Britannia AuctionsCollective auctions and single item consignments in Leicester
A textile workshop in Leicester rarely closes all at once. More often it trims down. One overlocker goes, then a cutting table, then the van that used to run to the packers. Each of those is worth money but none of them is worth a sale of its own.
That is what the collective auction is for. We put your lot into a shared online sale with items from other vendors, so a single machine from a unit off the inner city streets sits in the same catalogue as a full factory clearance. The same applies to the food, printing, plastics and packaging firms across the city, where a spare compressor or a pallet of stock turns up after every tidy up.
Tell us what you have through the contact form. We will say which sale suits it and whether it should travel to us or sell from where it stands.
One sewing machine or the whole cutting room
The east and west of the city are full of small clothing units, and the kit inside them is easy to move. Industrial sewing machines, overlockers, fusing presses, band knives and cutting tables all fit in a van. That keeps the cost of bringing them to our premises down, where they can sell in a collective sale with a set viewing day and staff on hand for collection.
A single lockstitch machine on its own may not clear the minimum value we need to catalogue it, so we tend to group. Six machines of the same type from one room make a more useful lot than six separate entries. The same goes for hand tools and consumables from an engineering workshop in Braunstone Frith. A box of unused inserts is a lot. One insert is not.
Vans are different. A single van is usually worth entering on its own. It photographs clearly and the trades that buy one are spread across the country, so bidding is not limited to the county.
Collecting from the inner city textile streets
The older textile streets were not built for a lorry. Units are terraced, doors open straight onto the pavement and there is often no yard at all. The newer estates at Troon and Meridian are laid out differently. In both cases we ask what the site actually allows: the width of the door, the floor the item stands on, any steps, where a vehicle can stop and for how long, and whether there is a forklift or the vehicle has to bring its own handling equipment.
What we find decides the vehicle and the cost, and it goes in the catalogue so a buyer knows what removal involves before bidding. Bidding is online and open across the UK, and the trade in Loughborough, Hinckley, Wigston and Market Harborough is close enough to inspect the lots before the sale closes.
We can catalogue at your unit when the lot justifies a visit. For most single items, moving the lot to us costs less than holding a viewing at your premises.
What these sales can include
- Single machine tools
- Individual vans and pickups
- Compressors and generators
- Welding equipment
- Woodworking machines
- Hand tools and power tools
- Office furniture and IT equipment
- Catering equipment from a single kitchen
- Small plant and attachments
- Garden and grounds machinery
- Trailers
- Workshop consumables and stock
How a collective sale works
A collective auction is a regular online timed sale made up of lots from many vendors. Each vendor's lots are identified in the catalogue by lot number only. Buyers see one catalogue and bid across it, so a small consignment sits in the same sale as the larger ones.
Your lots are photographed and listed alongside the others. Bidding runs online, with lots closing in sequence on the sale date. Each lot is offered as seen under the auction terms, with buyers expected to inspect before bidding. The buyer pays the hammer price plus a buyer's premium, with VAT charged where it applies and shown separately.
After the sale, buyers pay and collect within the collection window. We account to you from cleared funds once it has closed and the sale is reconciled, less the agreed commission and any agreed costs.
The collective auctions and single item consignments page covers minimum viable value, at our premises or at yours, what to bring and what to tell us, timescales and unsold lots.
Questions about selling in Leicester
- My unit is on a narrow street with no parking. Can you still collect?
Usually. Most single items from the inner city workshops travel in a van rather than a lorry, and a van can stop on the street for the time it takes to load. Tell us the door width, any steps and the floor the item is on. What the collection takes then depends on the weight, the dimensions and the route out, and on what handling equipment or specialist help is needed, and we price it on that basis before you commit.
- The workshop lease ends in six weeks. Is a collective sale quick enough?
Usually. Collective sales run on a cycle, so there is normally one being catalogued when you call. How soon it closes turns on the number of lots, the cataloguing and the bidding period. Items delivered to our premises, or collected where that is agreed, are off your floor well before the sale closes, so the lease date is not tied to the sale date. That is the main reason we suggest moving single lots to us when time is short.
More questions about single items and small lots
Related services
Guides
- How a commercial asset auction works
A stage by stage account of an online timed auction for business assets. It covers the asset schedule, cataloguing, viewing days, how bidding closes, buyer's premium and VAT, collection and how you get paid.
- What happens to unsold lots
Not every lot sells, but the site still has to be cleared. This guide covers why lots go unsold, private treaty after the sale, lowering or removing the reserve, a later sale, scrap and WEEE recycling, and what disposal costs.