Consignor commission is the percentage of hammer price the auctioneer keeps. Buyer’s premium (covered in this post) is charged on top of hammer and paid by the buyer. Together they’re the two levers that fund the sale.
Most working auctioneers charge both. Not because they’re greedy — because the economics of running a general sale house don’t work otherwise. Photography, cataloging, marketing, staffing the auction, processing payments, chasing deadbeats, storing unsold lots — all of it costs real money before a single dollar hits the seller’s account.
What the field actually charges
Rough 2026 rates, general merchandise:
- Standard household + estate: 25–35% consignor commission.
- Farm equipment + titled vehicles: 10–15% (lower because per-item hammer is higher and processing cost is proportionally smaller).
- Fine art + jewelry: 15–25% (competitive with the high-end houses).
- Whole-estate consignment (you clear the house, you keep everything from the sale): often 40–50%, sometimes higher if the auctioneer is also handling disposal + charity donation of unsold items.
- Charity + benefit: negotiable, sometimes waived, but write it down — benefit organizers get amnesia when the check clears.
These numbers assume you’re also charging a buyer’s premium. If you’re not, consignor rates need to be higher to compensate. If you’re running "no premium" as a marketing pitch, be prepared for consignors to expect 40–50% commission on a household sale to keep the math working.
Tiered commissions: usually worth the ink
A flat rate is easy to explain. A tiered rate is fairer.
Sample structure for a general sale house:
25% on hammer prices $500 and above.
35% on hammer prices under $500.
Minimum lot fee: $10.
Why: cataloging a $30 lot costs the same as cataloging a $3,000 lot. Percentage-of-hammer means the auctioneer loses money on the small lot and makes plenty on the big one. Tiered rates + a minimum fee keep the small stuff economical instead of a loss leader.
Some auctioneers go the other direction and reduce the rate on trophy lots (25% below $10k, 15% above). That works if you have consignors bringing in high-value single items and you’re competing with the coastal houses. Most working sale houses don’t.
What to write into the consignor agreement
At minimum:
- The commission structure in exact percentages and thresholds.
- What "hammer" means for this contract (some houses use hammer + premium as the base; most use hammer alone).
- Pass fees: what happens if a lot doesn’t meet reserve. Charging a small fee ($5–10 per lot) discourages unrealistic reserves.
- Photography + listing fees if you charge them separately. Some houses roll everything into commission; some bill per lot photographed.
- Reserve terms. Explicit maximum reserve as a % of your estimate (typical: 80% of the low estimate). Nothing kills a sale faster than lots that don’t sell because the consignor priced them at retail.
- Unsold lot handling: pickup deadline, storage fees after that, and what happens to the item if the consignor never picks it up (usually the auctioneer’s option to re-list or donate after 30 days).
- Payout timing: how many business days after the sale before the consignor gets their check. Standard is 10–14 business days, longer if you need to wait out chargeback windows.
- Payment method: check, ACH, Stripe payout. Whichever, write it down.
The consignor conversation
The rate itself is rarely the hard part. What consignors actually want to know is:
- What’s my item worth? (You give a range.)
- How much will I actually get? (You do the math: estimate × probability of selling × (1 − commission) − fees.)
- When will I get paid?
- What happens if it doesn’t sell?
Prepare answers to those four in advance and the rate conversation stops being a negotiation and starts being a professional service quote. That’s the frame you want.
The Hammerwerks buyer’s premium calculator also handles the consignor side: enter hammer, premium %, commission %, tax rate; get buyer’s total, your gross, consignor’s net. Useful for the consignor call.