Aucton Rooms

RFW

Contains_Mild_Peril wrote: »

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.

It will vary from auction to auction, they don't all use the margin scheme (I know I don't! btw I'm in the business!). You'd obviously need to check with the auction house, antique/art auctions may not charge, police/lost property/hmrc type auctions generally do. Simon Charles given as an example above add VAT and buyers premium to the knockdown price (where VAT is applicable on the goods purchased).

rare_stuff

Here's an example of fee's from a recent purchase att auction where vat is applicable on the sale -
Auction closed at £20, vat on this 3.50
buyers premium £3.50, vat on premium 61p
total payable - £27.61

So at this auction house I work out the 'hammer price' to be increased by about 40% with fees. I know it's not quite 40% but this is an easier figure to deal with.

RFW

rare_stuff wrote: »

Here's an example of fee's from a recent purchase att auction where vat is applicable on the sale -
Auction closed at £20, vat on this 3.50
buyers premium £3.50, vat on premium 61p
total payable - £27.61

So at this auction house I work out the 'hammer price' to be increased by about 40% with fees. I know it's not quite 40% but this is an easier figure to deal with.

17.5% buyers premium seems to be coming more common. Chances are they are charging vendors (if there are any) 17.5% too, and people say Ebay fees are steep!

Hartley_Hare_3

I've been to quite a few auctions recently mainly in Nottingham and one thing's for sure, there are more bargains at the end of the auction than at the start. Everyone is raring to bid at the start of the auction but on bigger auctions where they're selling maybe 1,000 lots people tend to leave and in my experience the rooms have only been 10% full for the last 200 lots. It's almost a battle of wills. Definately go towards the end of the auction but still attend viewing otherwise you'll miss the opportunity to inspect any goods. Take a paper or a book to keep yourself amused or better still head off and go back later.

Contains_Mild_Peril

At my local auction room, the last couple of hundred lots are normally furniture. Modernish furniture sometimes goes very cheap, but good quality older furniture tends to be pricey. The furniture charity shop up the town is usually the other way around: overpriced modern furniture but cheapish vintage stuff.

soolin

The auction house I use tends to have mainly the specialist stuff towards the end,shop fittings refrigeration units etc. I think they do that as it means the very few people who are interested can either bid by phone or come in late to the action when all the general 'collectables' have gone.

However I did once wait hours as there was a box of books I wanted in the last 50 lots, that was a long day!

greeneye

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/feb/09/consumeraffairs

This article pretty much somes up the one in Wandsworth (if thats the one you were considering).
Everything is way overpriced(a fool and his money), and they either get a hell of a lot of non payers or they are bidding of the wall down their.
Also be wary of where stock has originated from i.e fire/water damaged stock whose origins are not declared.

The other one in Tooting has some occasional bargains if you do your research but mainly a load of old tat.

vaio

At our local auction the buyers premium is 10% plus VAT.

The bid price is also plus VAT if the seller is VAT registered. So if the lot is entered by a ordinary person then the bid doesn’t attract VAT, but if it’s entered by a firm or the auction house itself (more and more common from what I see) then the bid does attract VAT.

At our local one it’s indicated by the lot number label, black numbers VAT free, red numbers VATable.