This is a thematic page. It carries no Market Snapshot ratings; the route named on each sector page remains the record. The Exit depth page asked how often the door opens and who is behind it; this page asks what kind of door it is.
IAgent or principal
The distinction is legal before it is commercial. An auction house never owns the lot. It acts for the consignor, charges the consignor a seller's commission on the hammer, charges the buyer a premium on top of the hammer, and if the lot fails to reach its reserve it goes back to the consignor, publicly unsold. A dealer owns what it sells. It buys from the holder at a price it names, holds the stock at its own risk and cost, and sells at a price it names later; the holder never sees the second price. 20 21
The sector pages give the two prices where they can. A watch sold to a dealer realises a discount of 15–30% to retail at once; the same watch on a marketplace takes two to eight weeks at a 6.5% commission; at auction it waits for the next sale and pays a buyer's premium that caps the bid. 22 A polished diamond sold privately realises "perhaps 40–60% of retail" through dealers, and goes to auction only if exceptional. 23 A yearling has no dealer route at all: the calendar at Keeneland and Tattersalls is the market, and a horse bought back by its vendor pays 2.5% for the privilege of not selling. 24
Three findings follow. The auction-led markets are the ones where the thing is unique and the price unknown until the room sets it: art, Old Masters, jewels, racehorses, cars, falcons, fossils. The dealer-led markets are the ones where a reference price exists and the dealer's job is to sit a spread around it: watches, polished diamonds, bullion, coins below the rarity line, oud, pu-erh. Between them, a dozen markets name a threshold in money below which the dealer takes it and above which the auction house does, and that threshold is where the holder's choice actually lies. The register sorts the 51 markets by these.
IIFive configurations
How the two counterparties are arranged in each market. The names are this page's; the examples are drawn from the Exit depth blocks of the sector pages.
| Configuration | How the seller exits | Markets | What it does to price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auction-led | Consignment to a house on a fixed calendar; dealers exist but buy at auction or broker private sales through the house | Art, Old Masters, Signed Jewellery, Racehorses, Classic Cars, Falcons, Fossils, Jade, Stamps | Public, dated, with the unsold lot visible. Price exists only on sale day; between sales the last hammer is the reference 25 |
| Dealer-led | Sale to a dealer who buys outright, or consignment to one; auction for exceptional pieces only | Watches, Polished Diamonds, Vintage Guitars, Oud, Pu-erh Tea, Saffron, Frankincense, Rare Earths (lots), Lab-Grown Diamonds | Private, quoted, continuous. A list or asking price exists (Rapaport, Chrono24, Donghe) and the dealer bids below it 22 23 |
| Both, with a threshold | Dealer below a value, auction above it; the threshold is stated on the sector page | Coloured Gemstones (~$50,000), Rare Books (~$10,000), Scotch and Japanese Whisky (standard releases online, trophies at Sotheby's), Cigars, Handbags, Pearls, Fine Wine, Champagne, Port, Rare Whisky Casks, Coins (ordinary) | Two prices: a dealer bid for the ordinary and a hammer for the rare, which do not always meet 26 |
| Exchange or benchmark | Sale at or near a published price through any dealer or broker; the dealer is a conduit, not a price-maker | Gold, Silver, PGMs, Copper, Oil & Gas, Cocoa, Coffee, Uranium (trust), Manuka (equity), Tea (equity) | Continuous and public; the dealer's spread is the whole cost, and it is measured in basis points for gold and in percentage points for rhodium 27 |
| Administered or trade-only | Sale to a licensed or sole buyer at a price the buyer or a body sets; no auction, and the "dealer" is the market | Maple Syrup, Parmigiano Reggiano, Rough Diamonds, Bluefin Tuna, Wagyu, Olive Oil, Vanilla, Dates, Caviar, Truffles, Breeding Stallions (private transfer) | Set by the Federation, the Borsa Merci, the sight, the morning market; the holder is a price-taker (see Who sets the price) 28 |
IIIThe register, market by market
The counterparty each sector page names, the threshold where both exist, and the round-trip cost as the page gives it. Each row links to its page, which carries the sources.
