Auction Report 7th March 2015

350 lots were offered for sale on a sunny day at Itchen Abbas. The wide range included two gold items: a collection of cuff links and a small compass selling for £100 and £80 respectively. A pre-war croquet set sold for £85. There were two Moorcroft vases, one sold for £60. You can see these items and some more of the leading lots below.

The next auction is on the 4th April – Easter Saturday at Badger Farm Community Centre, Winchester.

p.s. Andrew the auctioneer tried to give bidders some advice towards the end of the auction. There was one lot where ten hands went up when the opening bid came down to £5. He missed the point he was trying to make. Let’s try to get it clear here:

For some lots the auctioneer drops the opening bid and bidders wait until it gets to £5, our minimum bid. Then ten hands shoot up! The auctioneer picks the first two bidders he/she sees (on some occasions their only choice is do that randomly) and bids them out. The first bidder is always in the leading position because whoever bids next will have to pay more. If you join in with the bidding after one of the first two bidders declines, you will have to pay the next increment above the opening bidder.

But if you the bidder had come in at £10, you would be the opening bidder. Everyone else is waiting for it to drop to £5. Say your bid rises to £30, the next bidder will have to bid £35 and they may decline that. If someone else starts bidding, you will be given the option to make the next bid first i.e. £40 before allowing another bidder to join in.

So our tip is simple – Don’t wait, bid!