Police Auctions

charlotte1994

Has anyone been or bought anything from a police auction? Is it easy to do?

charlies_mum

Have a look at this

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/police-auctions/

RFW

charlotte1994 wrote: »

Has anyone been or bought anything from a police auction? Is it easy to do?

There's little difference between a police auction and any other auction, online or offline. Know what you want to pay for an item and don't pay more.
If it's offline, check what you're bidding on, make sure you know what it is and bid accordingly.

forgotmyname

Turn up, register and get your number. Wave your number like a looney when you want to bid.

Is VAT added onto the bid price? Check costs involved before bidding.

Local auctions charge VAT + 15% - 20% on your bid price, I just add 50% in my mind when bidding and thats close enough to what you will pay for your item.

Mad to see someone bidding £38 on an item on sale at B&Q for £40. So someone paid £52.44 for an item in unknown condition where its only £40 at B&Q with a proper guarantee.

Bought a box of items where the missus wanted a couple, rough count 10 or 12 in the box and bit my price. After winning and opening the box properly there was another layer below all tightly packed with double the amount i thought was there.

soolin

Some of the police auctions used to be online but have a fixed delivery fee that was a bit on the high side, so as above, do your research well and work out all your on costs before even thinking about bidding.

It's also worth looking at regular auctioneers who often sell on behalf of HMRC, receivers or the police. I've got one in the next week, selling off after a bankruptcy, even though I know the auction house I still checked the terms and conditions as they are often different for official body auctions. I'm glad I checked as the VAT and commission is different and there is also a registration fee which is not something the auctioneer usually charges.

I've done a lot of bankruptcy and police auctions in the past, they vary a lot with quality of goods and prices, so as usual it is buyer beware. Many of them have locked items like laptops, computers etc , sold as seen with no cables, untested, probably password protected- so do know what you are buying. I always find seized items from bailiffs particularly sad and tend not to even go to the auction, so much personal misery and private items chucked into boxes by the bailiffs after forced seizure, that's not for me. Although it was pointed out that having more bidders is actually better for the previous owners as it might realise more money to take off their debts.

charlotte1994

Thanks all :-)