How it works
A consignment has three parts: the sale price, the commission, and the costs of getting the watch sold. The headline commission is the part everyone agrees on. The costs are where splits get argued over, so the calculator makes you assign each one: the owner pays it, the dealer pays it, or it comes off the top before the split. Flip between “I’m the dealer” and “I’m the owner” to see the same deal from the other chair. The math doesn’t change, only the labels.
The formula
- Base = sale price − costs taken off the top
- Commission = base × rate, or the flat fee
- Consignor payout = base − commission − costs charged to the owner
- Dealer earnings = commission − costs the dealer absorbs
- Effective commission = (sale price − payout) ÷ sale price
A worked example
A watch sells for $12,000 on a 15% consignment. Card and marketplace fees of 3% ($360) come off the top, leaving a base of $11,640. The commission is $1,746. The owner approved a $450 service, so it comes out of their side: the payout is $9,444. The dealer covers $150 of insured shipping and $60 of insurance, keeping $1,536. The owner agreed to 15%, but the effective commission is 21.3%, because fees and service took another $810 between them.
Neither number is wrong. They just need to be in the agreement before the watch is listed. Our guide on how to consign a watch walks through the contract terms, and trade-ins and consignment covers how both should land in your books.
Booking a consignment correctly
A consigned watch isn’t your inventory and the full sale price isn’t your revenue. Your revenue is the commission. The payout is money you’re holding for someone else. Dealers who book the full sale overstate their sales and muddy their margins. WristBook’s accounting keeps the split on the deal so the P&L only shows what you earned.