Uhh, DBK is right, as always.
We really don’t know the actual seller proceeds- I did the spreadsheet based on their published numbers.
But we DO know what the buyers paid.
(EDIT Like DBK says, maybe we don’t know that either! Who know what negotiations really occur!)
I like exposing the reality of auctions- there is really no such thing as separate buyers fee and sellers fee. Unless the seller negotiates a different deal with the auction house, when a car sells for X dollars, the auction house gets about an 18% commission and the seller gets what’s left. IMO there’s usually only one winner in that deal.
Mecum is known to drop the seller's side commission to get a sale, but it's not zero, it's usually not a percent but an amount. In the end, it's not a major amount.
BJ told me they would negotiate a reserve car on the floor to make the sale (but again, not by much) but non-reserve cars are fixed on both sides. Period. BJ is quickly heading back to no-reserve auctions. I wanted my car on reserve at BJ Vegas and they wouldn't do it saying it would be the only one and they wanted no-reserve there and were moving back that way. I was on the buyer side a few years ago when a final bidder was false (who knows why) and it came back to me and I asked if they would soften the buyer's side (since if I hadn't taken it they would have had to re-open) and they said no but I took it anyway since it was below my threshold.
I'll add that that is based on a people with single car at the auction. Who knows what happens when some of these 10, 20, 30 car collections are liquidated. Heck, BJ spent a whole week on Ron Pratte's collection. I suppose they might cut deals to their volume buyers too, like Pratte before he "retired", but like I said, it ain't gonna be much.
I can't fathom the cost of essentially renting the entire Mandalay Bay convention center for a week (set up starts 5 days in advance). They get revenue from the exhibitors too, but a place like that doesn't come cheap. They have an "in" with City of Scottsdale for the horse arena. All the others are commercial venues.