Buyer’s premium 101

What to charge, what to disclose, and why every bidder in the room already understands it.

Buyer’s premium is a straightforward add-on: a percentage of the hammer price the buyer pays on top of the winning bid. If a lot hammers at $100 and the buyer’s premium is 15%, the buyer pays $115. The consignor still gets their cut of $100.

Every serious auctioneer charges one. Every serious bidder expects it. The interesting question isn’t whether to charge one — it’s at what rate, and how to be transparent about it in a way that keeps bidders bidding.

What the market actually charges

Working numbers as of 2026:

General estate + household: 10–15% is standard.
Farm + equipment: often 5–10%, sometimes lower on high-ticket titled items.
Fine art + antiques: 15–25% at regional houses, 25%+ at the top of the market.
Online-only: 15–20% is typical; the platform’s cut is usually baked in here.
Live in-person: 5–10% lower than the same auctioneer’s online-only sales, since the audience is smaller and more committed.

The single biggest determinant is what your local market has trained bidders to expect. If every auction house within a hundred miles charges 15% and you charge 20%, expect your bidders to run the numbers and bid less to compensate. The buyer’s ceiling is set by their willingness to pay total, not by the hammer figure they call out.

Split premiums are legal, standard, and worth thinking about

A split premium is a tiered structure: e.g. 15% on the first $2,500 of hammer, 12% above. High-value houses sometimes go the other way (25% below $100k, 20% above $100k) to soften the total on trophy lots. It rewards larger bidders without giving up margin on the volume tail.

Whether it’s worth the extra bookkeeping depends on your bidder mix. If you regularly sell $10k+ lots to serious collectors, yes. If your median hammer is $85, no — you’re adding complexity for a rounding error.

Disclosure: not optional

Every state that licenses auctioneers requires clear premium disclosure. The rule of thumb: the buyer must know the total cost of a winning bid before they place it. In practice:

Print the buyer’s premium on the front of any printed catalog.
Display it on the public bidder registration page — before they submit.
Say it during the terms announcement at the start of a live sale.
Show it as a line item on the invoice, not folded into the total.

Bidders who feel surprised by the premium fight back on the invoice. Bidders who saw it three times in a row before they registered do not.

Sales tax comes on top

In most U.S. jurisdictions, sales tax is calculated on hammer + premium, not hammer alone. That’s worth knowing because it’s another line the buyer sees on the invoice, and it’s often the thing that trips a first-time bidder into a "why is my invoice so much bigger than my bid" email. Preempt it: put a small "Buyers pay X% premium plus applicable sales tax" note on the catalog page.

Should you ever charge zero?

Only in one situation: benefit auctions where you’re volunteering the service, all proceeds go to charity, and everyone in the room knows it. Otherwise, no. A "no premium" sale sounds like a gift to buyers, but it actually just moves your compensation entirely to consignor commissions, which changes how sellers price their reserves and often ends up costing the sale more than the premium would have.

What premium changes as you change platforms

Marketplaces (HiBid, Proxibid, LiveAuctioneers) typically require the buyer to pay both your premium and the platform’s. That can push all-in buyer cost from 15% to 30% and materially affects hammer prices. If you cross-list, factor the platform’s buyer fee into your own premium decision. Many auctioneers set a lower premium on the marketplace channel and their normal premium on their own site.

The point of the number is to be fair to your consignors, competitive for your bidders, and sustainable for your business. It is not a hidden fee. Say it out loud, put it on every page, and move on.