Britannia AuctionsCollective auctions and single item consignments in Liverpool
One forklift. That is often all a freight forwarder at Seaforth has to sell when a contract moves to another port, and it is not enough for a sale of its own. The same goes for a pharmaceutical firm in Speke with a spare chiller, a waste operator with a baler it has outgrown, or a fit out contractor in Kirkby with a van it has replaced.
A collective auction is the answer for a single item or a handful of them. Your lots go into a regular online sale alongside lots from other vendors, listed by lot number only, and they sit in the same catalogue as a full site clearance. Bidding runs online and is not limited to the area, and the trade in the surrounding towns is close enough to come and look.
Tell us what you have and where it stands. We will say which sale it belongs in.
Freight kit from the dock estate when a contract ends
Port logistics turns over equipment faster than most trades. A haulage or forwarding yard at Bootle or on Knowsley Industrial Park holds counterbalance trucks, pallet trucks, a strapping machine, a pallet wrapper, a spare trailer and a container of racking, and when a customer goes elsewhere some of it is surplus at once.
We lot it the way a buyer would want it. Pallet trucks go in pairs or fours and a wrapper stands on its own. A trailer is a lot with its plate and paperwork. A forklift needs its hours, mast height and any faults noted, and a truck on hire purchase remains the funder's property until it is settled, so it can only be catalogued with their agreement.
The car plant suppliers in Halewood and Speke produce a different kind of single lot, a press, a jig, a test rig or a compressor that came off a contract, and the pharmaceutical units next door add fridges and lab benches. They all go in the same sale.
Where the lot stands and who can reach it
A collective sale draws on a wide circle here. The Wirral trade has two tunnels into the city, St Helens, Warrington and Widnes are along the M62 and the M57, and online bidding opens the sale to buyers across the country who send a haulier for what they win. A single lot from one vendor is catalogued and described like every other lot in the sale.
How it travels is a separate question, and one we settle by looking at the site. The outer estates at Knowsley and Liverpool International Business Park differ from the older dockside roads, so we check the approach and turning space, the door, the floor and the loading help available before booking a vehicle.
A small consignment can be collected and stored at our premises until the sale opens, where that is agreed, which fixes the viewing day and keeps buyers out of your yard. A heavy machine can instead be catalogued in place and collected once by the buyer after the sale.
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 Liverpool
- Our forwarding contract at Seaforth ends next month. How quickly can one forklift and some racking be in a sale?
Collective sales run on a cycle rather than waiting for a full catalogue, so the wait is usually short. Send photographs, the truck's data plate and the hours, and a note of how much racking there is and whether it is already down. We will come back to you quickly with the sale we think it suits. The truck can be driven onto a lorry from a hard standing yard and held at our premises where that is agreed, so it is gone before the yard is handed back.
- We are a pharmaceutical supplier in Speke. Do lab fridges and clean room benches sell in a general sale?
They can, and the trades that buy them go wider than the industry. A lab fridge is useful to food producers and clinics, and stainless benches to any workshop or kitchen. Tell us the model and the temperature range, and whether anything has been stored in it that needs declaring. Keep any calibration paperwork with the item, because it is part of what a buyer is judging. Bidding is online, so a firm looking for that model can find it wherever it is.
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.