What happens to unsold lots

Not every lot sells. Some fail to reach their reserve. Some attract no bids at all, often because they are worth less than the cost of taking them away. It is worth knowing what happens next before you set your reserves.

There is a process for unsold lots, and the aim is to leave the site clear. Here is what happens and what your options are.

Why lots go unsold

The commonest reason is a reserve set above what the market will pay. The second is that the lot has a negative value: it costs more to remove than it is worth. The third is that the lot was described in a way that put buyers off, or was not accessible for viewing. We can usually tell you which of these applied.

An unsold lot is not a lost cause. The bidding record tells us who was interested and at what level, and that is useful information.

Offer it by private treaty after the sale

The first thing we do with an unsold lot is go back to the underbidders and to anyone who enquired about it during the sale. A buyer who stopped bidding below the reserve may agree a price once they know the lot is still available. Those approaches are made in the days after the auction closes.

The lot is sold on the same terms as the auction, with the buyer's premium charged in the same way and VAT charged where it applies, and collected in the same window where that can be arranged.

Reduce the reserve or sell without one

If the private treaty approach does not find a buyer, the next question is the reserve. You can lower it, or remove it altogether, and we re-offer the lot in the next available sale. A lot offered without a reserve goes to the highest bidder at whatever level the bidding reaches, so the decision is the price you can accept.

Be realistic about the second attempt. The buyers who looked at the lot the first time have already formed a view of it. Where the reserve stood well above the top bid, the reserve was the obstacle and a small reduction may not change the position. It has to come down to meet the market.

Re-offer in a later sale

Some lots are worth holding back. If a specialist machine failed to sell because the right buyer was not looking that week, it may do better in a collective sale alongside similar equipment, where the catalogue is aimed at that category. A lot can be moved into a later sale, either from your site or from our own premises, where that is agreed and the site has to be cleared.

Moving a lot has a cost, in transport and in storage. Weigh that against the likely uplift before deciding.

Scrap and recycling

For lots with no market, scrap is the answer. Ferrous and non ferrous metal has a value by weight, and a scrap merchant will often collect at no cost or pay a small sum, depending on the weight and the grade. Machinery that is scrapped in place needs to be broken down and removed, and that work is either done by the scrap merchant or charged to you.

Electrical and electronic equipment cannot go in a skip. It falls under the WEEE regulations and must be collected by a licensed waste carrier and processed at an approved facility. You should receive a waste transfer note for it.

The same applies to fluorescent tubes, batteries, refrigerants in chillers and cold rooms, and waste oil. Keep the paperwork, because the landlord or a future buyer of the business may ask for it.

Disposal costs

Disposal is a cost, not an income, and it comes off your proceeds. Skips, waste carriers, labour to strip out and any hazardous waste charges add up on a large site. The best way to keep that cost down is to sell as much as possible in the first place, which is why we will talk to you about realistic reserves and about offering general kit without one.

Where disposal is unavoidable, it can be arranged, documented and netted against the sale proceeds in your final statement, so you have one account for the whole clearance.

If you have a sale coming up and are worried about what will be left over, ask us to mark up the schedule before the sale. We will tell you which lots we expect to struggle and what we would do with each of them.