News

We’ve got a question for you… We want to know why our customers are more inclined to attend a valuation day to get their items appraised rather than booking a house call or an individual appointment at the auction house. So, let us know. Any day of the week, our auction houses are open to value your items or even if you want us to come to your house, we’re happy to do that too. We tend to do as many as six house calls and the same number of walk-ins each day, but we have the capacity to do more and we’re keen to do so. As at the moment, our valuation days are far more popular, usually with queues going out the door with potential clients looking to have their items appraised and people could be waiting up to an hour before speaking to an expert. We love putting these events on and meeting all of you, but we’re just genuinely curious and wanted to pose the question as to why this is often people’s preference. If it’s because you don’t like the idea of inviting someonearound to your house who you don’t know very well, then that’s completely understandable, or do you find coming down to the auction house a little intimidating? No problem. We just want to dispel any fears or concerns you might have, so here are some of the benefits of booking a house call or an appointment at the auction house: For starters, it’s more convenient. At your house we come to you and at the auction house, you pick the time slot so you know you won’t be waiting around. Beforehand, you can even send us pictures of the items you want valued on Whatsapp and we’ll give you a rough idea whether it’s worth bringing down so you don’t end up wasting your time. And don’t worry, if you decide after valuation that you no longer want to put your items up for auction, there’s no obligation on your end. All of our valuations are free of charge and while we hope that afterwards you will consign some or all of what you have brought down to be sold at...

In the labyrinths of vineyards and vintages, the world of wine often feels like an exclusive club with its own secret handshake. We’ve all been in that situation at dinner with a wine list in front of us and no clue where to even start. Here at Windsor Auctions, we want to somewhat demystify the wine world for our customers and so we have enlisted the help of veteran wine connoisseur, Joe Fattorini, whose words of wisdom will help you go from a novice to an aficionado. Armed with Joe’s insights, we aim to transform the act of buying a bottle of wine from a gamble to a guided adventure and leave you with a better understanding of what exactly it is you’re paying for. So, let’s raise a glass to what awaits and find out what Joe had to say:   What are the main factors that affect a wine’s valuation?     There are two main factors, the first of which is the year. When it comes to wine, there are good years and then there are some less interesting years meaning that the wine doesn’t last for as long because it’s not got the four hallmarks that make up a really great wine. These four hallmarks are known as the BLIC test: Balance – Really great wines are beautifully balanced in their fruits and freshness. Length – High-quality wines will not only last for a long time, but they’ll also sit on your palate for a long time. Intensity – A flavour intensity is essential for a great wine and you should be able to pin them down precisely not just to red fruits, not just to strawberries, but as specific as alpine strawberries. Complexity – Excellent wine will have a myriad of flavours. As such, wine from particularly famous years will be more expensive, for example 1982 is especially renowned and more recently 2009. The other factor is something that affects all markets, which is supply and demand. Some chateau’s domains can be incredibly high-prized or occasionally a celebrity endorsement will cause the demand to shoot up. The price of one particular Burgundy, for example, skyrocketed in price after DJ Khaled revealed in one of...

We are delighted this year to be supporting this fundraising ball as part of our local support initiative and are supplying not only the Master of Ceremonies but Auctioneer Harry with be wielding his gavel to help raise more funds. With fundraising in mind we know many of you will not be attending the ball but may be interested in bidding on the auction lots and to support the organisation. Therefore we are listing the lots with a guide price below and if you would like to bid please email your best bid, along with your contact address and phone number to sales@windsorauctions.co.uk by 12pm on Saturday 9th March. Guide Price £250 Guide Price £400 For This 12 Person tour of Grundon’s facility with Norma Grundon and includes lunch   Guide Price £300    Guide Price £1,000   Guide Price £550 Guide Price £200 Guide Price £300   Guide Price £750 Guide Price £350 for rare Harley Davidson Print Guide Price £250 Guide Price...

