Postage and Premiums

[Lucylucy]

I felt that the following may be of interest!

I bought an item from a well known Auction house and this was the result.

Bid and purchase £18.00

Premium                £7.20

Internet charge     £1.26

Postage                 £24.99

Total cost               £51.45

Total Charges £33.45 for an £18 item.

I won't be doing that again!

Lucylucy

[BackyardBullion]

What on earth costs £24.99 to post!?!!?

[James32]

19 minutes ago, BackyardBullion said:

What on earth costs £24.99 to post!?!!?

Velvet lined bubble wrap isn't cheap.

That's shocking, I think royal mail will do up to 10kg for £18.45 

 

[BackyardBullion]

2 minutes ago, James32 said:

Velvet lined bubble wrap isn't cheap.

That's shocking, I think royal mail will do up to 10kg for £18.45 

 

That price is with £2500 insurance too!

[Petra]

Most auction houses are more than reasonable with postage. If you check online before bidding they list postage yes/no, charges etc. some charge for time packing, however your costs appear a bit high. What did you buy? Which auction house?🤔

[bluffer]

who the eff was that?

 

postage charge?

 

internet charge?????

 

ryanair started an auction house?

[Silverlocks]

I think they are a bit of a minefield.  I have been thinking of poking about on the auction portal sites like easyauctions but shipping looks like it could be a killer unless you win multiple lots.  On one hand there are loads of lots with sovereigns, but when you include the fees they tend to come out fairly pricey most of the time.  You'd have to have a confluence of making the winning bids on a lot items at a good price to do well out of it.  It's not impossible but it does seem like a bit of a c**p shoot.

[Bruce06]

Postage is always unknown, especially for long distance delivery, like hong kong.  You may try asking auction house see if any alternative option if it is not specify in their auction terms, sometimes they will have but most not.  By the way, the auction premium is 40%, which is ridiculously steep.

[CollectForFun]

Alas, the postage is very often a deal breaker for many otherwise good purchases at auctions if you have to compete with room bidders or locals who can go and pick up their lots or pay just local postage.

In your situation it may be worth asking the auction house if they could maybe use some cheaper shipping method. Maybe they use e.g. FedEx as a rule and hence the higher cost but may agree that they use regular post as an exception. Worked for me a few times.

[gji25]

was it a uk auction house or a overseas auction house ?

[QuantumStacker]

On 05/12/2022 at 12:48, Lucylucy said:

I felt that the following may be of interest!

I bought an item from a well known Auction house and this was the result.

Bid and purchase £18.00

Premium                £7.20

Internet charge     £1.26

Postage                 £24.99

Total cost               £51.45

Total Charges £33.45 for an £18 item.

I won't be doing that again!

Lucylucy

criminal charges, I run my own business selling firearm related items. I offer free delivery on orders over £100. I Send everything Special delivery or tracked if item under £100. 

This is why business will fail in the next 2 years for being criminal with charges like this. People are hiking prices just for sake of it now. 

[Zeuk]

I had a look at an auction site the other day, on the face of it the Sovs seemed to be pricing ok but the add-ons on this site were about 30% and all passed on to buyer.  Wondering if it might be worth making friends with local auction houses and just ask them to give us a shout if any sovs or such come up and visit f2f

[Petra]

Before any bidding online I always check out their postage options. A lot of places don’t even post small items now and you have to go through separate local courier companies, hence a substantial increase in costs. Where I have bought, the companies will post small items and charge very little. Any high costs, just don’t bid, there are literally 1000s of coins etc. every week for sale and the one you want will turn up somewhere cheaper! Unfortunately the high fees for most auction houses are now a fact and you just have to allow that in your bidding.🤔

[Bruce06]

1 hour ago, Petra said:

Before any bidding online I always check out their postage options. A lot of places don’t even post small items now and you have to go through separate local courier companies, hence a substantial increase in costs. Where I have bought, the companies will post small items and charge very little. Any high costs, just don’t bid, there are literally 1000s of coins etc. every week for sale and the one you want will turn up somewhere cheaper! Unfortunately the high fees for most auction houses are now a fact and you just have to allow that in your bidding.🤔

I recently had an experience that asking a logistics company to pickup a maundy set from auction house, as they didn't provide postage service from uk to hong kong.  I already take into account the additional cost before bidding.  Maybe due to cost problem, the logistics company using bpost instead of royal mail, which is proven a disaster right now.  The item is totally disappeared since last tracking update on 1 Sep.  I have sourced that maundy set for years, so it's totally frustrated n very upset.  For next time, i will also check with logistics company using which postage company before bidding.  By the way, anyone using bpost n lost before?

[Petra]

6 minutes ago, Bruce06 said:

I recently had an experience that asking a logistics company to pickup a maundy set from auction house, as they didn't provide postage service from uk to hong kong.  I already take into account the additional cost before bidding.  Maybe due to cost problem, the logistics company using bpost instead of royal mail, which is proven a disaster right now.  The item is totally disappeared since last tracking update on 1 Sep.  I have sourced that maundy set for years, so it's totally frustrated n very upset.  For next time, i will also check with logistics company using which postage company before bidding.  By the way, anyone using bpost n lost before?

Never heard of them🤔