Britannia AuctionsCollective auctions and single item consignments in Northampton
One truck too many is a common problem in a distribution town. Haulage and pallet firms at Brackmills and Swan Valley size their fleets to their contracts, and when a contract ends they are left with a counterbalance truck, a few pallet trucks, a tail lift trailer or a spare tug that no longer earns. The shoe trade has a different version. A small factory replaces a clicking press or a finishing machine and the old one still works.
A collective auction is built for that. Your lot goes into a shared online sale with items from many other vendors, listed by lot number only, and sits in the same catalogue as a large dispersal. Bidding runs online with a viewing day before it closes, the buyer pays us and collects, and you are paid once the sale is reconciled from cleared funds.
Tell us what you have and when it needs to be off site.
Materials handling kit that comes off contract
Forklifts, pallet trucks, dock plates, roll cages, strapping machines and pallet racking are the everyday lots from the big sheds. Warehouses of every size use them, and they are simple to move. A counterbalance truck drives onto a lorry, racking is bolted apart and stacked on pallets, and a trailer is towed.
The estates at Brackmills, Swan Valley and Pineham were laid out for lorries, but we still check the individual site before booking: the approach, the loading dock, door dimensions, the yard surface and what handling help is available. Junctions 15 and 15a of the M1 are minutes away, so a buyer with a trailer from Wellingborough, Kettering, Daventry or Rugby can collect without touching the town centre, and a buyer further off can send a haulier.
A truck on hire purchase or contract hire stays with the funder until the agreement is settled. Tell us who financed it and we can take it up with them.
Footwear machinery and print kit from the smaller factories
Shoemaking survives in Northampton on a smaller scale than it once did, and the factories that remain replace machines one at a time. A clicking press, a skiving machine, a lasting machine, a sole press or a finishing line is still used by makers in the town and by leather workers elsewhere, and bidding is open across the UK. These are heavy, compact machines that sit on a pallet, and they can be collected and sold from our premises with a set viewing day where that is agreed.
Print and packaging firms on Moulton Park and Round Spinney produce a similar stream of single lots, guillotines and folders among them, and vehicle workshops on the older estates near the town centre add lifts and tyre machines. The older units are tighter than the big sheds, so we look at photographs of the access, the door and the floor before deciding what to send.
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 Northampton
- We run pallets out of Brackmills and have two spare pallet trucks and one forklift after losing a contract. Is that too small?
No. A forklift is a lot in its own right, and a pair of pallet trucks makes another. In a collective sale they sit beside lots from many other vendors, so the size of your consignment does not limit the audience. Send us the make, model, hours and photographs of the forklift, tell us if it is on finance, and say when the yard needs to be clear. Collection in one visit can be arranged.
- Is there still a market for shoe machinery, or has it all gone abroad?
There is still a trade in it. Makers in the town, the repair trade, leather workers and colleges all buy used machines, and bidding is not limited to the area. What a machine makes depends on the model, the age, the condition, whether tooling comes with it and what removal costs, so send those details with photographs. Our view on value is an opinion, and a reserve can be set if you have a floor in mind.
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.