| Market | Configuration | Who the seller faces | Cost as the page gives it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Exchange | Bullion bank or dealer at the LBMA price; ETF on exchange | ETF spread near 0.01%; dealer spreads wider by size and form |
| Silver | Exchange | Dealer or bullion bank at the LBMA Silver Price | Narrow on 1,000 oz bars; retail coin premiums materially wider |
| Platinum group metals | Exchange | Dealer at the LBMA price; rhodium dealer-only with no benchmark | Spreads widen with size; rhodium a dealer's market |
| Copper | Exchange | LME or COMEX through a broker | Fees, commission, the roll |
| Oil & Gas | Exchange | Futures broker; fund on exchange | The roll |
| Uranium | Exchange (wrapper) | Any broker for trust units; the metal itself trades by private bilateral deal, a handful a week | 0.71% a year; a 13% discount to the metal |
| Cocoa | Exchange | ICE through a broker | Fees, margin, the roll |
| Coffee | Exchange | ICE through a broker; physical lots to exporters | Fees, margin; specialty lots do not track the contract |
| Rare Earths | Dealer-led (lots); exchange (equity) | Specialist metal dealers for small lots; brokers for shares | Dealer spread on oxides; no public bid |
| Fine Wine | Both | A merchant onto Liv-ex (professionals only) for the ordinary case; Sotheby's, Christie's, Zachys for cellars and rarities | Merchant commission 10%+; exchange fee per unit unpublished; auction around 10% plus premium |
| Champagne | Both | Merchant onto Liv-ex; merchant buy-back; auction; iDealwine for grower labels | Merchant 10%+; exchange fee per unit |
| Port | Both | Specialist merchants and brokers (Farr, BBR, Justerini); auction for old vintages | Merchant 10%+; auction around 10% plus premium |
| Scotch Whisky | Both: online auction standard, Sotheby's and Bonhams for trophies | Whisky Auctioneer and peers monthly (4,486–5,766 lots a month); specialist retailers who buy or consign | Seller 5% plus VAT to 10%; buyer 12.5–15% caps the hammer; £6 listing, £10 reserve |
| Rare Whisky Casks | Both: broker-led, a few cask auctions | Usually the broker that sold the cask; a bottler or blender at bulk; a handful of cask auctions | Broker 10% and up, often undisclosed |
| Japanese Whisky | Both | The same online auctions as Scotch; Bonhams and Sotheby's Hong Kong for trophies | Seller 5–10% plus VAT; buyer 12.5–15% |
| Cigars | Both | C.Gars and Online Cigar Auctions; the same dealers buy outright | Seller 10–15%, buyer 15–25%; dealer buy-in at a discount to retail |
| Pu-erh Tea | Dealer-led; auction for antique cakes | Fangcun wholesale market and the Donghe quotation platform; Hong Kong auction for pre-1970s tea | Dealer spread on the quote; auction 20–25% buyer, 10–15% seller |
| Tea | Exchange (equity); auction (leaf, trade only) | Broker for shares; the prefectural tea auction for leaf, licensed buyers only | Brokerage; auction commission on leaf |
| Parmigiano Reggiano | Administered | Wholesaler or ageing house at the Borsa Merci price for the maturity | Wholesaler margin; inspection; downgrades |
| Olive Oil | Administered | Bottler or cooperative at the weekly Poolred or Infaoliva price | Mill and bottler margins; quality downgrades €0.20–0.30/kg |
| Saffron | Dealer-led | Spice trader, packer or re-exporter at the grade the buyer's own test assigns | The grade gap, which can be the whole premium |
| Vanilla | Administered | Exporters and the flavour houses on contract | Exporter margin; curing and grading risk |
| Frankincense | Dealer-led | Exporters in Berbera, Bosaso or Salalah; ingredient houses | Four or five hands between tree and distiller, each a margin |
| Oud | Dealer-led | Attar dealers in the Gulf, Mumbai and Singapore, who also buy back; kōdō houses for the finest wood | Dealer spread and the authentication gap |
| Manuka Honey | Exchange (equity); administered (drums) | NZX broker; packer or exporter at the MGO-graded price | Price impact on a thin small cap; drums at a discount |
| Maple Syrup | Administered | A PPAQ-authorised buyer at the Federation price, the only lawful bulk buyer in Québec | Levies of about 14¢/lb; reserve and promotion charges |
| Dates | Administered | Wholesale markets and state programmes; the farm sells locally | Wholesale margin |
| Truffles | Administered; a charity auction for show | Wholesalers and restaurant buyers at weekly market prices; the Alba auction sets headlines, not the price | Wholesaler margin; the perishability clock |
| Caviar | Administered | Importers, brands and restaurants under contract; private equity for the farm | Cold-chain freight, CITES paperwork, distributor margins |
| Bluefin Tuna | Administered auction (trade only) | The Toyosu morning auction, licensed buyers only; the New Year sale is a publicity price | Market commission; grading on the day can halve the price |
| Wagyu | Administered auction (trade only) | Regional carcass and calf markets in Japan; listed producers for capital | Market commission; grade sets the price |
