wheeler dealers and del boys

RFW

K9crusader wrote: »

I chatted to a dealer recently and he pointed out that if he spent £100 on something and sold it for £120 after a week he had got a much better interest rate than he would have done anywhere else.

It depends on what that means, if it's net profit after all expenses and tax then fine. If I was spending £100 in an auction I'd expect to get double back or I may as well sit at home and buy tat from China.

porto_bello

With regard to auction houses, I wonder if the selling price is greatly influenced by location - or the health of the local economy. For example, I imagine an item (a piece of Clarice Cliff, for example) that recently sold for £200 in Surrey might fetch rather less in another part of the country.

[I realise on-line and telephone bidding is possible, but physically obtaining an auction item that sold in a far away auction house will obviously add to the cost, which in turn will reduce the profit. If you lived in Plymouth, a bargain piece of Clarice Cliff on sale in Aberdeen would probably prove to be an expensive purchase, after all costs are brought into the equation].

soolin

porto_bello wrote: »

With regard to auction houses, I wonder if the selling price is greatly influenced by location - or the health of the local economy. For example, I imagine an item (a piece of Clarice Cliff, for example) that recently sold for £200 in Surrey might fetch rather less in another part of the country.

[I realise on-line and telephone bidding is possible, but physically obtaining an auction item that sold in a far away auction house will obviously add to the cost, which in turn will reduce the profit. If you lived in Plymouth, a bargain piece of Clarice Cliff on sale in Aberdeen would probably prove to be an expensive purchase, after all costs are brought into the equation].

There are regional differences but not necessarily as you would imagine. Sometimes the dearer prices are achieved in poorer areas as there are more people trying to scrape a living at dealing.

It is also good practice to buy at one auction and sell at another. You just have to remember to take into account all the fees.

RFW

porto_bello wrote: »

[I realise on-line and telephone bidding is possible, but physically obtaining an auction item that sold in a far away auction house will obviously add to the cost, which in turn will reduce the profit. If you lived in Plymouth, a bargain piece of Clarice Cliff on sale in Aberdeen would probably prove to be an expensive purchase, after all costs are brought into the equation].

There are big differences between auction houses within a mile or two of each other. Some people prefer one type of saleroom to another. There is a bigger spread of how they work, some take bids online and will ship goods around the world, others don't even produce a catalogue or have a website. Some of the latter still manage to get good prices.

I was brought up going to auctions with my dad, he used to tie in a day or two away with each auction, so even a wasted auction journey was a break seeing a new town or city. I have some very fond memories of visiting random places I would otherwise never have seen.

Strapped

kendall17 wrote: »

I've spent all afternoon at work doing some prep work for tomorrow's auction as I wont have time after tonight :cool2:

There's some lots that I can see going for £1 that will reach £15-20 individually on eBay.

You'd have to get quite a few of those to make it worth travelling even a short distance though!

porto_bello

RFW wrote: »

There are big differences between auction houses within a mile or two of each other. Some people prefer one type of saleroom to another. There is a bigger spread of how they work, some take bids online and will ship goods around the world, others don't even produce a catalogue or have a website. Some of the latter still manage to get good prices.

I have been to a couple of auction houses, for a specific auction lot, (paintings, to keep rather than to sell), which I have heard about via an on-line catalogue. But I wonder (living in SW London/NE Surrey) are there smaller auctioneers operating off-line, that sometimes sell oil paintings and watercolours?
...Any ideas?

kendall17

Strapped wrote: »

You'd have to get quite a few of those to make it worth travelling even a short distance though!

I totally agree, however I wont just be targeting them lots, just little bits to pick up if no one shows interest.

RFW

porto_bello wrote: »

I have been to a couple of auction houses, for a specific auction lot, (paintings, to keep rather than to sell), which I have heard about via an on-line catalogue. But I wonder (living in SW London/NE Surrey) are there smaller auctioneers operating off-line, that sometimes sell oil paintings and watercolours?
...Any ideas?

There may always be an odd one, I'm in the north of England and don't deal in that. A good way to find out is via local papers or Yellow Pages. There's likely to be a bric a brac/house clearance auction who will sell the odd painting. The type of saleroom who won't get a catalogue online will be ones with a high turnover of mixed items, so you'll be looking for ones with weekly sales.

londondealer

Watching it now absolutly love anything like this.

aneres

Sorry to bump the thread but I have just been to my local auction house to pick some stuff up. I was approached by a TV researcher as following the success of the programme they're thinking of doing a mini series.

The lady had a good chat and asked if I would be interested in taking part :eek:

I don't think I'm confident enough to go on TV plus I'm very new to this buying and selling malarkey.

I'll look forward to the series though.