Buying & auctions
What is buyer's premium and how does it change my maximum bid?
Buyer's premium is the percentage the auction house adds on top of your winning hammer price — it goes to the house, not the seller. It typically ranges from 15% to 30% (sometimes tiered), plus VAT on the premium itself in many jurisdictions. Your maximum bid must be reverse-calculated: if your ceiling is €1,000 all-in and the premium is 25% + VAT, your hammer limit is around €650, not €1,000.
The Method's take
The Discipline Ceiling always works backwards from total cost: hammer + premium + VAT + transport + restoration + margin reserved, then solve for the maximum hammer you can afford. Most bidders calculate forward (hammer → add costs) and discover they overpaid only after the invoice arrives. The method builds the ceiling BEFORE the catalog opens, with every fee and tax transparent in the formula — so you never bid a number that becomes a loss when the real bill lands.
The math
Bidding €5,000 hammer without pricing a 25% + VAT premium (total ~€6,500) and €800 transport means you've committed €7,300 when your selling price might be €6,000 — a four-figure loss before you've even photographed the piece. Running the ceiling formula once costs €100 for 24 hours; getting the math wrong costs the difference between your imagined profit and your actual loss, compounded across every mistake until you learn it the hard way.
One question answered here saved you a mistake. The engine answers yours — the exact object, the exact number.
Ask the engine — 24h pass €100