| Racehorses | Auction-led | Keeneland and Tattersalls on a fixed calendar; private sale between trainers in between | Vendor 5% of hammer plus entry fee; 2.5% on a buy-back |
| Breeding Stallions | Private transfer; public auction rare | Another member or a buyer the syndicate manager approves; the Flightline share at Keeneland 2022 was news | Syndicate transfer terms and legal cost; 5% plus entry at public auction |
| Falcons | Auction-led | The International Falcon Breeders Auction in Riyadh (1,103 birds, 21 nights in 2025); private sale between breeders | Commission not published; transport, veterinary and permit fees on the seller |
| Rough Diamonds | Administered (sight) and tender | De Beers sights and producer tenders on the way in; the secondary rough market in Antwerp, Dubai and Surat on the way out | The secondary premium or discount to the box price, 5–50% by category |
| Polished Diamonds | Dealer-led; auction for exceptional stones | RapNet dealers (1.7 m stones listed); consignment to a jeweller; Worthy and myGemma online; auction above a few carats of fine colour | A private seller realises perhaps 40–60% of retail |
| Lab-Grown Diamonds | Dealer-led, and the dealers decline | Worthy and myGemma do not buy; a few sellers offer trade-in credit at 15–20% of price | Wholesale near $80–90 on a $700–1,100 retail stone |
| Coloured Gemstones | Both: threshold about $50,000 | Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips above it, each with a fresh lab report; specialist dealers below | Seller around 10%; buyer 28% on the first $2 m; lab report $500–3,000 |
| Pearls | Both: natural at auction, cultured to dealers | Geneva, Hong Kong and New York jewels sales for natural pearls with a report; wholesalers and jewellers for cultured strands | Seller around 10%; buyer above 25%; cultured strands resell at a steep discount |
| Jade | Auction-led for the top; dealers below | Christie's, Sotheby's, Poly and Tiancheng in Hong Kong with a lab report; Hong Kong and Guangzhou dealers for the rest | Seller around 10%; buyer 25%+ |
| Signed Jewellery | Auction-led | Magnificent Jewels in Geneva, Hong Kong and New York; period-jewellery dealers; the houses' own buy-back for recent pieces | Seller 10%, negotiable above $500,000; buyer 28% on the first $2 m |
| Watches | Dealer-led; auction for rarities | A dealer for an immediate offer; consignment; Chrono24 (500,000+ listings); Phillips, Christie's, Sotheby's for the rare | Dealer buy-in 15–30% below retail; marketplace 6.5%; consignment 13–19% |
| Handbags | Both: fixed-price marketplace and auction under one roof | Sotheby's Marketplace at a fixed price or Sotheby's online auction; Christie's and Heritage for the rare; resale platforms | Marketplace pays the seller 80%; auction premium 20–26%; consignment 20–30% |
| Coins | Both: auction for certified rarities, dealers for the rest | Heritage (200,000+ lots a year), Stack's Bowers, GreatCollections; dealer networks buying at bid | Buyer 22% at Heritage from Jan 2026; seller 10% on ordinary coins, negotiable above |
| Stamps | Auction-led | Siegel, Spink, Stanley Gibbons, Corinphila, Feldman with expertising certificates; dealers buy at a fraction | Seller 10–15%; buyer 20–25%; dealer buy-in far below |
| Rare Books | Both: threshold about $10,000 | Christie's and Sotheby's above it; Bonhams, Swann, Forum, Dominic Winter; ABA and ILAB dealers for the rest | Seller 10%; buyer 28% to $2 m |
| Vintage Guitars & Instruments | Dealer-led; auction for provenance pieces | Gruhn, Carter, Norman's, Vintage 'n' Rare buying or consigning; Reverb; Heritage, Christie's, Julien's for celebrity instruments | Consignment 15–25% or buy-in a third below retail; Reverb 5% |
| Art | Auction-led; private sale through the same houses | Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Bonhams and regional houses; a dealer or the originating gallery for private sale | Seller 10%, waived for trophies; buyer 28% to $2 m, 22% to $8 m |
| Old Masters | Auction-led | Christie's and Sotheby's evening sales (London July and December, New York January, Paris June); Bonhams, Dorotheum; specialist dealers at TEFAF | Seller around 10%; buyer 28% / 22% / 15% by band |
| Classic Cars | Auction-led; online auction below $500k | RM Sotheby's, Gooding, Bonhams, Broad Arrow on the calendar; Bring a Trailer and Collecting Cars online; dealers for consignment | Seller 10%; buyer 12% to $250,000 in the US, 15% plus VAT in Europe |
| Fossils & Meteorites | Auction-led | Sotheby's natural-history sale each July; museums and collectors through the same specialists; dealers at Tucson for the rest | Buyer 28% / 22% / 15%; seller negotiable |
Fifty-one rows, one per market brief. "Configuration" classifies the route the sector page names; "Who the seller faces" paraphrases its Exit depth block; "Cost" repeats the page's figure without re-sourcing it. Where a sector page is updated, it governs.
