Aucton Rooms

Madstuthe1st

Hi,

Was wondering if anyone buys from auction rooms and sell the items on. Am thinking of doing this when my bonus from work comes through.

Any thoughts?

INT1

Sell on through the auction rooms or through a different source?

If the item is cheap enough there is always money to be made, I have bought a few things on Ebay and sold on at a higher price (hoping the buyer doesn't read my feedback to see what price I paid in the first place!)

Si

Madstuthe1st

I was looking at buying at the auction room and sell on via different outlets, one being ebay.

Contains_Mild_Peril

Good profits can sometimes be made from buying mixed lots of bric-a-brac in auction rooms then selling suitable items individually on ebay. Of course, it's much harder work than trading several of the same item.
If you're new to it, my advice would be go to the auction room's viewing day (nomally the day before the sale) with a notebook, make a note of anything you think might be suitable, then go home and check completed listings on eBay for similar items to help you decide how much you want to pay. A calculator might be handy too unless you're good at mental arithmetic: salesooms normally charge "buyer's premium" (typically 10-15%) on top of the hammer price, then VAT on the premium.

soolin

There isn't a lot of money to be made buying at auction and selling on anymore due to postage costs. If you buy a mixed lot for say a hammer price of £10 you will pay £11.73 including premiums.If you get 3 or 4 bits out of that worth a fiver each you still couldn't make money as you need to factor in the postage costs to the buyer. So a buyer on ebay seeing a nick nack and willing to pay a fiver but where postage will be £2 is only actually going to pay you £3 for it, out of which you have to pay all your ebay and paypal fees.

If you do go down this route then you need to guarantee a huge margin of markup, at least 500% on what you buy, and the auctions I go to just don't have that sort of bargains anymore.

The real money is to be made on items that have a very specialist market that might be overlooked by other bidders, look at specialist things you can research before bidding, old golf clubs with a good name, fishing reels, collectable toys that have not yet been all over the 'junk in the attic' type TV programmes so might be overlooked. The mixed lots tend to get bid up quite highly as car boot sellers don't have the problem of postage costs so can afford to pay more than those buying to sell online.

Hmmm, I'm not sure my post is entirely clear..maybe someone else can translate.

Madstuthe1st

Cheers for yours posts.

I wasn't looking at mixed lots of bric-a-brac as, like you, I believe there isn't the mark up in that area.

I've found an auction in south london I like the look of, was gonna go down in feb to see what its like before actually buying from there.

RFW

soolin wrote: »

There isn't a lot of money to be made buying at auction and selling on anymore due to postage costs. If you buy a mixed lot for say a hammer price of £10 you will pay £11.73 including premiums

Wih buyers premium and VAT with most salerooms you would be invoiced for something like a third extra on top of knockdown price, 10-15% buyers premium plus VAT.

As with anything advice is to know your market, know what you want to pay based on market price and what you think you can sell for. Be prepared to not buy anything, if you think prices are going too high, walk away, don't buy for the sake of it.

Another good piece of advice, if there are a lot of lots, don't be in a hurry to buy early on, there will inevitably be less punters later in the day and probably lower prices, although having said that the first 20-30 lots generally go at lower prices, than later ones.

wendyjj

There are some good auctions about that sell new furniture etc. from big stores like M&S, John Lewis, Laura Ashley and more.... If you buy decent pieces (some are damaged) from here you CAN make good profit on eBay etc. Simon Charles Auctioneers is a great auction.

Madstuthe1st

I've thought about buyers premium and VAT which is why i would go to check out 1st without buying, just to get an idea of what things are selling for.

I had a look at Simon Charles website, looks good but a little far for myself.

Contains_Mild_Peril

RFW wrote: »

Wih buyers premium and VAT with most salerooms you would be invoiced for something like a third extra on top of knockdown price, 10-15% buyers premium plus VAT.

As with anything advice is to know your market, know what you want to pay based on market price and what you think you can sell for. Be prepared to not buy anything, if you think prices are going too high, walk away, don't buy for the sake of it.

Another good piece of advice, if there are a lot of lots, don't be in a hurry to buy early on, there will inevitably be less punters later in the day and probably lower prices, although having said that the first 20-30 lots generally go at lower prices, than later ones.

No, the VAT is charged on the premium, not the item itself (all the ones I buy are included in the auctioneers VAT margin scheme, and I don't know exactly what that means except that the customer doesn't pay VAT on the hammer price) so Soo's arithmetic, based on 15% commission + VAT, is about right (actually £11.76 for a £10 lot to be precise, according to my purchase today).
Soo is also right that vintage toys can sometimes be a good buy: I bought a lot for £3.53 (£3 hammer price) which I sold for a total of about £70 on eBay. That was before Xmas though: they'd probably make much less at this time of year.

ormus

i doubt you can make money at it. the good days have gone now. far too many peeps at it these days. prices are either stupid or the items are rubbish.
ie small items are cheaper at the pound shop or tescos. or wholesalers.
remember there is no warranty at any auctions. electrical goods are a gamble.
modern furniture is cheaper at the wholesalers.
old furniture may be worth a look, but lots of competition there too.
the pros can pay cause they can mark up a lot in their fancy antique shops.
doubtful if you can do the same on ebay?