eBay and Craigslist finds

It's an auction house. They all do it. Get over it. Don't like it don't buy.

15% is pretty standard in the trade these days.

They all do it

Still not an argument, still irrelevant.

Still boring.

All this 15% + VAT, B.S. makes eBay look like a bargain ;-)
Especially if you place your listings on weekends when they only charge £1* total comission on
sales.

*They will still charge you 10% of the postage costs.

Still not an argument, still irrelevant.

Like your opinion. Literally nobody in traditional auction houses gives a fuck what you think.

Yeah, that's also not relevant.

Literally nobody in traditional auction houses gives a fuck what you think.

So? I don't give a fuck what they think either, neither of which is an argument.

You'd think perhaps if anything they were doing was in the remotest bit dodgy or illegal, they might have been pulled up on it in the many years of auction houses existing long before you were even a twinkle in your dad's eye? But no, @SwissChap is the one who has uncovered this great con and will be the one to finally put an end to this malpractice, our saviour everybody, all hail @SwissChap

You're correct and was probably unnecessary.

But they charge for a service and that service is selling. they're fee is charged as a percentage. VAT is also charged as a percentage. The final price won't be until the hammer falls so it's calculated then. Ts and Cs are on the site and will be in the auction house.

FAO Swisschap:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Documents/Advice%20factsheets/Consumer%20Affairs/c-buying-at-auction.pdf

And to keep this thread relevant - Roberts f&f for sale on Ebay:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F143212509762

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Is it Friday? ;)

Yes but I'm not arguing they shouldn't be charging a fee, or that VAT shouldn't be paid. What I am saying however is that especially on the internet, it's pretty trivial to have VAT + fees added to prices automatically, and for anything being sold to normal consumers, that should absolutely be the standard. There's never a good excuse for hiding the real price of things. If they absolutely insist on showing the price without those added costs, it's also trivial to show the three things separately as well as the combined price.

@NurseHolliday

Not what I said, but as you're not interested in any actual arguments and instead just rely on the good old winning line 'who cares what you think', you can just fuck off.

That's probably more down to bidspotter being a shonky middleman website that just pulls data

There's no point having an intellectual conversation with someone who is already convinced they're right and everyone else is wrong.

Clearly you've already made your mind up because you keep barking "irrelevant".

Lets see the arguments I've been presented with so far:

They all do it

And of course, your own brilliant contribution:

Literally nobody in traditional auction houses gives a fuck what you think.

Yeah... that sounds pretty irrelevant as a reason for why it should be done that way.

There's no point in having an intellectual conversation with someone who doesn't even bother to pretend that they have an argument.

it's pretty trivial to have VAT + fees added to prices automatically, and for anything being sold to normal consumers, that should absolutely be the standard.

The majority of their customers will not be normal consumers but business who don't pay VAT. Should they change the price to cater to the few rather than the majority of their customers?

You can't just pop a bid without realising. You have to register and become approved in order to bid. You are made aware of the fees at multiple stages so I don't see what the issue is.

The majority of their customers will not be normal consumers but business who don't pay VAT

There is no argument to be had. This is the reason. There is no argument against it.

There is no argument against it.

It's deceiving to everyone who isn't a business that doesn't pay VAT. Pretty straightforward.

That's why normal businesses have to show a VAT-inclusive price, even though in places like the US where you don't have to do that, people are of course aware that there will be extra VAT cost on top of the price. But in most civilised countries it's deemed to be beneficial to the consumer to be shown the actual end price.

No because their consumer doesn't pay VAT!
Have you ever been to Costco?

Wait. What’s this. Is it a frameset for sale on Ebay? I think it could be. See below:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F202674007287

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'Their consumer' = whose? the US' consumers?

No I haven't been to Costco.

The Auction site.
Costco like other wholesalers who sell to businesses not consumers display prices ex VAT, in the UK.

Yes, you said that already, that's why I wrote

It's deceiving to everyone who isn't a business

How do you get through day to day life