Auction house charges

[Tynie Topics]

It’s time to have another rant about auction houses and the ridiculous charges currently being levied on buyers (I have never sold at an auction so I’ll leave that to one side).

It’s bad enough that a buyer is being charged anything between 23-30% on top of the hammer price - bearing in mind the seller is also paying a commission themselves of around 15% - but then it’s the fees and packing charges that really take the biscuit.

Mullocks for example for the auction just gone.

Two lots won, which would fall under the large letter category for posting. The postage is charged at cost which is fine, you’d expect that, but then you get stiffed with a £7 packing charge for putting a programme and a couple of pics into one envelope. Then there is something called “saleroom white label surcharge” which is £1.20 plus VAT, no idea what on earth that is. What makes it worse, is that the Mullocks auction looks as though it was held in someones shed, no venue hire costs.

I’ve mentioned Mullocks but it can also be attributed to any number of other auction houses to varying degrees, there’s worse than Mullocks. Then of course, you have the Saleroom and easylive charges, although to be fair to the latter, they offer the one-off £3 charge which can mitigate your costs if bidding on high value items.

Auction houses are frankly taking the piss and get away with it because us mugs put up with it, that’s without even mentioning the shadier practices alluded to in the "Bids at Auction" thread on here. Are we being “Done up like a kipper” in plain sight?

It may not be perfect and occasionally open to abuse, but at least eBay fees and charges have remained reasonable for sellers - particularly when utilising their once a fortnight 70% off offer - and of course zero fees for buyers.

Not sure what, if anything, can be done about it other than suck it up if they have something you want. Over a barrel indeed.
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[oldprogs1]

Sheffield Auction Gallery charge £12 for putting anything in an envelope. That's plus postage!

[martino]

Sadly, the P&P charges are unavoidable as most Auction Houses now do not allow bidders in the room, as was the case in the old days. Then you could turn up, bid, pay for and take your wins away without any extra charges.

Now the favoured options of having closed auction rooms and timed auctions have opened up a further lucrative revenue stream for them.

A small surcharge may be justified but the examples quoted are taking the proverbial and risking potential bidders walking away.

[Tynie Topics]

Where there is no options to attend or collect then there should be no additional charges at all to the hammer, apart from commission and postage - at cost. There's an argument that postage costs should be included in the commission if below a certain weight/size.

It really needs a new player to break the mould and shake the whole thing up.
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[Tynie Topics]

I thought there would be more opinion on this particular subject.

Is it a case of not biting the hand that feeds?
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[Stute2022]

I bought items last week from Mullocks and am waiting to get a shipping quote before commenting as I'm sure (unless something has changed) it'll be sky high

[grantham]

No opinion on the perceived overcharging of postage as I generally collect any auction wins, doesn't matter where it is in the Country, I try to double up with either dropping something off or collecting in the same journey

I'm centrally located so not many auction houses are too far out of reach, plus it gives you the opportunity to review any unsold lots
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[Dorking]

I very rarely indeed buy from 'proper auctions' - ebay accounts for the vast majority of what I collect.

Sheffield Auction Gallery have been mentioned on here in the past for having high charges - I've only ever bought from them once, when it was literally a Royal Box cup final programme that I didn't think I would find for sale anywhere else, otherwise I wouldn't have even bought that from them. With that particular company I seem to remember that reading their terms it was like they were doing you a favour even letting you buy an item!

For all its faults ebay has largely worked very well for me over the years.

Sportingold who I have used, have always been excellent to deal with to be fair.

[Basford United]

Invoice received from Mullocks for sending a bundle of 24 x 60/70s non league (so very little weight) - £11.69.
Once bitten, twice................

[pafcprogs]

i was also going to add that Sportingold were very sensible and reasonable re postage when I was in the buying days
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Most Plymouth post 1959 but plenty of others including reserves, friendlies, Cup Finals Internationals and Club issues, handbooks and other sports.

[thfcbasil]

Hi, Bought from Staceys run by Dave Alexander and postage was at cost. No handling charge or add ons. Paid what they paid to send. Great service.

[Enniskillendoc]

Hi. I agree. I bought an item from Mullocks last week. The successful bid was £15. With commission and postage and packing it almost doubled. £28.46. They really are taking the P***.

[nutfield priory]

thfcbasil wrote:

Hi, Bought from Staceys run by Dave Alexander and postage was at cost. No handling charge or add ons. Paid what they paid to send. Great service.

Totally agree with you with Staceys and Dave Alexander, excellent service all round from them

[Bokbag]

I also think there must be a subsection of collectors who disregard eBay or don’t do their research before bidding. A small example from the recent auctions - a 1993 champions league final programme went for £90 which with fees is at least £117 plus postage and handling. The exact same programme has been going round and round eBay for a year at £75 posted and even that is overpriced.

As long as people don’t do research and disregard fees, or at least don’t factor them in, then they are free to charge what they want

[ndg1860]

Bokbag wrote:

I also think there must be a subsection of collectors who disregard eBay or don’t do their research before bidding. A small example from the recent auctions - a 1993 champions league final programme went for £90 which with fees is at least £117 plus postage and handling. The exact same programme has been going round and round eBay for a year at £75 posted and even that is overpriced. As long as people don’t do research and disregard fees, or at least don’t factor them in, then they are free to charge what they want

There was an item in Terry's late last week that had an estimate range of £100 to £150. A bid of £100 was made prior to the auction and that held. I bought the same programme last August for under £40 through eBay.

That is, there definitely appears to be a different market out there between eBay and the auctions. It may not be research, but collectors just ignoring eBay and using auctions for their buys.

[Griffon]

I've found Sportingold and Midland Sports Auctions to be very fair with their postage/packing charges. Some of the others are just ridiculous now. Even worse are the ones who don't offer postage and you either have to pay some expensive courier company to post your stuff or just not bother bidding.

I've also found it much harder to get any value for money at auctions recently. Since Covid it's gone a bit nuts. Some of the prices on the things I'm interested in (particularly badges) have been crazy recently.

I've also been put off by an incident where a couple of the items that were supposed to be in a lot I won went 'missing'. They just happened to be the two best items in the lot.

[Phil_MCFC_1946-1970]

I only have experience of buying from Mullocks and Sportingold. The latter have always been very fair but I raised my concerns to Mullocks and got back a hard nosed corporate response. They even charged VAT on the postage element of their ludicrous delivery costs which I think is questionable legally. I don't buy from Mullocks any more.

[colchestersid]

nutfield priory wrote:

thfcbasil wrote: Hi, Bought from Staceys run by Dave Alexander and postage was at cost. No handling charge or add ons. Paid what they paid to send. Great service. Totally agree with you with Staceys and Dave Alexander, excellent service all round from them

Just spoke to Dave Alexander, my winning package from Stacey's is being posted today, at cost, not a penny extra, just first class service every step of the way

[paulobee]

colchestersid wrote:

nutfield priory wrote: thfcbasil wrote: Hi, Bought from Staceys run by Dave Alexander and postage was at cost. No handling charge or add ons. Paid what they paid to send. Great service. Totally agree with you with Staceys and Dave Alexander, excellent service all round from them Just spoke to Dave Alexander, my winning package from Stacey's is being posted today, at cost, not a penny extra, just first class service every step of the way

Same here too. All at cost. Great to deal with. As were; Tim Davidson, Graham Budd and Knights.

[matt blue]

Mullocks take the piss and unless there is something exceptional in the auction I wont buy from them
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