Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Joe2007, post: 2988268, member: 1262&quot;]Overhead a conversation between an auctioneer and a few antique dealers that I thought was interesting. The auctioneer said that he had to be selective in his consignments because the fixed costs for holding a moderately sized estate or consignment auction was $6,000 before the first item gets sold.</p><p><br /></p><p>Costs include staff for day of sale and to move and prep the items beforehand including 2 auctioneers, 4 ringmen, 1 clerk, and a person in the checkout booth. The rental of the facility is also a sizeable cost despite there being a plethora of old abandoned retail storefronts in the area. Advertising is also costly, the auctioneer says he still takes out small classified ads in the local paper, pays for an auctionzip listing, and sends out fliers to some regulars. He doesn&#039;t accept credit cards since that would add to fixed costs and decrease margins, anyways the auction crowd in the area is usually well stocked with cash and checks. Lastly there is disposal fees on the stuff that doesn&#039;t sell and the consignor won&#039;t take back.</p><p><br /></p><p>He said that he often has to take the whole estate, including the good and the bad and that there can be substantial cleanout, dumpster costs that are sometimes passed on to the consignor, sometimes eaten by the auctioneer. He pointed to one of the wagon loads packed with old books, household goods, low end antiques and said that he doesn&#039;t care what the contents sell for as long as the new buyers &quot;take it&quot; since it was the &quot;junk&quot; he had to take to get a shot at selling the better items at a later sale.</p><p><br /></p><p>Your Thoughts?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in