Journal · Selling · November 2026

Auction, dealer or private sale: what each one costs you

A work that makes a headline price at auction does not put that number in the seller’s bank account, and a dealer who offers you a figure today is not offering you the same thing a saleroom is. The three routes differ in what they cost, how long they take, who carries the risk and how much control you keep. Knowing which question matters most to you decides the route.

Auction

You consign a work; the house catalogues it, markets it and sells it on a given day to whoever bids highest.

What it costs

• Seller’s commission. Negotiable, and negotiable in practice far more often than sellers assume, especially on desirable property. On modest lots it can be substantial; on major ones it is sometimes waived entirely to win the consignment.
• Charges on top. Photography, cataloguing, insurance while in their care, shipping, and in some cases a fee if the lot fails to sell. Ask for the full schedule in writing before signing.
• The buyer’s premium. Paid by the buyer, not you — but it is money the buyer has budgeted and therefore money not bid on your lot. It depresses hammer prices.

What you get, and what you risk

Competition, a public price record and a defined date by which you will have an answer. Against that: no guaranteed outcome. A lot that fails to sell is “burned” — the unsold record follows it in the databases, and the next attempt is harder and usually cheaper. The reserve protects you from a giveaway price but not from that reputational cost.

At auction you are buying competition and paying for it with certainty. In a private sale you are buying certainty and paying for it with competition.

Dealer

Two quite different arrangements go by this name, and the difference matters more than the percentage.

• Outright purchase. The dealer buys the work from you. You get money now and carry no further risk — and you accept a wholesale price, because the dealer is taking on the cost, the time and the possibility that it does not sell.
• Consignment. The work sits with the dealer and you are paid when it sells, less an agreed commission. Higher net if it sells; no date by which it will.

On consignment, get the terms in writing: the commission, the minimum net price to you, how long the arrangement runs, who insures the work and where it is kept, and what happens if the gallery is sold or closes. That last clause sounds remote until it isn’t.

What it is good for

A dealer with the right clientele can place a work with a collector who would never have seen it in a sale, and do it quietly. For material with a narrow audience — a specific school, a regional artist, a difficult subject — the right dealer regularly beats the saleroom, because the saleroom depends on at least two interested bidders turning up on one particular afternoon.

Private sale

A direct sale to a known buyer, arranged by you or through an advisor, sometimes through an auction house’s own private-sales department.

What it costs

A negotiated fee, usually lower than auction commission, and sometimes a flat advisory fee instead of a percentage. The real costs are elsewhere: you need to find the buyer, you set the price without a public market to test it against, and you take on the paperwork — invoice, provenance statement, title warranty, export licence, transport, insurance.

What it is good for

Discretion, no public failure if it does not happen, and complete control over price and timing. It suits high-value works where the plausible buyers are few and known, and situations where the family does not want the sale on a public record.

Choosing between them

• You need a specific sum by a specific date. Outright sale to a dealer. You will net less; you will know the number.
• The work is fresh to the market, well documented and has an obvious audience. Auction. Competition is exactly what you want, and freshness is the quality salerooms pay for.
• It has been offered publicly before and failed. Not auction again, at least not soon. Dealer or private sale.
• Discretion matters, or the value is high and the buyers are countable. Private sale.
• The attribution or the provenance has a gap. Fix that first. Every route pays materially more for a work whose paperwork holds together, and the research almost always costs less than the discount.