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Selling, fees & tax

Auction House Fee Calculator

Auction houses charge the seller a commission and the buyer a premium, and the premium changes what bidders are willing to hammer at. This prices the same card at each house so you can compare net proceeds rather than headline rates.

$

Total spend the winner is prepared to make, premium included.

%

Leave at -1 to use each house's published range.

$
Same card, same buyer budget, different houses.
HouseBuyer premiumImplied hammerSeller commissionYou net

The premium comes out of your pocket, not the buyer's

A bidder decides what a card is worth to them in total. If the house adds a 20% premium, the bidder stops 20% lower on the hammer to arrive at the same total spend. So a house with a higher premium produces a lower hammer for the identical card — and your commission is charged on that lower hammer.

hammer = buyer's total budget ÷ (1 + buyer premium) net = hammer − seller commission × hammer − shipping in $3,000 budget at 20% premium → $2,500 hammer $3,000 budget at 15% premium → $2,609 hammer the seller keeps the difference, not the buyer

Published rates, September 2026

Consignment terms as published. All four negotiate on significant lots.
HouseSellerBuyer premiumNotes
Goldin 0–10% 15% The best-known name in card auctions, now inside the Fanatics group. Commission is negotiable down to zero on significant consignments — the house makes its money on the buyer's premium.
Heritage 10–15% 20% A general collectibles house rather than a card specialist, with the widest non-card buyer base and the highest published buyer's premium of the four.
Fanatics Collect 0–12% 15% Absorbed PWCC. Weekly and premier formats with a vault attached, and the fee schedule is still moving as the platform consolidates.
eBay auction 13.25% — No buyer's premium, so the hammer is closer to what the buyer actually pays — which usually means a higher hammer for the same real spend. High-value singles get half rate above $1,000.
Local shop, outright 40–60% — Not a commission — a shop buys at a discount to what it can resell for, typically 40–60% of retail. You are paying for certainty and speed rather than a fee.

Commission at the specialist houses is negotiable to zero on cards they want, because the buyer's premium already pays them. If your card is genuinely desirable, the quoted rate is an opening position rather than a price.

Questions people ask about this

Who pays the buyer's premium at a card auction?

The buyer pays it, but the seller bears it. Bidders work to a total budget, so a higher premium means they bid a lower hammer to reach the same spend — and the seller's commission is charged on that reduced hammer. A 20% premium versus a 15% one costs the seller roughly 4% of the final total.

What commission do card auction houses charge sellers?

Published ranges run from about 0% to 15%, and the specialist card houses will go to zero on cards they want because the buyer's premium covers them. Heritage sits at the higher end of both scales — 10–15% seller and a 20% premium — in exchange for the widest non-card buyer base.

Is eBay better than an auction house for selling cards?

Below roughly $1,000, usually yes: eBay charges 13.25% with no buyer premium, so the hammer is closer to what the buyer actually spends. Above that, the specialist houses bring bidders who will not find your card on eBay, and their premium structure plus a negotiated commission can beat it comfortably.

Where these numbers come from

Rates on this page were last checked against the published price lists on . Grading companies change fees and pause tiers without notice — confirm the total on the submission form before you pay.