Buyers premium

[hair bear]

I've always enjoyed going to farm sales, you never know what might turn up. It used to be fun to get a bargain.
Dragged all the way to Alton recently to a collective sale. Big mistake. It was a Saturday so was expecting the usual dredge of 'Saturday shoppers' just getting in the way but what I wasn't expecting was the 12.5%+vat (min £10) buyers premium. That makes a £5 bucket of chainsaw parts a bit of a joke. Walked once around the field and went home. When I later looked at the website I was quite shocked at what they were charging:

General Auction: 28%+VAT
Architectural Auctions: 15%+VAT
Farm Auction: 12.5%+VAT
Online auctions may include an additional Premium of 3%+VAT
Saleroom.com / iBidder.com / BidSpotter: Internet Bidders are subject to an additional Premium of 4.95%+VAT

So having given up with that I went to a viewing for an on-line auction with a different agent. This time checked first and a much more sensible premium of 3%+vat. There was a box of pins and shackles I though I'd have a go at - £20 tops. Get home and go online, I have to open an account with them. Then I have to log on and register to bid, but, I can't bid until I've paid them a £2,000 deposit! Seriously? Rang them to find out what it's about and no, you've got to cough £2k before you get to wave your finger. They didn't get the £2k, but they did get the finger. The only thing there possibly worth more than that was a very ropey combine.

Wifey recently went to a junk auction at the village hall they do twice a year. They wanted a £20 cash deposit before you could bid.

Am I missing something somewhere?
Rant over.

[Billy26F5]

Not great, we don't go to sales but even then it seems fairly ridiculous, especially given how prices have risen in recent times. All seems a bit over the top and a great way of selling nothing at all.
Sandy

[hair bear]

After the £12 burger incident at a charity tractor run last year and then this I'm starting to wonder if I am turning into the worlds biggest cheapskate???

[essexpete]

After the £12 burger incident at a charity tractor run last year and then this I'm starting to wonder if I am turning into the worlds biggest cheapskate???

Sorry Rob but you are!
Joking apart, the auctioneers will claim that buyers have the opportunity to view and purchase from a large collection of items all in one place, as it were. I have a feeling that large buyers that often deal with a particular auction house may negotiate. I might be wrong. I rarely go to sales now, always used to come back with something I did not need to throw onto the scrap a decade later. When Dad was alive we bought several cars through auction but that is a complete ball ache now. Some of the procedure is anti money laundering and some is probably to protect against dodgy bidders?

[Jeremy Rowland]

Rob, although I am no auction expert, part of the problem for auctioneers is that people bid on things and win them, then decide they don't want them after all so that's why they want a deposit, one of the reasons I've never bothered with them. Think the only one I recall going to was when what had been Copes Motorcycles at the Hagley Road Brum had closed and everything was auctioned off, me and my bro went along, I bought a cheap lid and some oil, but watched a well knackered Britool torque wrench go for silly money (you could have bought one new cheaper), so a class case of knowing what things are worth and if there is something you may wish to bid on prior to turning up.

Jeremy