dealer prices vs auction prices?
Simple question: is there a simple relationship to estimate dealer sales price from the auction price? Obviously this will vary but perhaps not so much for higher end, good condition, instruments (who's value is fairly well known at the time of the auction). Tweet
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I presume you don't get to take an instrument on trial or to take it to a luthier for a check over, unless you bring one with you on the day. This makes it a much more risky affair buying from an auction house.
But thanks for the ratio guys. :)
The point is that for the seller of a fine and good sounding instrument, which has a vital market, the loss is excessive compared to other ways of selling. So the only reasons to go to auction would be that she/he is not aware of this or has too much time pressure to wait for a year on commission.
So, what is left might often be violins which have been rejected by dealers before.
I was really interested once in a Gatti and later a Genovese ... both became a new auction record for the maker, respectively, and beyond 50% of retail for those makers. I once travelled to London because a Marchetti with good certificate. Pictures were ok, but in reality it was only 50% of a Marchetti in terms of workmanship and sound. And so it was sold for an accordingly low price.
When you mix that with the fact you have no time for trial or detailed expection by a third party, the prices seem justified.
This takes you closer to commissioning ratios and the high awareness in auction might be positive by creating a bidder fight.
So compared to "normal" violins, I see good reasons to take a >1m€ instrument to auction. But this is only my guess.
Auction prices are no longer "wholesale", and some auction prices are retail or above. Condition and provenance are important, but many instruments in auctions today are there for a reason:the shops can't sell them. I sometimes consult regarding auction instruments and bows for clients. The first thing that I tell them is to ask themselves why the item is at auction.
With knowledge, you can purchase at auction. You can purchase an instrument that sounds good, to you, and meets your needs as a musician, but without knowledge, or someone who can assist you with that part of the equation, you really can not know the true condition nor what it is beyond the auction house attribution, so purchasing with an eye toward the violin being an investment vehicle is dangerous.
So, is there a simple relationship? No, there is not.
When the Tarisio Auction goes online, the first instruments that I view are the ones that are described as, "An Interesting Violin".
I don't think it's that nefarious. Dealers simply go to auctions looking for violins to buy and sell at a profit.
They're not looking to keep anyone guessing--just get a decent return on what is very often a big gamble.
That said, there is more risk at an auction, which keeps prices down a fair bit. Private buyers can’t easily unload a misjudgment on a customer. The perfect instrument at a discount/trade price? Lovely! Something you grow tired of because you didn’t get to try it for a week, yecch! So you need to be very sure if you are buying for yourself.
they need to have in order to get by and it could go up from there.
Though I don't believe haggling is encouraged in most dealerships, if I were to come in armed with the right information and questioned a price based on my information, my expectation would be that they would consider another offer based on good solid information, possibly also based on close competition, especially if the difference is small compared to the whole amount and they still stood to make a decent profit.
I think you might find it all depends on the violin in question and how many other people are after it. I would expect a dealer to authenticate the violin for instruments in the upper price brackets.Otherwise value is in question. I believe at least half of that responsibility rests on the buyer.
If the maker is a well known luthier, then there should be some easy to point to characteristics that can authenticate the instrument. In the end though, for me at least, a very large question is how does it play and sound? Of course actually buying from a luthier from work bench to studio seems tough to beat in my opinion.
Most dealers don't authenticate instruments themselves. Certificates from respected authorities on a particular maker are the norm.
Prices for instruments are not based on the auction price, so good luck trying to figure out some kind of magic "ratio" to try and guarantee yourself a "fair" price, whatever that is. Prices are based on what the dealer thinks someone will pay for the instrument, and takes into account condition, what others are selling a similar instrument for, etc. Also remember that many of the violins at a dealer are consignment, and not from an auction. So if a dealer has two of a maker on consignment and gets a third from an auction, the auction instrument has to be priced relative to the other ones, not what the auction price was.
