Hardy Antiques - Get your hands on a fine chest

Get your hands on a fine chest

Onward with Part 2 of buying at auction. If you missed it, Part 1 is here and includes four of the lessons I’ve learned in many years of auction buying.

THE FOUR IN FORWARD
We got to the point where you have viewed your chest, ooer missus, and decided as chests go, it is the one you want. You’ve now go the choice of how to bid on it. The four main ways are attend the auction and do the bidding yourself, leave a bid with the auction house or request a telephone bid, or bid online. You can also leave a bid with a porter, or send a friend. I’ve done all of these, I’ve even been the guy on the one for an auction house once, taking bids on the phone. Of them, the one I like least is leaving bids.

LEAVE IT WITH US
Perhaps I've been unlucky, but I found one auction house I used a fair amount would simply take the top 'left bid' and sell it at that even if there were no bidders in the room. I don't go there anymore. On the other hand I left bids somewhere just yesterday and got four of my eight items, and two of them at less than half the amount I left. So houses vary. What is supposed to happen is that they bid up to your limit only if someone else is bidding against you. If there is no other bid, they can go to the reserve, and if there is no reserve, they should take the starting bid, check for anyone other interest and if there is none knock it down to you. If two people leave the same bid, then the earlier one takes it.
The other way to achieve the same thing is to leave a bid with a porter, to bid on your behalf. Obviously you need to know the porter first. And if you do, then you are already familiar with auctions in which case ... agree/disagree with me? Comments welcome on facebook

BOOK A CALL
Telephone bidding is as simple and convenient as it sounds. You can be relaxing on the high seas or in your bath. The auctioneer will ring you a few lots before yours and then relay any bids you wish to make to the auctioneer on the rostrum. Very straightforward and nearly as good as being there. You can’t see what’s going on in the room, so you can't tell who else is, if anyone, is bidding, but that’s true of many ways of bidding now.
Bidding online requires that you register with the relevant internet auction site. You will pay a premium for bidding this way, depending on which site, but normally you'd be looking at an extra 3% of the hammer price, plus VAT so a total of 3.6% That’s £36 on a £1000 hammer price, so not the end of the world. And your other charges would be more like £250 on a bid that big, so the 3% pales into insignificance. But charges are inescapable. I did mention them, way back in part 1: lessons one and two. Make sure you know about the buying charges. Don't forget, if you bid online you've still got to arrange (and pay for) getting the item home. There's a link to the guys we use on the delivery page.

NOW FOR THE FUN BIT
By far the most fun and the most satisfying is to attend the auction. Get there in plenty of time, register with the reception and they will furnish you with a bidding number. If its been a while since you’ve seen your chest, take a quick peek to make sure no one has spilled ink, scratched it or otherwise rendered it useless, and its still as good as you remember it: there are no come backs after the hammer goes down.

HOW DO THEY FLOG IT?
While we’re waiting take the chance to (have a bacon sandwich) watch the auctioneer. He or she will have their own style. The basics are that the estimate is the rough guide to what they think it might fetch all things being equal. But estimates are only right about half the time. So don’t be too taken up with them. If there is a reserve it should be at or below the bottom estimate. We’ll talk more about reserves when you come to sell things at auction, but the effect they have today is that they are the bottom line, for the time being and you don’t get to know what they are (generally). The auctioneer is allowed to “bid” up to the estimate, and most do it by similar ways of saying something like” we’ve had interest in this so I can start it at 30 ,40, 50, 60, now looking for £70” which, amazingly, just happens to be the reserve, and probably the low estimate. Watch how the Auctioneer starts the bidding, does he start mid-estimate and then drop if the gets no interest? What increments does he go up in? Often you get £2 increments up to £20, or sometimes £50, then £5 until it goes to £10 jumps. Or something along those lines. Get used to it, so that when your lot comes up and you find every intelligent thought you ever had evaporates and the sound of your heart can surely be heard on the moon, you are ready. Also watch for how the items end. Does the auctioneer abruptly finish them, or do they dawdles a bit to give buyers plenty of time to register another bid. If the auctions on-line, it is likely to be slower.

PATIENCE, I SAY
This latter is handy to know because here it is now, as Paul Martin says on Flog it. Your chest is next. Boom Badda Boom Badda goes your heart. Like performance nerves, we all get it. But my advice now is to bide your time. Don’t be the first. Wait, and if there is no interest, time your one and (hopefully) only bid to just beat the auctioneers hammer. You may need to shout, but certainly wave your catalogue. None of this subtle nose scratching or winking. It won’t work, except in TV dramas. You need to make a positive move that gets the auctioneers attention. I find a brisk wave of the papers and a “yup” or something does it. Now, no matter what, you are in and will not be forgotten until you definitively shake your head or turn away. Keep eye contact with the auctioneer and he or she will always come back to you asking you for the next increment. But with luck, because you waited, no one else will bid.

AND THEY'RE OFF
But if they do, we have an auction. Again, if there was interest from the off, my advice is to wait, let the internet and the telephones and the room sort itself out and, provided we are still within budget, time your bid to be the last one. Its possible you will strike a killer blow and knock the opposition out, it is also possible that someone else is doing the same thing and it will start to go on again. Keep your head, and your budget in mind and when you get to that figure, plus one, shake your head and turn away. Its just not your lucky day.

YOUR PLACE OR MINE?
Plus one? No, not a dinner invite, but a tip: always allow one bid more than your budget. Why? Two reasons, one, you’d kick yourself later if it went at your budget, and two, because the way the increments run may mean you end up on the wrong ‘step’ as it were. Lets say the auction house goes up in £20 jumps, you could easily have a bid in of £280, but your limit is £300. The next person bids the £300, you should go to the £320 as a last try. If he bids £340, then so be it, it is not your day. But one extra bid to own it? Of course you should. And that applies to the paper bids too. Add “plus one” to the figure you leave and that gives them the discretion if you happen to be on the wrong step. So now you are fully equipped. You know about budgets, costs, viewing, bidding and how to win. Don't forget to show the auctioneer your number when you win and, after you've paid, take your item home with you.

Let me know how you get on over on Facebook

20/05/2016 Posted by Paul Hardy Tags: antiques, buy, buying, bidding, auction

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