Anyone who's consigned before, what was your experience/who would you recommend?

Welcome to our Antique Bottle community

Be a part of something great, join today!

bottles_inc

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
344
Reaction score
523
Points
93
Location
NY
Recently bought a high end bottle for (relatively) cheap, and provided that the condition is good when it arrives, I'd like to consign it with one of the auction houses, something I've never done before. I know plenty of people here have bought and sold through the big 4 (heckler, American bottle auctions, glassworks, and American glass gallery) so as a first timer going into this, I was wondering how people's experiences have been and who they'd recommend. I'll post pictures of the bottle when it gets here but I don't want to say what it is and ruin the surprise!
 

yacorie

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2018
Messages
632
Reaction score
381
Points
63
Location
CT
Honestly - unless the bottle was worth 8k+ you shouldn’t have much issue finding a private buyer and even more money may not be an issue.

I don’t see any reason to pay the fees and then potentially taxes when you could sell it directly- make more money and likely sell it cheaper.

for argument sake - let’s say it sells for 10k hammer price. Buyer going to pay 15-20% or more juice. They’re at 12k all in shipped. You’re going to pay 15-20% so you’re at 8k. Now you may also get a tax form - guess that’s a question for the auction house.

you could sell directly to a buyer for that same 8k or even a bit more and it’s win-win.

unless it’s a tough item to sell or you think it could be worth a LOt or money - that’s my recommendation to you
 

bottles_inc

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
344
Reaction score
523
Points
93
Location
NY
Honestly - unless the bottle was worth 8k+ you shouldn’t have much issue finding a private buyer and even more money may not be an issue.

I don’t see any reason to pay the fees and then potentially taxes when you could sell it directly- make more money and likely sell it cheaper.

for argument sake - let’s say it sells for 10k hammer price. Buyer going to pay 15-20% or more juice. They’re at 12k all in shipped. You’re going to pay 15-20% so you’re at 8k. Now you may also get a tax form - guess that’s a question for the auction house.

you could sell directly to a buyer for that same 8k or even a bit more and it’s win-win.

unless it’s a tough item to sell or you think it could be worth a LOt or money - that’s my recommendation to you
Noted. My problem is that I have no connections to the sort of people who would buy this- I'm from NY, this is a Cleveland Ohio soda. The reason I'm thinking auction is because heckler sold the last one of these bottles in 2014 for a little over a grand. Maybe I'll put an ad in some magazines or something
 

nhpharm

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2007
Messages
2,966
Reaction score
1,628
Points
113
I've sold very successfully through John Pastor (American Glass Gallery) in the past and have always been very happy with the outcome. If it is a rare item that only shows up on the market a couple times a decade, auctions are the way to go in my opinion. If it is one of the desirable but fairly common items like many of the historical flasks or figural bitters where there are always some on the market, but they still pull good money, private sale is the way to go. Just my opinion.
 

yacorie

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2018
Messages
632
Reaction score
381
Points
63
Location
CT
Noted. My problem is that I have no connections to the sort of people who would buy this- I'm from NY, this is a Cleveland Ohio soda. The reason I'm thinking auction is because heckler sold the last one of these bottles in 2014 for a little over a grand. Maybe I'll put an ad in some magazines or something

I would guarantee that you could find 100 buyers at those prices. If it was a CT soda - I’d buy it.

there are a bunch of Facebook pages you could join where people are buying and selling all the time and for prices many times higher than that.
 

Dogo

DOGO
Joined
Apr 8, 2020
Messages
339
Reaction score
317
Points
63
Location
Central NJ
I have had good results with John Pastor at American Glass Gallery, but he would want the bottle to be worth your estimate.
 

Members online

Latest threads

Forum statistics

Threads
83,218
Messages
742,905
Members
24,231
Latest member
rrenzi
Top