Auction Buyer’s Premium: Your $1,000 Bid Can Cost $1,300
Revised October 23, 2026
How much is buyer’s premium at auction?
Each house sets its own rate in its own written terms. At Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers in downtown St. Louis, it is 25% of the hammer price for in-person, absentee and phone bids up to and including $1 million, and bidding online adds another 5%. So if you win a lot at $1,000, say, it becomes $1,250 in the room or $1,300 online, before sales tax.
Keep reading ↓Two hundred fifty dollars. That is what one downtown St. Louis auction house adds to a $1,000 winning bid, and it lands on your invoice after the hammer has already cracked and the room has moved on to the next lot. Your paddle is still in your hand. Your pulse is still up from the last two raises. And the number you just shouted is not the number you owe.
Nobody hid it from you. It is called the buyer’s premium, and Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers, at 555 Washington Avenue, prints its rate in plain type on its own How to Bid page: a 25% Buyer’s Premium for all in-person, absentee and phone bids up to and including $1 million. Every house writes its own terms. Selkirk’s happen to sit where anyone in St. Louis can read them, which makes them the cleanest real numbers to do the math with.
Here is the line worth saying out loud to whoever rides with you to the next sale: at Selkirk, the couch costs extra. The same page says buyers bidding online are subject to an additional 5% buyer’s premium. On a $1,000 lot, that is $1,250 if you raise a paddle in the room and $1,300 if you tap a button at home. Fifty dollars for staying in your slippers. Pay by credit card and the house’s payment page lists a 3% surcharge on top, so if that example bill is $1,300, the card adds about $39 more. Not one cent of that is sales tax yet.
So do the math backward, before the lot comes up. If the most you will spend on that dresser is $1,000 all in, your real ceiling at a 25% house is $800, because $800 plus a quarter of it is $1,000, and tax still comes after. Write $800 on the back of the catalog. When the chant climbs past it, sit on your hands, feel the itch, and listen to somebody else win it. That itch is the expensive part.
The rest of this page walks the whole bill one line at a time: who pays the premium, what the seller pays on the other side of the same sale, how tax and pickup work, and the mistakes that cost bidders real money before the first lot ever crosses the block.
How much is buyer’s premium at auction?
Each house sets its own rate in its own written terms. At Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers in downtown St. Louis, it is 25% of the hammer price for in-person, absentee and phone bids up to and including $1 million, and bidding online adds another 5%. So if you win a lot at $1,000, say, it becomes $1,250 in the room or $1,300 online, before sales tax.
The tiers only matter on serious money. Selkirk drops to a 20% Buyer’s Premium in excess of $1.0 million and 15% in excess of $5.0 million. For the box of Depression glass, the oak sideboard and the oil painting that hung in a grandmother’s hallway for as long as anyone remembers, the story is short: 25% when you are standing in the room, 30% when you are not.
Other houses around the metro set their own numbers, and the same company can write different terms for different sales. A weekly consignment night, a whole-house estate sale and a curated catalog sale can each carry their own rate. The terms for the exact sale you are bidding in are the price tag, and reading them takes about as long as a cup of coffee cools: find the percentage, find whether online costs more, find the card surcharge, find the pickup deadline.
Why the button costs more than the paddle
Selkirk spells it out: all online bidding, whether through the Selkirk website or a third-party, is subject to a higher buyer’s premium. Online, the bid feels weightless. A thumb on glass, a soft chime, a green banner that says you are winning. In the room you feel every raise in your arm and in your stomach, and maybe that is the point. If a sale is close enough to drive to, the in-person rate is real money back in your pocket, and you get to open the drawers yourself.
Who pays buyer’s premium at auction?
The winning bidder does. In Selkirk’s words, all items purchased at auction are subject to a buyer’s premium in addition to the hammer price. It is added to your invoice, not taken out of the seller’s check, and you owe it whether or not you noticed the line before you raised your hand. You find out for sure at the cashier’s window, with the receipt printer whirring and a line of people behind you holding their own lamps and boxes.
Both sides of an auction pay the house. The buyer pays the premium. The seller pays a commission out of the hammer price, plus whatever their contract lists for photography, cataloging, moving, storage or unsold lots. Two agreements, two people, one auctioneer collecting from both. That is the business model, and there is nothing shady about it as long as both numbers are written where the person paying can read them.
When a sale says no premium
A few sales advertise no buyer’s premium, and that is genuine when it is in the written terms. It usually means the house is earning its money entirely on the seller’s side. Treat it the way you treat everything else at an auction: a claim you check in the terms, not a promise in an ad.
The whole bill, line by line
Say, as an example, you win a lot at $1,000 at Selkirk. Here is the bill, built only from the numbers the house publishes:
- Hammer price in this example: $1,000
- Buyer’s premium at 25%, bidding in the room: $250, for $1,250
- Bidding online instead: another 5%, for $1,300
- Paying by credit card: a 3% surcharge, about $39 if the example bill is $1,300
- Then sales tax, unless you have a resale certificate on file
That last line catches people. Selkirk’s payment page says that in order to be exempt from sales tax, you must hold a current resale certificate and have a copy on file, using a Missouri Form 149. Hand it over before you settle, not after. Asking for tax back on a paid invoice is a much colder conversation.
