[JFCC]

Sotheby’s and Phillips have clearly the most successful places to be selling Banksy prints in 2020, commanding on average 10% better results compared to other auction houses.

Christies and Forum are third but they did the biggest volume in the market last year.

That's the views from the Banksy-Value Q4 report! I personally like Phillips as they've been very easy to deal with.

[JFCC]

Totally mirror the above! 0%!!!

Forum are very good indeed, a class act, helpful efficient and make it easy.

Phillips and Sothebys are likewise but will they and charge you for it if you don't know better. Push hard there is serious competition out there for Banksy works and they will all go to 0%. The big houses may try charge marketing at the big houses, resist is my advice.

The online auctions at the big 3 seem to be the best performers. Bonhams has always been slightly behind for the seller but great to buy from!

100% avoid Tate Ward Online though (enough has been said about the House itself so see the other threads) as that is the worst route to sale.

[lv90210]

Tier 1 - Sothebys
Tier 2 - Forum
Tier 3 - forget it, you wont get the same results as proven at the end of last year.

[eviljguano]

I had very good service and reasonable rates from Christies when I was considering selling my HAND.

I would avoid like the plague selling on here (not the Forum Auctions) the amount of unsolicited opinion and toxicity via PM was astounding when I tried to sell on here.

[lunaturca]

I would like to sell Gold Flag, I saw that Bonhams achieved the best result, but nobody recommends it, why?

[JFCC]

Jan 18, 2021 17:54:05 GMT 1 lunaturca said:

I would like to sell Gold Flag, I saw that Bonhams achieved the best result, but nobody recommends it, why?

Certainly recommend it above others but historically they have always returned slightly less than the other big houses from my own experience but they are really good people to deal with and I have bought a lot from them over the years! They achieved the best price in the year on Gold Flag as they were the last Auction house to sell it.


The order to me remains Phillips, Sotheby's then Forum and Bonhams. Christies haven't done a lot other than the online sale last year which was very successful!

Just my own view!!

[marquis]

Jan 14, 2021 15:17:45 GMT 1 eviljguano said:

I had very good service and reasonable rates from Christies when I was considering selling my HAND.

I would avoid like the plague selling on here (not the Forum Auctions) the amount of unsolicited opinion and toxicity via PM was astounding when I tried to sell on here.

I own a print which one day I'll probably sell. I'm interested why some people choose to sell Banksy via auction rather than in a private sale or through a gallery?

With the exception of originals and the most sought after prints, LIITA, GWRB etc, or if you happen to have a very lucky day with two people battling it out for your print, surely you'll almost always receive more selling privately...

As for dealing with the time-wasting messages, low offers, toxicity etc, surely it's pretty easy to ignore irrelevant messages and sift out the serious enquiries from legit, experienced members with references etc...

And if you don't want that hassle, for most prints it seems to me that selling through a gallery like Hang-Up would almost always be more profitable for the seller than through auction (considering Hang-Up's expensive prices, considerably above hammer, and the fact that their commission on a print in the 50k-100k range is 8%)

[ashley123]

Wow! Great info here. Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm a newbie, so this topic is very useful for me. Speaking about auctions, I've recently found out about thumbtack. This online service connects employers and employees. So, if someone is interested in the job, there are many people who are looking for artists there. It is possible to look through the thumbtack reviews, in case you haven't heard about this platform.

[begs]

I have just emailed and spoken to most of the auction houses .
Firstly it depends on what your selling
Most auction houses will not charge you for selling in fact one would of gave me money on top
The 2 big boys wanted 5%
Hope that helps

[cmt203]

I know this area quite well, due to the demand for good prints currently you should really be aiming for a 0% deal with all three auction houses (as well as smaller ones) competing. Max I would take 2%. 10% is standard but way too high for these.

[John The Badgers]

This probably not the most educated ask, but on the look out for a print, and trying to get a correlation between values at Auctions/Galleries/Private Sale?

I have the opportunity to purchase via a gallery, but aware of upcoming auctions, also prepared to wait for a private sale as in no rush.

Is there any kind of rough guide as to what a value would be via the above routes?

If say it sold all in for £1000 at auction, what would a private sale figure perhaps be, and how would a gallery stack up?

Apologies if this has been asked before, if you can supply links to previous threads that would be right handy.

Hope you get the gist of what I am asking, any guidance would be very much appreciated.

[Humble Art Collector]

Private sale should always be the lowest. No buyers premium or gallery commission tacked on.

I would say auction vs gallery is a toss-up auction being more for artists who are on the rise with shows selling out immediately and limited availability. Artists who do not sell out fast will be cheaper at auction.

Galleries will always be at a premium. normally 40-50% of what the artist sees. Having said that if you go direct to artists they will be equal to a gallery or at least 80%. Meaning what they get from a gallery vs what they get direct is different.

[+852]

What are the Pros and Cons of buying Private, Auction, Gallery?

[Humble Art Collector]

Private typically means better deal but provenance and condition is an issue.  Auction means access to works that you typically cannot get from a gallery.  For hot artists galleries typically make their works first available to their premium customers first so you cannot always get a work from the artists even if you have the cash available.  At an auction that is not the case.  You can get amazing deals at auctions but you can also overpay easily if you get caught up in a bidding war.  Every channel has its pros and cons and I think it is good to use them all.

