Britannia AuctionsCollective auctions and single item consignments in Manchester
When a distribution operator moves out of a shed in Trafford Park, the racking and the forklifts usually go in a sale of their own. What gets left behind is the small stuff. A dozen pallet trucks, the office furniture from the mezzanine, forty monitors, a battery charger, a sweeper. Somebody has to deal with it before the keys go back.
Our collective auctions take these leftovers and put them in an online sale with lots from other vendors across Greater Manchester. It works the same for a food producer in Openshaw with one surplus mixer, a packaging firm with a spare compressor, a recycling operator with an unused baler, or a small engineering shop in Sharston that has replaced its only lathe.
The question we ask first is whether the items should travel to our premises or sell where they are. That depends on the lots, the building and your dates, and we explain below what decides it.
Leftovers from a shed move
Distribution is the largest employer on the estates around the M60, and it produces a steady flow of small lots. Pallet trucks, hand trucks, battery chargers, packing benches, label printers and office kit come out of every relocation. None of it is high value on its own, and grouped sensibly it suits trade buyers who want several of the same thing rather than one.
So we group by type. Ten pallet trucks make one lot or two, not ten. Monitors go in lots of a size a small office would buy. Racking that is already down and stacked can be entered too, provided there is enough of it to interest a buyer who will bring a wagon.
Food and drink kit from a single kitchen or production room is treated the same way. Stainless tables and sinks go in a group, and a mixer or slicer stands on its own where it is worth enough to carry a lot number by itself.
Deciding where a small consignment sells
A viewing day at your premises costs you a day of staff time and costs us a day on site. For a whole factory that is money well spent. For six lots it rarely is, which is why a small consignment is often better collected and sold from our premises where that is agreed. Most of the estates in the conurbation are close to an M60 junction, so a van or a curtainsider can bring a small consignment in one trip.
Once the items are with us they go into the next collective sale, which has a set viewing day and staff on hand to release lots against paid invoices. You are not waiting for a buyer to turn up at your unit with the wrong vehicle.
The older sites in the east, at Openshaw and Newton Heath, are tighter, and a heavy single machine from one of them may be better catalogued in place and collected once by the buyer. We look at the site before deciding.
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 Manchester
- We are clearing a unit in Trafford Park in a hurry. Can you take the small lots this week?
Often, yes. Collective sales run on a cycle, so delivery at short notice can usually be accepted and the items stored at our premises until the next sale opens, where that is agreed. Send a list and a few photographs first. We will come back to you with what is worth entering, what to group, and what is not worth the transport. If you have a forklift on site, loading a curtainsider is quick work.
- The forklift is on lease. Can it go in the same sale as our own items?
Only with the funder's agreement. Leased and hire purchase equipment belongs to the finance company until it is settled, so we ask for the settlement figure and written agreement before the truck is catalogued. That takes as long as the funder takes, so start it early. The lots you own outright can go in without waiting, and the truck can follow in a later sale if the paperwork is slow.
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.