The Chinese and Asian Art Forum. For Fans, Collectors and Dealers.
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Part venting, but part serious:
Sotheby's just increased their premiums from 25% to 26%. Some places go over 30%. When I look at catalogues from twenty years ago--even ten years ago, I regularly see 17.5% or less. I know they're charging consignors as well.
Is there not room for competition in this? It seems pointless when all you get sometimes is one to four pictures, boiler plate emails, outsourced shipping, and thirty seconds with an auctioneer (maybe).
Meanwhile, auction houses are known to sell exceedingly rare pieces (like a Picasso) with 0% commission (just so they can stay they sold it?)
Does anyone know of a good auction house with reasonable commissions (under 20% premiums)? Ebay rates are good, but the sellers are doing most of the work (photography, paid advertising, fielding questions, shipping and packing, building and writing the listings).
If not possible, what has made it so expensive? Webhosting?
What is 1% of this? A LOT. Sotheby’s Has Brokered $6.4 Billion in Sales So Far in 2022, Down 7 Percent on Last Year’s Total
It's not just website 🙂 But additional annual income to maintain a yacht for a main shareholders guaranteed....
I didn't think to find out if Sotheby's was publicly traded. Apparently, it had been since the 1980s. The company also allegedly owned Hindman in Chicago, although this isn't often mentioned, and I am not sure if it remains true.
It was later in 2006 made private again, so...there you have it. This might or might not have something to do with the premiums creeping higher.
I disagree with "goodwill" culture, and feel like this is an advocacy of that.
The value being more and more attributed to the salesmanship and less to the objects...eventually the trousers come off.
@rahawkins It took me a moment to figure out if your compaint was as a buyer, or a seller. There is no compaint as a buyer... you simply calculate the buyer premium into what your MAXIMUM bid would be determine your maximum hammer price.
But, I now understand your complaint as a seller, and with this, perhaps I can help.
Most of the smaller venue auctions, let's call them general auction houses, lack the expertise to know if your Chinese/Japanese piece is genuine, and what it will actually sell for. They probably already have experience having sold 100x more fakes/copies, and have encountered push back from buyers seeking returns or discounts due to inaccurate condition reports. To say the least, they are NOT EAGER to offer discounts due to the amount of percieved 'hassle' involved.
The high end auction houses often offer sellers a discount IF the piece is obviously of high interest, and generally to sellers who can provide a regular supply of high quality items to sell.
So, how do you get a smaller auction house to offer a discount on their seller fees:
1) Establish a reputaton as a seller who bring good quality pieces to the auction block, and afterwards, negociate on the fee.
2) Work with an auction house that sells Asian antiques on a regular basis and appreciates the upside of selling quality Chinese/Japanese antiques, and provide quality comparitive examples of similar items to your own that have sold (don't bring sales from some of those ridiculous auctin houses flaunting fake results).
3) Sell without reserve and with a low estimate... this assures the auction house that you're serious about selling.
4) Ask the auction house if they ever sell with discounted seller fees, and under what circumstances. Some auction houses will cut off their nose to spite their own faces by insisting that everyone gets the same treatment - that is a bad business practice, and likely indicates that the auction house is out of step with the demand for quality Chinese/Japanese antiques.... or that they simply think they have enough resources that they don't need your business (which kind of brings us back to suggestion #1).
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Peter Combs
Topics and categories on The BidAmount Asian Art Forum | Chinese Art
Kangxi vases, Kangxi dishes and chargers, Kangxi ritual pieces, Kangxi scholar's objects, Qianlong famille rose, Qianlong enamels, Qianlong period paintings, Qianlong Emporer's court, Fine porcelain of the Yongzheng period. Chinese imperial art, Ming porcelain including Jiajing, Wanli, Xuande, Chenghua as well as Ming jades and bronzes.
The BidAmount Asian Art Forum | Chinese Art
A free Asian art discussion board and Asian art message board for dealers and collectors of art and antiques from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the rest of Asia. Linked to all of the BidAmount Asian art reference areas, with videos from plcombs Asian Art and Bidamount on YouTube. Sign up also for the weekly BidAmount newsletter and catalogs of active eBay listing of Chinese porcelain, bronze, jades, robes, and paintings.
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