What is a typical auctioneer's slice of the a(u)ction?

Boulevardier

My siblings and I are currrently having the contents of our late father's house valued.

There is some good furniture and a couple of paintings and pieces of silver.

One auctioneer has said he can get it auctioned with his take being 20% plus VAT.

That doesn't sound too bad, but is it a normal rate for this kind of thing?

dpofloinn

It varies from auctioneer to auctioneer to some places are 15% +VAT sellers fee and 15%+VAT buyers fee added to that there can be a 10% on top fee for set reserves, Some also have a sliding scale of percentages for example items valued between 0 and 10,000 carry a 15% fee 10,001 to 20,000 have a 12.5% fee and so on.A common occurence is having a minimum fee of 5euro per item for items under a certain value so they will charge 5euro or 15% which ever is higher.

I dont mean to pry but are you planning on selling a few items at auction? or is it a house clearance? if its the latter you can sometimes negotiate a sellers fee with an auctioneer

Wild_Dogger

Auction fees vary and are generally open to negotiation.

The bigger auction houses tend to have a broader clientele base and prices can be higher as a result.

There is competition to get the 'good' items for sale. There's no harm asking if the auctioneer can knock a few percent off considering the quantity of items you are consigning.

What type of items do you intend selling ? There may not be much room to haggle with antique furniture (assuming it is standard Victorian/Edwardian items)
The art and smaller items are selling fairly well though

Boulevardier

We have now gone with an auctioneer whose take is 15%. The risk we run of course is that this auctioneer has less moneyed people coming to his auctions than the first guy, which means we would be out of pocket.

Also, the provisional valuations are a bit disappointing, except for one desk which is apparently worth 3K.

Wild_Dogger

Best of luck !!!!