$ — the total column below is what you would owe.
Premium only. Sales tax, shipping and any payment-method surcharge sit on top of this and vary by house and by where you live.
Both sides of the table on one printable page → Buyer’s premium, seller’s commission, when each house pays, and its smallest lot.
| Where | Buyer’s premium | What you pay in total | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| AltApplies to Alt auctions, added on top of the hammer price. The fixed-price marketplace charges the buyer nothing. | 20% | 2026-09-16 | |
| Christie'sTiered rather than flat: 28% on hammer up to $2m, 22% from $2m to $8m, 15% above $8m. Effectively 28% for anything card-sized. Excludes local taxes. | 28% | 2026-09-16 | |
| Clean Sweep Auctions+5% after 2:00 AM ET, +10% after 2:30 AM ET | 22% | 2026-08-12 | |
| Fanatics CollectApplies to Premier and Weekly auctions alike. Buy Now marketplace items carry no buyer fee. A further 2.9% may apply depending on payment method and destination. | 20% | 2026-08-22 | |
| GoldinSame across Marketplace, Weekly and Elite | 22% | 2026-08-12 | |
| Grey Flannel22% on the hammer, 'No exceptions' (auction terms; undated). No credit cards or PayPal; Zelle under $5,000. | 22% | 2026-10-18 | |
| Heritage Auctions+5% for bids via third-party platforms | 22% | 2026-08-12 | |
| Huggins & ScottFlat. No credit cards, PayPal or digital wallets accepted — check, wire, money order or Zelle only, so no payment-method surcharge tier exists. | 20% | 2026-08-22 | |
| Hunt Auctions17.5% on the hammer; the house's Babe Ruth Collection live sale carries 20%. Hunt describes 17.5% as the lowest premium among national competitors (its own claim). | 17.5% | 2026-10-18 | |
| LelandsTerms revision-dated March 15, 2026 | 22% | 2026-08-12 | |
| Love of the Game Auctions+5% if paying by PayPal | 20% | 2026-08-12 | |
| Memory LaneNone on 'I Own It Now' marketplace items | 20% | 2026-08-12 | |
| Mile High Card CompanyFlat, plus shipping, handling and sales tax where applicable. | 22% | 2026-09-10 | |
| Robert Edward AuctionsNot published by the house. This figure is our own, worked out from realized lots and put to the house without objection — see below. | 23% * | 2026-09-04 | |
| SCP Auctions | 20% | 2026-08-31 | |
| Sotheby'sNew York rate, and tiered rather than flat: 28% on hammer up to $2m, 22% from $2m to $8m, 15% above $8m. Effectively 28% for anything card-sized. London, Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland each run their own thresholds in local currency. Excludes local taxes and any artist resale right. | 28% | 2026-08-27 | |
| Wheatland Auction ServicesFlat. All bidders must have a major credit card on file. Pennsylvania sales tax where applicable. | 18% | 2026-08-22 |
A different transaction, and worth saying so: you are buying a card somebody has already priced, with no catalog, no cataloguer and no auction behind it. The fee is lower because the service is smaller.
| Where | Buyer’s premium | What you pay in total | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| eBayNo buyer's premium and no buyer fee on eBay.com. Selling fees fall on the seller. A Buyer Protection fee exists on eBay's UK, Australian, Italian and French sites only. | None | 2026-08-22 | |
| MySlabsA 1% buyer/usage fee rather than an auction premium. PayPal goods-and-services fees may apply on top. | 1% | 2026-08-22 |
Every premium above is published. Turn the page over and it stops: at 15 of these 19, what the seller pays is not published anywhere, because it is negotiated per consignment. Heritage’s own answer is the plainest — “not published; negotiated per consignment.”
That asymmetry is worth more than any single number here. If you are selling, the rate is a conversation, not a price list — and someone who does not know that accepts the first figure they are quoted. The sell-side guide sets out what each house charges, when it pays, and who answers the phone →
Eighteen of the nineteen are read from the house’s own published terms, and each carries the date we last checked it. Fees change; where a figure is tiered or conditional, the note under the name says so rather than flattening it into one percentage.
One is marked with an asterisk. Robert Edward Auctions does not publish its buyer’s premium anywhere we can find. The 23% is our own figure, worked out by arithmetic across realized lots and then put to the house directly, which did not object to it. That is a weaker kind of fact than a published rate and it is labeled as one.
When each house’s next sale closes, and its consignment deadline: the auction calendar → · every house side by side: the directory →
If you find any of these out of date, tell us and we will correct it — support@theheirloomindex.com.
No house pays to appear here or to appear higher, there are no affiliate links on this page, and nothing here is a view on what any card is worth. We also buy cards ourselves; that has no bearing on this page.