Here at Windsor Auctions, we have, and at our sister auction house Lyme Bay Auctions, countless years of experience in auctioneering. Both Harry and Simon along with their teams of valuers have a broad range of knowledge when it comes to the valuations and selling of fine art, jewellery, antique furniture and a myriad of other eclectic items. And yet we didn’t have a clue about buying and selling property at auction, despite it being one of the most popular forms of auction. This was before we spoke to property maestro Ben Temple, however, who has over 30 years’ experience in the property industry and he hosted a property auction course for 12 years. Ben, who runs his own property agency called Rocket in South West London, talked us through the process on our podcast The Gavel and The Gabble, explaining the benefits, potential pitfalls and all the intricacies that come with property auctions. So, you can either listen to what he had to say on The Gavel and The Gabble podcast, or you can read about it here: What are the benefits to buying property at auction? Of course, there is the obvious benefit that is true with any form of auction that you could end up finding yourself a bargain and paying well under market price. Just last week, for example, I attended an auction on behalf of a client who was hoping to buy a particular property for £525,000 and was willing to go as high as £550,000, but we managed to purchase it for £520,000. But, it’s also worth exercising caution in this regard as I have seen people overpay significantly on a number of occasions in the past. Aside from potential bargain hunting, another key advantage to buying property at auction is the speed and certainty of the purchase. Roughly 50% of property transactions through estate agents will fall through at some stage for various logistical reasons. Whereas, at property auctions, as is the case with any other auction, when the gavel falls, the deal is done. There’s no delay in signing contracts for six months as is the usual procedure with buying property, you exchange there and then on the day and pay...

Our current opening hours are 10am – 4pm on weekdays and customers are welcome to come and collect items that they have bought at auction any time within those hours.   But, we wanted to take this to our customers and ask whether these opening times and our collection policy are flexible enough for you.   Our thought process with these hours was that post-pandemic so many people work from home at least a few days each week that popping into collect items during the working week is now more accessible.   And we try to remain as flexible as possible for customers by allowing collections to take place at any time during our opening hours, even without an appointment.   With that being said, when customers turn up to collect their items unannounced, it can sometimes take a little while to find it in our storage facility.   So, we recommend giving us a quick call before you head down and then we can get the item prepared and make the process as efficient as possible when you turn up.   The same goes if you have arranged a courier to come and collect, which is usually the case with larger items, if you can give us a rough time-frame when they might arrive, then it makes everyone’s lives easier.   Occasionally, we can accept people coming to collect what they have bought at auction outside of our advertised opening times if it has been pre-arranged and we have someone available to meet the customer. Sometimes this is possible on auction days when we are around anyway.   Of course, if you attend the auction in person and buy something then there is no need to arrange a time for collection, as you can take your item home same-day, so that’s always what we encourage first and foremost.   For those of you who are unable to attend, however, are our opening times and collection policy reasonable or do we need to give it a rethink?   Let us know by dropping us an email at sales@windsorauctions.co.uk or message us on Instagram....

Charging for storage at an auction house can be a contentious topic and so we wanted to take this to our customers and fellow auctioneers to work out what’s fair. In case you’re not aware how an auction works after an item is sold, the auction house will give the buyer a specified amount of time to collect those items. When customers attend the auction in person, they’ll often take the items home on the same day and so there are no issues. But, this is more in reference to people who have bought their items through an online auction platform. And if the items have not been picked up within the allotted time that the auction house will specify, then the buyer will incur a storage charge. This isn’t a way for auction houses to squeeze every last penny out of their customers, but rather it’s a necessity on our end. From our perspective here at Windsor Auctions, say we have 1000 items that sell at an auction, we don’t have unlimited space in our warehouses and so we need to move those items on before we can start bringing in lots for the next auction. And if we have loads of items uncollected for weeks, then we will end up having to pay for extra storage for our incoming lots and it costs us money. With that being said, we don’t want to be unreasonable and overcharge our customers if they simply can’t come and pick up their items in time. Our current policy is that we allow buyers ten days and then we charge £3 per item per day that they are storing with us, and the same goes for sellers whose items have not sold, unless they want their lot re-entered in a future auction. This is relatively cheap for the industry, as Lots Road Auction in Chelsea require items to be collected within two days of the auction and if they are not then the buyer will be subject to a storage charge of £20 plus VAT per item per day. Meanwhile Christie’s charge £78 per day for large objects and £39 per day for smaller objects, beginning as soon as the items are...