Posts made in April, 2024

We all know the premise of an auction. Items are up for sale, if you want them you bid, if you don’t want them you don’t bid and when the hammer falls the item is sold. But, in the last year we have seen an increase in people who won’t honour this, especially on our online platforms, and they find themselves experiencing what we describe in the industry as buyer’s remorse.   At one of our previous auctions, we sold a fishing boat and the buyer wanted it delivered to London, which is not something we offer, and she claimed she could not come and collect it. As a compromise, we offered to deliver it to her holiday home in Cornwall, but the buyer pulled out and refused to honour the deal. The same problem arose with another buyer, who to our surprise, turned out to be a fellow auctioneer and should be well aware of how the process works. He bought an item at one of our auctions, but after researching it, he decided he had bid too much and refused to pay. These situations are not only frustrating for the seller, but they’re also extremely time consuming to deal with for our business. A year ago this would happen every one or two months, but over the last ten months, we’re dealing with this problem five or six times every auction. We have a few options on our end if something like this happens. If instructed by the client, we will pursue the buyer for the money, this involves persuading them that they are morally obligated to pay, which in our minds is true. And then we can place the item back in our next auction with the buyer as the client, so that they can recoup their losses. In a few cases we have had to go as far as blocking buyers from all online auctions. If they try to go to another auctioneer the software will show that they have a block on them and the auctioneer can choose not to approve them to bid. We don’t want to have to do any of this and we try our best not to. Mistakes happen and...

Selling at auction might sound easy enough. Choose an item, take it to an auction house, listen to an auctioneer talk really fast and shout out loads of numbers. Sold! But, there a few things it’s worthwhile knowing before you sell at auction to make the most of the experience. There are two different types of people who sell at auction. Private individuals, which will be most of you reading this, selling an item you might have bought, found, collected or already own. Or, there are those of you who have had a family member or loved one pass away and you’ve been left with a house full of stuff and you might want to sell some or all of it at auction. Here at Windsor Auctions, we cater for anyone and everyone. If you’re in the category of vendor looking to sell a handful or even just one item, we’ll take it all. Unlike many auction houses, we have no minimum price for an item. We sell everything all the way from £55,000 vases and £10,000 table dividers, both of which were sales we made recently, all the way down to a spoon for a tenner, we’re not fussy and would rather it comes to us than ends up in a landfill. And, if you have a whole house that needs clearing, we’ll come over and sort that for you, our own staff, our own lorries and our own teams, unlike most auction houses who will outsource all of this. Once we’ve got to the house, we’ll appraise every item and we’ll provide you with a stock list including all the individual items with descriptions, guide prices and estimates, before you decide what you want to sell and what you want to keep. When you’ve chosen what you want to sell, we’ll decide where to put the reserves on the items, which is the lowest price you’re happy to sell for, to make sure they’re protected. After that you’ll sign what you want to sell over to our care and do not fear, everything is insured, as we decide which of our auctions would be most suitable to place your item and then we’ll put it in front...

Auction TV shows are great, but come and experience the real thing!

There are countless shows on TV nowadays that give an insight into the world of auctions, from Antiques Roadshow to Antiques Road Trip and Bargain Hunt, among others.   But, none of them can compete with the experience of coming down to a real auction house.   I’m partial to an auction TV show myself, I think the personalities and presenters are great and I’ve even had the pleasure of speaking with many of them, from David Harper to Michael Baggot, on my podcast, The Gavel and The Gabble.   I enjoy the competitive format and varied nature of the shows, they’re fun and it makes for easy viewing on a Sunday evening.   This seems to be an opinion held by a number of households throughout the country, as the viewing figures for these auction TV shows are off the charts.   It’s understandable, because people love the idea of discovering hidden treasure that could just as easily exist in their own homes and seeing how much it might be worth.   And yet, for whatever reason, this does not seem to translate to the number of people who attend auctions in real life.   On any given day as an auctioneer, I’ll see as many interesting and valuable items as are featured on these TV shows, if not more, come through my auction house.   And in terms of entertainment value, it’s far more exciting to go to an auction house for an hour than it is to sit and watch it on TV.   There’s lots of noise, people moving around, plenty of chatter, loads of banter. It’s just an exciting and dynamic place to be.   You don’t even have to come down for the whole day, it could just be for an hour to see the lots you’re interested in and then you can shoot off afterwards.   Watching on TV or bidding online is one thing, but why not come and be a part of the beating heart of the process?   So, I would encourage anyone who likes watching auction TV shows from The Bidding Room to Cash in the Attic or whatever else, to come down and be a part of...