In recent years there has been a huge growth in the number of auction rooms, which in turn has seen a massive decline in antique shops.
The reason for this is quite simple. Many entrepreneurs have jumped on the auction house bandwagon because who wouldn’t if they knew they could earn a minimum of 50% on every sale without Investing in stock and even getting paid if your item fails to sell
How does an auction houses earn money? Well very easily and with very little effort. If an item is valued by the Auctioneer at say £1000 then usually the Auctioneer will set an estimate of £800–£1200 with a fixed reserve of perhaps maximum £800. Of course he will tell you it will almost definitely sell for more. What he forgot to mention was that the buyer must pay the same commission as the seller in most cases a minimum of 20% plus vat thus reaching 25%. So the buyer when factoring in these charges will only pay up to £800 and if the Auctioneer uses his so called 10% discretion then more than likely the sale price will be around £720. From this you will also have 25% deducted leaving £540 for the seller. However there are very often more costs levied by the Auctioneer including. Hammer strike £1-3, insurance usually 0.7%, catalogue insert charges £10 or considerably more with a photo, storage charges and of course let’s not forget unsold lot charges if your item then fails to sell. . So your £1000 item will probably return little more tan £475!!! Not forgetting the time involved before you are paid!!!
Had you come to us you would have avoided waiting months for your payment and received more money. We can also offer cash payments, which are not offered by auction, and we can always pay immediately.
Did you know that we own every single piece of stock in our business unlike auction houses, which own nothing and take no risk investing in any items at all?