1968 Barrett-Jackson

[Mosesatm]

my reference to oz, is the movie the wizard of oz
bj takes 10% from the seller, and charges 10% to the buyer
mecum charges a flat fee of $1000.00 and you can set a reserve

I'm pretty sure Mecum charges 8% seller & 6% buyer or something similar.

[Edited to Add]

Here it is for the buyers:

Final Price Buyers Premium
Up to $5,499 = $300
$5,500 to $9,999 = $500
$10,000 and up = 6 percent of final price
Non-automobile lots 10 percent of final price
--------------------------------------------
And for the sellers:

Seller’s Commission:
6 % of hammer price when sold with reserve price
4 % of hammer price when sold without reserve price.
Special commission applies for sales less than $10,000. Request info.
Commission only applies if the seller accepts the last bid

 

[J.Bart]

ok what ever the point is you can have a reserve price

 

[rananim]

B-J charges both seller and buyer 8%. The entry fee is determined later, by lot number, after it is assigned. The contract is signed around that time, presumably, and the car is commited to be sold at the auction only.
Claims that the auction favors buyers doesn't make any sense. The more the car sells for the more B-J makes; why would they not try to get the highest price?

 

[J.Bart]

at scottsdale it was 10% for the buyer and another 10% for the seller. maybe each auction location has different premiums.
bj favors buyers because it is a no reserve auction.
they do try to get every dime out of the cars. at scottsdale the big money buyers didn't show up until fri and sat and they left at 10:00pm if your car sold when they were there you did well. if a car sold the first hour of the day it tanked, if it sold after 10pm it tanked
without the big money buyers things don't go so well.

a reserve auction favors the seller because the buyer has to reach the reserve to get the car. at bj no one would bid until the auctioneer drpopped the price ridiculously low.

my dad was an auctioneer for years, if the bidders did that at one of his auctions he would wake them up with a little trick.
the bidderrs try bringing the prices down by not bidding, the auctioneer has to keep dropping the price to get the bidding started.
my dad would drop the price, no bids, he would drop more until someone would finally bid.
at this point he would go " sold " and everyone would look at each other wondering why they didn't bid on it. the next item everyone started bidding at a normal price. they new that an item could get sold at anytime, and if they wanted it, they better bid at the price they were willing to pay, and not try to get everything for nothing
it was something to watch, i could see it coming, and the look on peoples faces was pretty funny.
" why didn't we bid on that, i would have givin twice that price!! dang it."

 

[rananim]

I'm glad your Dad isn't selling my car! I have the option of backing out if I don't like the time slot, before signing the contract. If I did not have a reserve on my car in '06, I would have sold it for $33,000. I will be lucky to get that today. There are pros and cons to the no bid auction and buyers, as you wrote, know that if they don't bid, there won't be another chance. If you set your reserve higher than the bidding, there is a possibility that a potential buyer can work out a deal (without competition) later, but once the car leaves the stage, the "magic" (or moment) is gone and so is the enthusiasm for the car. I've seen very few deals worked out after the car left the stage - the buyers are looking at another car on the stage.

As for the bidding to head "south" at first, that is normal and is also heart attack time for the seller. A low ball bid is eventually made and then it starts to climb from there.

Sven

 

[J.Bart]

at mecum you can pull your reserve off, if your happy with the current bid.
as for my dad, it's a bit different context. all of the stuff sold is owned by one , maybe two people,or estates. and the few $100 or $500 lost on that one item is made up many times over throughout the entire auction.
at a car auction, the auction company would have to make up the difference.
if i was running it, that's exactly what i would do.
what is a one time loss, that the auction company would have to pay out, is small, versus the money they would gain for the rest of the auction.
when you see it in action it is easy to undrstand, it wakes people up and they bid at reasonable prices.
when you let them bring the bids down to ridiculously low prices, it takes forever to get things sold, the auction gets boring and drags on and on.

 

[Scott]

I agree Jbart! Very amusing story.

Can't stand auctions for that reason. Last auction I went to was for a house - ten minutes of talking before they openned the bidding - I bid first at 50k less than I thought I'd spend, next bid was my top and then when someone kept going I turned in my number and left. The realestate agent phoned after to tell me that the next bid bought it. Can't say I care.