Ok, so I decided to do a little more math to determine if there is actually a 'sweet spot' for Heritage.
The short answer is....no.
The reasoning is due to the fact that the Buyers Premium is not a straight percentage across the board, but is only a minimum of 19.5%. Anything selling with a closing price of less than $73.68 means that the $14 minimum BP kicks in, which will raise the effective Buyers Premium percentage as the selling price decreases. As such, the closer you get to $0 from $73.68, the higher the percentage goes, which would actually negate any penalization EMP incorporates into their tiers for cheaper posters.
The highest consignment fee EMP levies is 75%, which is only items that sell for $0.01-$7.99. But that's irrelevant here, since it's highly unlikely that anyone would:
a) consign such a cheap poster to Heritage.
b) purchase a poster at that price range, while paying a $14 BP on top of the purchase price.
The earlier comment made by greysm was that buyers would/should/do just subtract the BP from the value of the poster, but obviously that can't be done for items with a value <=$14. So, that eliminates the bottom two rungs at EMP, since they are clearly the "winner" of the cheapos.
The next consignment fee tier, and the first one applicable here, is the $12.00-$19.99 one, which has a 60% consignment fee at EMP. But, within that range, when you look at the total cost by selling an item via HA, the effective consignment fee through them would go from Infinity-85% respectively (with <=$14 representing infinity). At the $19.99 top end, the 85% would stem from the 70% BP plus the 15% seller's fee. And that's the LOWEST it would be in that price range, giving EMP a minimum 25% better return to the seller.
The next tier is $20.00-$29.99, with a 50% EMP rate. The comparative HA rate would be 85%-61.68% respectively. So again, EMP would have the better return in all cases.
The next tier is $30.00-$39.99, with a 40% EMP rate. The comparative HA rate would be 61.68%-50.008%. So again, EMP would have the better return in all cases.
Etc. Etc.
This same formula would continue until you reach the $73.68 price point, where the 19.5% BP becomes locked, creating an "effective rate" of about 34.5% combined. However, at that price point, EMP is tiered at 30%.
As the values in examples continues to raise, HA is still locked in this theoretical 34.5% combined rate, but EMP's consignment fee continues to go down, until eventually reaching 20% on the $1000+ items.
IF Heritage had a straight 19.5% BP, without the $14 minimum, then there would actually be a "Sweet Spot", and that would be for items $0-$70. But since they have the $14 minimum, that's a moot point.
Again, I will stipulate that this formula assumes that the buyer takes the BP into consideration when bidding, and considers it part of the total purchase price. It also assumes that the same poster would sell for the same price at both auction houses (BP included). But if both of these factors are accurate, then EMP is clearly a winner for sellers.
Note: Regarding the "combined rates" above, I'm fairly certain my numbers are slightly off since we're taking a percentage off of a percentage. I'm too lazy to do the math to get the precise figures since this is all just hypothetical, and the differences would be negligible and not effect the outcome of the "winner".
