Thank you for your advice! I already sold a one or two less valuable bags at VC but would honestly be afraid that they are loosing my bags or not being able to correctly authenticate them I.e. claiming they are fake while they are not and destroying them.
I wouldn't sell at VC, totally agree with your thoughts.
Auction houses are a good option but remember a few things:
1) The post-auction results listed for sale of a particular bag are 25-30% higher than the hammer price, and as a seller, you don't get any of that buyer premium, and will usually pay around a 10% seller fee.
Example: Birkin 30 Barenia auction result is $10K USD (I wish! This is just an example number 🤣 ). Take an average 27% premium off that - hammer price was $7300. Seller fee $730. So the seller takes home $6570. There may also be a small fee (a couple hundred dollars at most usually) for insuring your bag while it is at the auction house and for listing it in the catalog.
This helps in not being surprised by auction house quotes and estimates or by your post-sale payment!
(Edited to add: for a very very desirable bag, the seller fee can be waived. Himalayan type bags. But, see below, even rare bags can be refused.)
2) It's good to get your collection into the bigger auction house sales early, because they usually will not accept multiples of the same bag. (The smaller, specialist houses may, but they tend to sell at lower prices.) I was told by two of the big auction houses last fall that they were not accepting Birkin 20 in croc because they each already had that bag consigned in the sale.
Finally it might be worth asking Collector Square if they are interested in buying your bags. While I know they are not always the easiest to deal with, they do sell a lot of heritage leathers.
And of course always worth asking the usual suspects, Ann's and
Fashionphile.