IVWhat each side charges
Published terms at the snapshot date, read across the sector pages. The buyer's premium is paid by the buyer but comes out of the hammer the seller receives, because bidders bid net of it.
| Counterparty | Terms | Figure | Confidence | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sotheby's, Christie's (art, jewels, books, fossils) | Seller's commission; buyer's premium by band | 10% / 28%, 22%, 15% by bandReported | High | 20 25 |
| RM Sotheby's (cars) | Seller; buyer, US and Europe | 10% / 12% US; 15% / 12.5% + VAT EuropeReported | High | 29 |
| Keeneland, Tattersalls (horses) | Vendor only; entry fee; buy-back | 5% of hammer; $1,000 entry; 2.5% on a buy-backReported | High | 24 |
| Heritage, Stack's Bowers (coins) | Buyer's premium raised in 2026; seller on ordinary lots | 22% (min $29) / 10%Reported | High | 30 |
| Whisky Auctioneer and peers (bottles) | Seller plus VAT; buyer; listing and reserve fees | 5–10% / 12.5–15%; £6 and £10Reported | High | 26 |
| Sotheby's Marketplace (handbags) | Fixed-price sale; seller receives | 80% of priceReported | High | 31 |
| Watch dealer; Chrono24; consignment | Buy-in discount to retail; marketplace commission; consignment | 15–30% / 6.5% / 13–19%Reported | High | 22 |
| Guitar dealer; Reverb | Consignment or buy-in; marketplace | 15–25% or a third off / 5%Reported | Med | 32 |
| Diamond dealer (RapNet) | What a private seller realises against retail | 40–60%Estimate | Med | 23 |
| Wine merchant; cask broker | Commission on a brokered sale | 10% and up, often undisclosedReported | Med | 33 |
| Gold dealer or ETF | Spread to the LBMA price | c. 0.01% on the ETF; wider on barsReported | High | 27 |
Add the two sides and the round trip through a major house on an ordinary lot is near 38% of hammer: 10% to the consignor's side and 28% to the buyer's, which the buyer deducts from the bid. A watch dealer's 15–30% discount is the same money paid once, at once, without a sale day. The auction is not cheaper than the dealer; it is a different allocation of the same spread, with the unsold-lot risk left with the seller. Hyp 20 22
VThree cases
Where the choice of counterparty, not the asset, set the outcome.
The auction publishes the failure
Christie's evening sale made £38.9 m at 90% sold by lot, its highest sell-through in the category; Sotheby's the same week made £37.8 m at 78%, with ten lots unsold. An unsold Old Master is "burned": the trade saw the estimate, saw no bid, and will discount it for years. A dealer's unsold stock is invisible. This is the real price of the public price: the auction tells everyone what the thing is worth, including when the answer is nothing. 25
Watch: the share of lots withdrawn before sale, which houses use to keep the published rate up
Three doors, three prices, one watch
The sector page gives the whole ladder. Sell to a dealer today: 15–30% below retail, cash now. List on Chrono24: 6.5% commission, two to eight weeks, buyers in 150 countries. Consign to a platform: 13–19%. Send to Phillips: wait for the Geneva or New York sale, pay a negotiable seller's commission, and let a 25%+ buyer's premium cap the bid. The holder of a steel Daytona takes door one or two; the holder of a Paul Newman takes door four. The reference price (dealer asking) exists continuously; the auction price exists twice a year and is the one that gets reported. 22
Watch: Chrono24's listing count and time-to-sale as the instant-offer market grows
The houses become dealers, the dealers become auctions
Sotheby's now sells Birkins at a fixed price on a marketplace, paying the seller 80%, next to its own online auctions; it also brokers private sales in art that the sector page records as a growing share. In the other direction, Bring a Trailer and Collecting Cars turned the dealer's car into an online auction below $500,000, Reverb did the same for guitars, and Whisky Auctioneer runs 5,000 lots a month where a retailer once bought bottles over the counter. The two configurations in Section II are converging on a third: a continuous online auction with a fixed-price option, run by whoever has the audience. Hyp 31 29 26
Watch: Christie's and Sotheby's private-sale totals against auction totals in their annual statements
VIThree patterns in the record
Auction where the price is unknown, dealer where it is quoted
Every auction-led market in the register sells things with no two alike and no list price: paintings, yearlings, falcons, a T. rex. Every dealer-led market has a reference (Rapaport, Chrono24, Donghe, the LBMA price) and the dealer's business is the spread around it. The Who sets the price page found the same split from the other end: the calendar auction is a price regime, not just a venue.
