Auctions - anybody sold through one?

Floxxie

And I don't mean eBay auctions (or any other online auction)!

I've got several items that would probably do better being sold through an auction house as they are too fragile or too heavy or just waiting for an eBay dispute (!!). So I thought I would try a local auction house.

What is the best way of approaching this? Do I chose my nearest one? (I'm based in Leicestershire) And then what happens?

Advice please!

Floxxie

soolin

No I haven't but I do attend one regularly. You can expect to pay around 25% in fees.

Floxxie

soolin wrote: »

No I haven't but I do attend one regularly. You can expect to pay around 25% in fees.

:eek::eek::eek:

(Is that very different to eBay?!)

soolin

Floxxie wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek:

(Is that very different to eBay?!)

It depends on what you sell and in what category, real live auctions are often much dearer than their online counterparts purely due to the staff and premises overheads that they have.

You also need to factor in that when people bid they will also pay a premium to the auction house so may well bid lower than you expect. For instance if I buy a box of books for £20 the seller will probably get £15 of that but as the buyer I will actually pay around £23.45 to the auction house for my £20 bid due to buyers premium and Vat on the premium.

RFW

Floxxie wrote: »

And I don't mean eBay auctions (or any other online auction)!

I've got several items that would probably do better being sold through an auction house as they are too fragile or too heavy or just waiting for an eBay dispute (!!). So I thought I would try a local auction house.

What is the best way of approaching this? Do I chose my nearest one? (I'm based in Leicestershire) And then what happens?

Advice please!

Floxxie

It differs vastly from auction house to auction house as to the fees you pay and what you are selling, but is indeed a lot steeper than Ebay. Cars for example carry a low percentage commission rate as does property. You need to know commission rates and any other charges, is there a no sale fee, a lotting charge? It has been known that a saleroom can sell your goods and you end up with nothing back from the sale!

As with anything I'd suggest getting a bit of knowledge locally. Some salerooms have special auctions periodically (so one month film memorabilia, next classic toys, etc), some have general auctions all the time, but may not sell anything like what you want so don't have the market/customers for it.

Floxxie

Ok, getting the impression that they may not be the best route. How about getting them to value the items and then try them on eBay - is that a bit cheeky?

The items that I am looking to sell are 1950s ornaments and dinner sets. I have a couple of G-Plan pieces. A Victorian wash basin and jug. Quite a few kitchen pieces 1940s onwards. Thousands of cigarette cards. And lots of things that are old but I have no idea how old or what they are in some cases!

Thanks for the info.

Floxxie

schmickleicklepickle

I can't advise on the other items you mention but there is a real market for cigarette cards on Ebay. I bought a biscuit tin full at an ordinary auction for about £40 on a bit of a whim! It contained many sets, part sets and individual cards in varying conditions. But I made about £300 on ebay I had to do a bit of research (there is an excellent valuation book - get an older issue on ebay for a couple of pounds) but it was more than worth it!

Floxxie

Thank you - I had seen quite a few of the sets on eBay but have absolutely no idea what their 'worth' was so have avoided putting them on.

Will go and find a valuation book or two!

Floxxie

schmickleicklepickle

The best book I found was Murray's Cigarette card values....
Good luck with those - hope you have some good 'uns in there!
I'm jealous - I loved sorting and selling all of mine!

Contains_Mild_Peril

I haven't yet sold at a live auction room but I often buy at my local one, and some of the stuff I then sell on eBay at a profit. I tend to buy cheap mixed lots of bric-a-brac containing a few saleable collectors' items and a whole load of junk which I also have to take home with me!
I would say eBay is your best bet for cigarette cards since they're easy to post, even abroad, and there are plenty of collectors out there. Furniture is often better sold in local auction rooms, where the local buyers are: on eBay most of the people looking for items you can't post will be outwith the local area. Local auctioneers are also generally better for things like dinner sets, artwork in glass-fronted frames and other items which may be impractical to post.
I have asked about my local auction house's fees, and there's 15% sellers' commission (same for buyers' commission to paid on top of hammer price, plus VAT on the commission though usually not on the item itself for private sellers), plus £1 lotting fee, plus £5 flat fee for entering goods in the auction however many lots you have. If the auctioneer accepts goods with a reserve price which then fail to sell, they charge the seller a percentage of the reserve price. If you sell items with no reserve and only one person bids you could end up with next to nothing for that particular lot. If a catalogued sale, there may be further fees for photography if you want your item illustrated in the catalogue, but this doesn't usually apply to their general sales.
Though the fees may be steep, this has to be weighed against the possibility of much higher sale prices for some items and the fact that someone else does most of the hard work for you, so it's horses for courses really.

RFW

Contains_Mild_Peril wrote: »

I have asked about my local auction house's fees, and there's 15% sellers' commission (same for buyers' commission to paid on top of hammer price, plus VAT on the commission though usually not on the item itself for private sellers), plus £1 lotting fee, plus £5 flat fee for entering goods in the auction however many lots you have. If the auctioneer accepts goods with a reserve price which then fail to sell, they charge the seller a percentage of the reserve price. If you sell items with no reserve and only one person bids you could end up with next to nothing for that particular lot. If a catalogued sale, there may be further fees for photography if you want your item illustrated in the catalogue, but this doesn't usually apply to their general sales.

Just wanted to clarify the highlighted point, the commission will always have VAT on. As I said earlier commission rates will vary, some salerooms charging a flat rate and no extra charges and others doing as described above and a range in between. The most important thing is to check before entering goods as complaining afterwards won't do you much good.