Northampton needs an auction house
ByI see that Humberts are due to close their auction house here in Northampton in April. I am not surprised really as Northamptons only auction house really deteriorated following the take over of Harps by Humberts a couple of years back.
I for one stopped visiting those auction rooms despite them being less than 5 minutes from my home and I am sure many other antique dealers and collectors did the same. As a buyer I found they every last decent item had been sorted out and either moved for sale elsewhere or had an extortionate reserve. Good for the seller? Well not this seller it wasn’t. I regularly placed mixed lots for sale with the former Harps however once Humberts had taken over I found that they sorted and re-arranged my lots into many smaller ones. With their minimum lot fee and commissions they ended up taking over 50% of the hammer price. Down right greedy I thought and have never been back since.
So now Northampton is left without any sort of antiques and collectables auction room. Surely there must be a great business opportunity for the right person. If that’s you do contact me when you are ready to start up as not only do I have a load of mixed lots for you to sell also I will give you lots of publicity here on this antiques blog.
6 Comments
March 25th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
[...] Northampton needs an auction house :: Antiques Blog AntiquesAvenue [...]
March 26th, 2009 at 1:38 am
[...] Anne added an interesting post today on Northampton needs an auction house :: Antiques Blog AntiquesAvenueHere’s a small readingI see that Humberts are due to close their auction house here in Northampton in April. I am not surprised really as Northamptons only auction house re. [...]
March 26th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Antiques2Go have been holding antiques and collectables auctions in the Roade & Courteenhall Ex-Serviceman’s Club every other Tuesday evening since April 2006. They have over 300 lots of antiques, collectables and general items every sale and only charge 10% commission + an admin fee of 50p per lot. They don’t charge any lotting fees so if your item doesn’t sell it doesn’t cost you anything. The auction starts at 6.45 pm with viewing from 4.30 pm – all lots are catalogued. They also hold an antiques, collectables and general auction at Moreton Pinkney Village Hall on the third Saturday of every month except December – viewing from 9 am – auction starts at 10.30 am. If you’ve got something to sell we’d be pleased to hear from you. See http://www.antiques2go.co.uk for more details.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Have you thought about a trip to wellingborough where you will find wilfords auctioneers still going strong after 70 years. A general sale every week and although we wont take everything in for sale we welcome everyone to bring items along for free appraisal and opinion as to saleability.
Ask for Pam or Tim for antiques and collectables or Matt for Electrics ,tools etc
April 2nd, 2009 at 7:32 am
Hi Tim,
Its about 6 years since I visited the Wellingborough auctions and found that they really were not suited to the stock I buy. Am going to give you another try some time over the next few weeks and will report back here. I really do hope that I have been missing out and find an excellent source of antique and vintage stock locally.
Anne
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:08 am
Hi Anne
It may be that you should try to come over for our next antique sale on April 16 at 2pm viewing from 8am or8am-7pm on the wednesday. We will still have our general sales starting at 9.30 ,10.30 and 12 midday and you never know what you might find there.
Have a look at our website if you get time : http://www.wilfords.org.
Any questions drop us an E-mail.
Tim