Watch: any transaction-based index in a dealer-led market (diamonds, watches) that would let a house estimate without a room
The dealer sells time; the auction sells the chance of a better price
Across the register the dealer's offer is immediate and the auction's is dated: Keeneland in September and November, Sotheby's fossils in July, Old Masters in July and December, the Riyadh falcon auction for three weeks in August. The holder who needs money this month has a dealer or nothing in roughly half the markets, and the Exit depth page records what that costs when the dealer is also the one who sold it.
Watch: auction-house advances and guarantees, which convert the dated price into an immediate one for a fee
The seller at auction, the dealer in stock, the house never
An auction house carries no inventory risk unless it guarantees; it earns on both sides whether the lot makes high estimate or scrapes the reserve. A dealer's capital is tied up in whatever it bought and did not sell. The holder choosing between them is choosing who will be left holding the thing if the market turns between today and the sale day: at auction, themselves; with a dealer, the dealer, at a price that reflects it.
Watch: guarantee and third-party irrevocable-bid volumes at the major houses, where the house or a backer takes the dealer's risk for a share
VIIIndicators to monitor
- Sell-through rates by lot at the London and New York evening sales, and the withdrawal rate before sale 25.
- Buyer's-premium schedules at Sotheby's, Christie's and Heritage, which moved in February 2026 and January 2026 respectively 20 30.
- Private-sale totals against auction totals in the houses' annual statements, the measure of the house becoming a dealer 34.
- Online-auction share below the threshold in cars and whisky: Bring a Trailer's and Whisky Auctioneer's monthly lot counts 26 29.
- Dealer buy-in discounts in watches and the Chrono24 time-to-sale, the live spread in a dealer-led market 22.
- Keeneland and Tattersalls buy-back rates, the auction-led market's own measure of the unsold lot 24.
VIIISources
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, Art, market brief, Exit depth and Cost (Sotheby's seller's commission and buyer's premium bands from February 2026), snapshot Oct 2026
- Sotheby's, "Conditions of business for sellers" and Christie's, "Conditions of sale" (agency; buyer's premium; unsold lots) — accessed 29 Oct 2026
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, Watches, market brief, Exit depth, Activity and Cost, snapshot Oct 2026
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, Polished Diamonds, market brief, Exit depth and Cost, snapshot Oct 2026
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, Racehorses, market brief, Exit depth and Cost, snapshot 20 Oct 2026
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, Old Masters, market brief, Exit depth and Activity (London, July 2026), snapshot Oct 2026
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, Scotch Whisky and Japanese Whisky, market briefs, Exit depth and Cost, snapshot Oct 2026
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, Gold, Silver and Platinum group metals, market briefs, Exit depth and Cost, snapshot Oct 2026
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, "Who sets the price", Sections II and III
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, Classic Cars, market brief, Exit depth and Cost, snapshot Oct 2026
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, Coins, market brief, Exit depth and Cost (Heritage buyer's premium from 1 January 2026), snapshot Oct 2026
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, Handbags, market brief, Exit depth and Cost, snapshot Oct 2026
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, Vintage Guitars & Instruments, market brief, Exit depth and Cost, snapshot Oct 2026
- ΣΟΦΙΑ, Fine Wine, Port and Rare Whisky Casks, market briefs, Cost, snapshot Oct 2026
- Sotheby's and Christie's annual sales announcements, 2025 (private-sale and auction totals) (secondary) — accessed 29 Oct 2026 Med
Rows in the register (Section III) not separately numbered here are drawn from the Exit depth block of the linked market brief; each brief carries its own numbered sources. Sources 21 and 34 are external; the rest are market briefs on this site.