect it from the buyer, seller, or both, and the buyer will end up paying this premium since the seller will factor any seller&#039;s fee into his minimum/reserve price for the coin.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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