Now Finalising Membership Buyers Premium Discounts

10th January 2021 by Steve Leave a Comment

For those wondering why my focus on making this a membership website will need an explanation and hopefully in this article it will provide these answers.

Auctions:

Traditional auctions have always had their costs to cover and thus the reason why they have to charge commissions to sellers and buyers alike for their part of the costs that are incurred as a result. In recent times the internet has played a bigger role and buyers now find that not only do they have the usual buyers premium but also an extra 5.95% thanks to those facilitating the online bidding. In many cases, it’s pushing buyer’s premiums up by as much as 28% inc VAT on top of the final hammer prices.

What these buyers’ premiums never take into account is those who buy more or higher priced auction lots, where combined payments and collection are usually simpler to handle than dealing with many individual lots and the work involved.

This really could be compared with combined posting where the workload is reduced by combining items in one consignment. It also has to be said that larger buyers tend to collect their many purchases and this again reduces the costs incurred by the auction house. Likewise, for those looking to buy the most valuable items the fees can really bite.

We looked at this and wondered how to make this fairer in the long run by allowing the buyers to choose their buyer’s premium rates through the membership they have chosen.

The memberships will of course have other benefits to access further features as they are introduced into this website but again this is a choice for anyone joining.

It’s only fair that buyers pay reasonable costs involved for the services they require and this website does a lot to make things fairer for all those involved in our auctions.

Membership buyer’s fees will be as follows.

• Basic £20 Year – 15%+Vat        Buyers Premium
• Silver £59 Year – 11.5%+Vat     Buyers Premium
• Gold  £99 Year –  8%+Vat         Buyers Premium

This only covers this aspect of the membership and there is more besides for the annual subscription.