I have never had difficulty finding out prices from dealers: call and ask.
People need to stop worrying about auction prices. They are of limited value.
The items were auctioned, but without publicity of any kind. When I saw the pennies on the dollar that the items received, I couldn't believe it: there was some rather valuable stuff there.
If an auction house were to not properly publicize the items, they would have little chance of selling; so - theoretically of course - a stooge could step in, buy the lot for pennies, and then re-sell at a high profit.
I'm not saying that it happened to me, but when I sold something through Bonhams they published it in a glossy book and posted it online.
"That's not the case, Timothy. Price haggling is the norm for instruments at almost all dealers. This is especially true if the instrument is a consignment. Sellers are often willing to negotiate the price in order to get their money sooner rather than waiting for another buyer to come along."
Thanks Lydia,
Then my conclusion is the prices are at the high retail end because the dealer expects that to happen.The fact that shops I've been in didn't have posted prices always concerned me. Unless I was in Ed's music store and he's selling low end imports.
Auctions like Tarisio are good for sellers because they get a lot of traffic and you can have a better chance of selling something within a certain timeframe. The trade off is you’ll probably have to accept getting less as a seller than you would selling through a dealer. Unfortunately in the case of lots of dealers, the violins they have on consignment, sit in their vaults for years and some charge exorbitant amounts to pay for their high overhead in rent or donations to the Church of Scientology. As a buyer you can sometimes get great deals at a auction like Tarisio for a fraction of the cost you’d pay for the same violin at a big dealer in a metropolis. 1 of my friends within the last 3 years purchased a violin by a major maker from the past at auction for far less than what it would go for at a dealer. The instrument is in great condition too!
If someone at a dealer asks you what your budget is, what is the most effective way for an amateur to answer this question? And what is the best way to ask to try instruments by certain modern makers and how do you determine the price?
I feel like my prevailing wisdom is to play this stuff close to the chest. If you say you want a $1000 violin, isn't that spilling too much information to the seller? Or just begging them to upsell you a $1200 instrument? In my case I have a budget in mind, but I'm flexible to go a little higher for something if I find the one. If I try a Billy Bob violin that's priced at $10000, how do I know that's what a Billy Bob typically sells for, and do so without giving away too much of my own flexibility?
EDIT: For reference I think my ideal would be a really sick modern instrument. Something that a touring pro could play on.
If you don't tell me what you budget is it makes it difficult for me to help you. I will show you instruments within your budget, but if your budget keeps changing then it makes it more difficult for both of us. I don't upsell, but that is probably why I drive a 10 year old vehicle!
If you are more interested in a "really sick modern instrument" then why not contact the makers directly? I like to sell instruments made by the living who are actually people I know, but they are more difficult than older instruments to move mainly because of prejudice in the market that old instruments are better than new ones.
For many makers, the volume of those violins that are being sold -- especially older deceased makers who didn't make a lot of violins -- is too small to really set a "good" price. You don't really have a great way of evaluating the accuracy of Billy Bob's violin pricing, so you mostly have to decide whether or not it's worth it to you if it doesn't resell for what you might hope.
Contemporary violins made by living makers are priced in shops at least in part based on what current commissions from those makers cost. Note, though, that there's no true "consistency" in maker pricing. Makers can choose to lower their price in order to get quicker sales, or make fewer sales (and make fewer violins, but perhaps do more marketing) for higher prices, potentially.
I suppose it's somewhat of an artifact of a the current [year] that we are so used to things having transparent pricing on the internet. With violins, many of which are pieces of art in and of themselves, it's so difficult to know what you're getting yourself into without a lot of experience buying and selling (and I can't afford to buy and sell violins for fun).
Playing a Whedbee tomorrow though, maybe it'll be good. There was a user on these boards who wrote a really nice post about hunting for a modern instrument. I would like to write one of those blogs myself to "give back" and I think the process will improve my ability to critically listen and evaluate the instruments.
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