The clock starts when the hammer falls
Selkirk says payment must be made within five (5) business days of the auction, and that any purchase greater than or equal to $10,000 must be submitted by wire transfer or ACH. Then the other clock: everything must be picked up or shipped within fifteen (15) days following an auction. Fifteen days sounds like plenty until you are standing next to a walnut armoire with no truck, no helper and a back that already knows how this ends.
Do the backward math before your next sale. Browse auctions on St Louis Near Me Directory, open the terms for the one you want, find the premium, the online rate, the card surcharge and the pickup deadline, and write your real ceiling down before the first lot crosses the block.
If you run the auction house or the estate sale crew, put your terms where bidders can read them and claim your spot to get more customers who show up ready to bid.
Is it worth selling stuff at auction?
Sometimes. It depends on what you have and what your other option is. Auction is fast, it clears volume, and it puts your things in front of people who came to buy. What it does not do is promise a price. You net the hammer price minus commission minus whatever fees the contract lists, and there is no floor unless you negotiated a reserve.
The strongest case is a house that has to be emptied on a deadline. An estate is being settled, a closing date is coming, a shop is winding down. Auction turns rooms full of a life into one date, one crew and one check. Selling the same things one at a time online might bring more per piece, and it will eat months of your evenings, the garage still full, the boxes still smelling like somebody else’s basement.
Questions to ask before you consign
Talk to two or three houses and ask each the same things. What is the commission on a lot like mine? Do you charge for photography, cataloging, moving or unsold lots? When do I get paid, and how? What happens to anything that does not sell? Can I set a reserve, and what does it cost if the lot passes? You are not shopping for the lowest commission. You are listening for the house that answers before you finish asking.
What not to do at an auction?
Do not treat the hammer price as the price. That one habit costs more than anything else here. Close behind: skipping the terms, skipping the preview, bidding on something you cannot move, and missing the pickup window.
Do not skip the preview
Most auctions sell as is. Photos flatter and box lots hide things. The preview is where you pull the drawer and hear it scrape, flip the frame and smell the old glue, count what is really in the box. If you cannot go to the preview, bid like somebody who did not go.
The cheapest part of a big lot is the bid. Price the moving truck before you raise your hand.
Do not bid against yourself
Set the ceiling before the lot comes up, with the premium, any surcharge and the tax already figured in, and let it go when the bidding passes it. There will be another table. The room is built to make you feel there will not be, and that feeling is what you pay the premium on.
Do not assume you can undo it
A winning bid is a promise to pay, not a reservation. Read what the terms say about disputes, lot descriptions and what happens if you do not pay. Selkirk’s own payment page says that if payment is not made within ten (10) business days, it reserves the right to charge a credit card on file.
Frequently asked questions
What is a 20% buyer’s premium in an auction?
It means the house adds twenty percent of the hammer price to your invoice. On a $1,000 bid that is $200, for $1,200 before sales tax and any other charges the terms list. Twenty percent is an example, not a standard. Selkirk in downtown St. Louis charges 25% in the room and 30% online on lots up to $1 million.
What percentage does an auctioneer usually take from an estate sale?
There is no usual number worth quoting. Commission varies by house, by what is being sold, by how much labor the job takes, and by whether the house also charges buyers a premium. Ask each house you interview what the commission is on an estate like yours, and what else gets billed on top.
What sells most in an auction?
Things with a broad resale market tend to move fastest: tools and shop equipment, outdoor gear, solid-wood furniture in good shape, jewelry, coins, and anything a dealer can resell. Box lots clear quickly because they are cheap to bid on. Bulky furniture in ordinary condition moves slowly.
What is the 15 minute rule in an auction?
There is no industry-wide fifteen minute rule. People usually mean soft close or extended bidding online: a bid in the closing minutes pushes the end time out so nobody wins by sniping at the last second. How long the extension runs is set by the platform or the house and stated in that sale’s terms.
What happens to stuff not sold at estate sales?
It depends on the contract. Common outcomes are a marked-down final day, a bulk lot sold cheap to a dealer, donation, return to the family, or a paid cleanout. Some agreements bill the seller for that last step, which is why “what happens to anything that does not sell” belongs in the interview.
What sells well at estate auctions?
At a whole-house sale, the garage and the basement often outdo the living room. Tools, ladders, yard equipment and hardware draw serious buyers, and so do jewelry, coins, advertising signs and well-kept vintage furniture. Kitchenware, books and linens usually go as bulk lots, which is fine, because the point of the day is to clear the house.
Is the buyer’s premium taxed?
It can be, so read how the sale’s terms say tax is figured before you set your ceiling. If you buy to resell, get your exemption on file first: Selkirk, for one, asks for a Missouri Form 149 and a current resale certificate before it will remove sales tax. Ask an accountant about anything business-related.
What is the difference between an absolute auction and a reserve auction?
An absolute auction sells the lot to the highest bidder with no minimum. A reserve auction has a confidential minimum the bidding must reach, and the lot can pass unsold if it does not. The listing should say which one you are in.
More St. Louis guides
- St. Louis Auction Houses: What to Know Before You Bid or Consign
- St. Louis Vintage, Thrift, and Antique Shops Worth the Trip
- Junk Removal Cost in St. Louis
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.