Britannia AuctionsCollective auctions and single item consignments in Newcastle upon Tyne
Offshore and marine work comes in projects, and a project leaves things behind. A fabrication yard at Walker finishes a contract and has a spare welding set, a plasma cutter, a set of lifting gear and a test rig. A plant hire firm off the A1 Western Bypass replaces a dozen breakers. A food producer on Newburn Riverside has a surplus mixer. A printer near Benton Square swaps a guillotine. None of it is enough for a sale of its own.
A collective auction puts these lots into one online sale with items from other vendors on Tyneside, catalogued by lot number only. Bidding is open to buyers anywhere in the UK, and the fabrication and construction trade in Gateshead, Wallsend, Cramlington and Blyth is close enough to walk the lots on the viewing day.
We take single items and small consignments from anywhere in the region. Tell us what you have and where it stands, and we will say how we think it should sell.
Welding sets and small plant from the riverside
Welding and cutting equipment is the most common single lot from the marine and subsea firms along the Tyne. A set bought for a project may have done very little work, and the hours, the condition and any service history go in the description. Plasma cutters, gas equipment, magnetic drills, lifting gear with current certificates and hand tools are all used daily by the fabrication trade on both sides of the river.
Construction and plant hire businesses send the other half of the sale. Breakers, compactor plates, generators, lighting towers and attachments come off hire fleets in ones and twos. Grouped into sensible lots they suit builders from Morpeth down to Durham, and bidding is open more widely than that.
Lifting gear is judged partly on its test certificate. Tell us if the certificate has lapsed and we describe it accordingly.
Planning the exit from a riverside yard
Some of the older roads at Walker Riverside are narrow, and the estates on the western bypass and at Team Valley were laid out differently again. Rather than assume either way, we check the site: the approach and turning space, the door dimensions, the floor, and what loading help is on hand. A single welding set is a van job once that is known. A positioner or a small press may need a lorry with its own crane, and we plan the exit before the sale rather than after it.
The lot can then be collected and sold from our premises where that is agreed, which gives it a set viewing day and staff on hand for collection, and means you are not opening a working yard to buyers. A heavier item can be catalogued where it stands instead.
Buyers pay us and collect in an agreed window. You are paid once the sale is reconciled from cleared funds.
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 Newcastle upon Tyne
- Our yard at Walker is working every day. Can we sell one item without buyers on site?
Yes, and that is the usual way. The item is collected once, or you deliver it, and it sells from our premises. The only people who visit your yard are the transport on the day of collection. If the item is too heavy to move twice, we photograph it in place, it is isolated by a competent person before collection, and the buyer arranges the lift and collects after the sale on a day you agree.
- Does equipment from an offshore project sell to buyers outside the North East?
It can. Welding and cutting equipment, generators, test instruments and certified lifting gear are used in the same trades across the country, and online bidding opens the sale to buyers who ship or collect. Specialist subsea and test equipment interests a narrower audience, which may sit a long way from the Tyne. Local trade buyers can view in person, and for the unusual items the description, the photographs and the certificates do the work.
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.