Has anyone experience of selling through an auction house?

My experience was very positive - I found an auction house that specialised in what I was selling ( not always necessary of course, depends on item)
I checked their credentials. I set a reserve and checked their charges and it all happened smoothly with money paid over very shortly after the sale.

Market auction houses that hold antique/collectible sakes have a day before when you can take in the item or a photograph and provenance in the case of furniture and they will tell whether they will accept it for auction.

If they do they will guide you from there.

Obviously you pay transport costs to the auction and removal costs if it doesn’t sell. Plus the Auctioneers fee. Sometimes this is a minimum amount regardless if what the item fetches.

Be aware that you could end up with a loss unless the item is valuable and what’s in demand at the moment,

Yes, we have done so - particularly when we had to clear out my late in-laws' house. We used an auction house just a few miles from us, and they were very helpful. It worked out well for us, probably because we had a considerable number of items to dispose of, so the commission was well worth paying for the convenience of getting rid of everything in one go, as it were.

Your first step is to contact the auction house and ask if they will take it. Sadly, many things we perceive to be valuable are no longer of interest to them.
If they are they should give you an estimate and you can work out if it is worth doing - bearing in mind how much will be charged for their commission etc.

We were very disappointed with the auction house we used to clear mil’s house. Anything they didn’t want, even a brand new unslept in single divan was just chucked unceremoniously into the back of a lorry and presumably ended up as infill at the dump. The items they did sell were very piecemeal and we didn’t get very much for them. Had we known and had more time we would not have used them. We found out too late there was an antiques shop that would take items and give a reasonable amount.

If using an auction house again I’d get a proper valuation for each item and decide whether to put a reserve on.

I've contacted three and one has come back v quickly with estimated value. As it's for charity they said they'd reduce their charges. They're wanting it for a specialist auction which isn't for a free months. All seems fine by me. Will see if the others get back to me.

Few not free?!

We are around auction sales weekly, buying and selling.

The one thing I would say is that auctions are like supermarkets they all have a particular market they aim for so make sure your item and auctioneer. If you wanted the cheapest Christmas turkey you could get you would not go to Waitrose or M&S and if you wanted a top quality organic free range bronze turkey you would not go to Aldi or Lidl.

We have an auction house in our town. It sells the ordinary stuff from house clearances and commercial over stocking. When we moved here small items of furniture, rugs, a box of books and a lawn motor sold there, but when we had some silver objects to sell we went to another local auction house that specialised in good brown/antique furniture and pictures. As with you, they sorted through, sold some in the next auction and kept some back for a specialist auction.

The fact that they immediately assessed it and decide it was good enough for a specialist auction, says you are inthe right place.

If you want to sell at auction and haven't done it before. Visit an auction on the viewing day, usually the day before the auction and look at what it being sold. If it is all inexpensive household items and you have a superb silver teaset, then that auction is wrong for you. Visigt another one full og good old and antique furniture, good dinnerset and a cabinet full of beautiful silver ware, then that s the auction for you.

As to doing business with an auction house, they have printed terms and these will explain everything. Essentially they will charge a buyers premium, quoted as a proportion of the selling price - usually between 15-20%, plus VAT.

Rings and other shenanigans are at the centre of programs like Lovejoy and other crime series involving antiques, but in reality they are very few and far between. I've never seen any suggestion of crooked dealing at auction.

Thanks everyone. It'll be an experience. I hope my item meets its valuation as I don't want to give it away as it means something to me. The proceeds will go to a very good charity.

We often went to auctions at our local auction house and bought small items of silver which I was collecting at one time, and a couple of nice marine watercolour paintings. After the overheads, the prices were still very fair. We also sold a coffee table there which we had bought in Belgium in the early seventies. It had a chrome frame, a heavy glass top and a panel of handmade tiles in the base. We just wanted to get rid of it but it fetched a startling amount of money, because someone on their staff recognised the signature on the tiles! Good auction houses know their market and are always ready to help. Ours holds general household sales and specialist sales - silver and jewellery, specialist antiques and collectibles and things like sporting memorabilia, and coins and stamps.

I agree with the idea of visiting an auction first, to get a feel for the whole process.

I suppose I want to press a button and get the money slob that I am. However I'd like to use my experience of raising a little funding for our charity to encourage others to do the same.