Ethics at the Top Two Auction Houses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5750 words

moral philosophy at the Top Two Auction Houses - Essay ExampleThe value for money stretches from a a few(prenominal) hundred dollars (e.g., wine) to millions in expensive paintings. (CEC 7)The auction sale sale of private collections may be held either with a certain motif, under a class of the commodity, or the arts genre or given time period. In 1996, Sothebys sold at auction the estate of Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis as a collection, while other public relations were categorized in Old Master Paintings or Je riseery. Sothebys fiercest competitor, Christies also hold much(prenominal) glamorous, multi-million-dollar auction events, as the richest of richest of manpower grace such occasions. (CEC 7)Although both auction houses hold regular auctions at their subsidiaries throughout the world (Rome, Geneva, Zurich, Amsterdam, Milan, Melbourne and Hong Kong), high-profile auction events be generally held at their London and New York headquarters. (Ashenfelter & Graddy 3-25)The aucti on houses, which accept items to be auctioned (on a consignment basis), sell each necessary arrangement for the event, including planning, design and distribution of high-class brochures, advanced publicity as well as viewing opportunities. To facilitate sales, merchandise argon sold individually (called lots), even large collections are separated and auctioned as a single item. As seller of the consignors items, the auction house manages all the poster procedures bills the buyer, remits the consignor the money after the purchase of the merchandise, minus the commission, taxes and other expenses.The commission is computed within the forge price, when the item is colonized to the winning bidder. Regarded as sellers commission or vendors commission, a certain role is taken from the consignor. The buyers premium, or a percentage from the hammer price is also charged to the buying public at the auctions (CEC 8).A percentage of the hammer price, called the buyers premium, is also cha rged to people making purchases at auctions. This practice was initially introduced in the main auction rooms of these two auctions giants, sometime in 1975- still a few weeks from each other. Both firms made several(prenominal) changes on this practice through the years (independently from each other), but eventually both of their practices became similar.Auctioneering is not the only source of income of these two firms as both are engaged in other commercial activities, such as offering loans against the security of works of art. Nonetheless, the main sources of revenues remain the buyers premium and vendors commission. (CEC 8)The turgid exercise of auctioning hunky-dory arts produce a discriminating product market effect other than conventional ventures of change or buying the items that serves the purpose of assessment value, based on the following (CEC 8). Firstly, clients consider the great enormousness of consigning their items at auctions due to the high standard of publi city for the merchandise. Likewise, consignors achieve the highest possible