Are auction houses the biggest bunch of crooks ever?

so seller only gets £68 from it and the buyer ends up paying £120?

does sound like daylight robbery.

bit like betfair

That's if you get a good auctioneer. Was watching an auction (Gerrards, St.Annes-on-sea) online and the guy looked and sounded like he had a massive hangover and was totally disinterested in the lots he was selling.

and up to 28 days to get your dosh from the auction house after the sale

Golfboy....where have you been.....seem to have been missing for a while?

Leopard thanks for asking, I just haven't bothered with the forum much, not like it was a few years ago a!

Isn't the charge of 20% to the buyer, in fact VAT?

No, VAT is charged on top

That's right.  To confirm, if an item sells for £100, this particular auction house charged the buyer £120 in commission plus £4 in VAT (20% of the 20% commission).  They also charged the seller £20 plus a £12 listing fee.

This boils down to the buyer paying £124 for the £100 item.  The seller receiving £68 for his £100 item.  The taxman gets £4 from the sale.  And the Dick Turpin auction house gets £52.

torq, ive bought and sold at auctions for a few years now and seen the commision rate double in some places 10-20%.

for a general auction house now commision varys from house to house approx 15-20% being the norm.

  i have never paid any other fees on top as you have stated at a GENERAL auction, although i have incurred listing fees when

selling at a FINE art sale, but yes the point you make is correct and auctions should only be used for selling as a last resort imo.