[John The Badgers]

Really appreciate all the input above, many thanks, exactly what I was after.

[jcookgurl]

Hey forum!

I have a few pieces that I think would fair pretty well at an auction...I have never sold in one before...does anyone have any advice? Best houses? Best way to proceed?

Thank you so much!

[rungsp]

jcookgurl is West Coast USA.

As nice a person to deal with as you will ever meet!

[gbh]

Hey,

Long time no see.
I have quite a few prints that could be classed as valuable these days.

I'm considering using an auction house to dispose of one or two of them.

Would very much appreciate any heads up on what to look out for, experiences, traps, etc., etc. from anyone who may have gone through the process previously?

I'm in Australia these days and assume I may be better of contacting overseas galleries?

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

[gbh]

Received a pm or two. Thank you. Any other advise and experiences greatly appreciated.

[chomsky]

Hi UAA members!
I never sold art through an auction house.
I would like to try with a HPM print of Shepard Fairey (which was already sold by Sotheby's)
What's the best way to do it please? Are there charges for the seller or just for the buyer?
...or eBay (or here) is better ? Why ? What's the difference?
Thanks for your informations and your help.
For info, I'm based in France.

[stuckeyc]

What is the hpm? Always looking for new ones. not sure if heritage is still taking consignments for the upcoming dedicated shep auction but might be a good place

[chomsky]

Jul 17, 2021 11:05:03 GMT 1 stuckeyc said:

What is the hpm? Always looking for new ones. not sure if heritage is still taking consignments for the upcoming dedicated shep auction but might be a good place

It's this one :
www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/contemporary-art-online-paris/shepard-fairey-obey-giant-power-glory-day-of-the
www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/contemporary-art-online-paris/shepard-fairey-obey-giant-power-glory-day-of-the-2
In black and gold version.

Heritage is in US no ? There will be no additional charges with customs? How does that happen, do you have to send them the work or do you send it to the buyer yourself?

[stuckeyc]

Yeah heritage is in US. Not sure how they deal with customs and such

[pdjones512]

Go with ANYBODY but heritage. I’ve had numerous bad experiences with them as a seller. They “forgot” to put the reserve on a 40 or 50k piece and ended up selling it for 30k. This was in a lot of 5 other pieces I consigned to them all of which they happened to remember to put the agreed upon reserve on. Their department specialists are not knowledgeable in their field and ask for information about pieces they could easily find via Google or should already know about major artists.

[vfg]

Hi, I am very much a beginner in this world. I participated in an auction and decided to bid on a pretty cheap piece, to understand how things worked, before moving to what I was actually interested in.

I ended up getting it and I paid for it within the auction house's time frame. Now apparently the artwork will not physically be at the auction house for basically a month after the auction date.

Is it just me or is this not normal? Shouldn't the piece be in their possession before the auction? Visible to in person buyers, authenticated and verified by the auction house. How can they only obtain it after the auction? According to their T&S the piece is now mine, both in terms of ownership and of responsibility. For something that I have no idea where it is.

The auction house is a reputable one, but I do not want to give them any bad rap. I am talking to them, but I asking you to understand what's usual in these cases, as I am not familiar with the whole process. It just struck me as quite odd.

Thanks!

[u%hdjfka c]

Oct 14, 2021 21:40:12 GMT 1 vfg said:

Hi, I am very much a beginner in this world. I participated in an auction and decided to bid on a pretty cheap piece, to understand how things worked, before moving to what I was actually interested in.

I ended up getting it and I paid for it within the auction house's time frame. Now apparently the artwork will not physically be at the auction house for basically a month after the auction date.

Is it just me or is this not normal? Shouldn't the piece be in their possession before the auction? Visible to in person buyers, authenticated and verified by the auction house. How can they only obtain it after the auction? According to their T&S the piece is now mine, both in terms of ownership and of responsibility. For something that I have no idea where it is.

The auction house is a reputable one, but I do not want to give them any bad rap. I am talking to them, but I asking you to understand what's usual in these cases, as I am not familiar with the whole process. It just struck me as quite odd.

Thanks!

Post a link to the auction in question

[vfg]

I would rather not for now. I don't want to slander the auction house, just to understand.
Would the link make a difference as in different auctions work differently?
Let's say that their policy is that, in person, you should pick up your lots by the end of the day of the auction. Which makes me think they should be there. They also have viewings pre-auction.
I was online, so the time frame was two weeks.

[u%hdjfka c]

Oct 14, 2021 21:58:14 GMT 1 vfg said:

I would rather not for now. I don't want to slander the auction house, just to understand.
Would the link make a difference as in different auctions work differently?
Let's say that their policy is that, in person, you should pick up your lots by the end of the day of the auction. Which makes me think they should be there. They also have viewings pre-auction.
I was online, so the time frame was two weeks.

Post a link to the auction in question

[vfg]

I don't really understand why purposefully be unhelpful, but thank you for taking the time to reply.

[u%hdjfka c]

Oct 14, 2021 22:53:20 GMT 1 vfg said:

I don't really understand why purposefully be unhelpful, but thank you for taking the time to reply.

You don't want help. You won't share the basic facts. So stop wasting my time.