Auction House Sales - Beware!

obiwannacollect

Jedi Knight
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
418
Hello all,

Probably been said a few times but as I'm sure there are always new members joining the forum a word of advice for everyone. Tread very carefully when buying something from the auction. Understandably there will always be fees, naturally its a business. Expect to pay the top end for postage and ALWAYS get a condition report. if you don't ask whether something is resealed or has dents etc they have NO duty of care to inform you in the first place. I have had a rather nasty experience but i got carried away and wanted to try something different. Crazy postage and they didn't even put the figures in a box :lol: Stick to places like this! I've learnt the hard way.

Francisco
 

edd_jedi

Moderator
Staff member
Supporter
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Oct 19, 2006
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8,877
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UK
Apart from Vectis which is a specialist and understands collecting, I would only ever buy from a 'normal' auction in person where I could inspect the item before bidding and take it home with me.
 

Mr-shifter

Sith Lord
Joined
Aug 25, 2013
Messages
2,996
Location
Sussex by the Sea
Sound advice. Many people don't realise that the buyer has to pay a fee at auction. That's right, stick 20% on top of the hammer price. Hurts doesn't it. The final poke in the eye is the 20% is a service, and not counted as part of the sale, so add vat to it as well.

A lot of "cheap" vectis sales are not as cheap as you think when you slam the fees on top.

Think about this. An item gets sold for £100. The auction house charges the seller and buyer. The buyer pays £120, because of commission and the seller gets £80 because of the 20% sellers fee.

Every £100 of auction money nets the auction house £40. As bad as hmrc!!!
 

Lindo

Sith Lord
Joined
Jul 30, 2015
Messages
1,471
Location
Durham
Mr-shifter said:
Sound advice. Many people don't realise that the buyer has to pay a fee at auction. That's right, stick 20% on top of the hammer price. Hurts doesn't it. The final poke in the eye is the 20% is a service, and not counted as part of the sale, so add vat to it as well.

A lot of "cheap" vectis sales are not as cheap as you think when you slam the fees on top.

Think about this. An item gets sold for £100. The auction house charges the seller and buyer. The buyer pays £120, because of commission and the seller gets £80 because of the 20% sellers fee.

Every £100 of auction money nets the auction house £40. As bad as hmrc!!!
Bang on it is a bit of a rip off
 

jared007

Padawan
Joined
Apr 26, 2015
Messages
249
Mr-shifter said:
That's right, stick 20% on top of the hammer price. Hurts doesn't it. The final poke in the eye is the 20% is a service, and not counted as part of the sale, so add vat to it as well.

Yes, it's hard to get a "bargain" at vectis - you have to be very lucky. When I add Vectis sales to Star Wars Tracker, I record the final price as the hammer price + 24%. That way you can get a like-for-like comparison across markets. Vectis prices are rarely the cheap option. However, they are usually the only game in town that publicly auctions some of the higher end items that hardly ever hit eBay and other places.
 
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