Britannia AuctionsCollective auctions and single item consignments in Plymouth
Most of the country's buyers are a long drive from Plymouth, and that is the argument for a collective sale. A boatyard on the Tamar replaces a welding set. A seafood processor at Sutton Harbour has an ice machine or a vacuum packer it no longer needs. A medical device firm at Estover sells a clean bench and a bench of test kit. A vehicle repairer at Marsh Mills replaces a lift. Sold locally, each waits for a local buyer. Entered in a collective auction, each sits in an online catalogue that is open to bidders across the UK.
We enter your lot into a regular sale with items from many other vendors, identified by lot number only. Bidding runs with a viewing day before it closes, the buyer pays us and collects in an agreed window, and you are paid once the sale is reconciled from cleared funds.
Tell us what it is and how close it stands to the water.
Processing kit and boatyard tools from the waterfront
The waterfront produces lots that most auctions never see. Ice machines, fish grading tables, vacuum packers, blast chillers and stainless benches come from the seafood processors at Sutton Harbour. The boatyards and marine engineers along the Tamar turn out welding sets, compressors, outboard stands, cradles, trailers and rigging tools when a season ends and the yard takes stock. Fishing gear, winches, nets and electronics come in when a boat is sold or a skipper retires.
Bidding is online, which matters here. Saltash, Torpoint, Ivybridge and Kingsbridge are close enough to attend a viewing day, and yards and processors elsewhere on the coast can bid at a distance and send a courier or a van. Stainless catering and processing kit is used by restaurants and food producers of every kind.
Marine work is seasonal, so tell us when the kit comes free and we will give you a view on the timing.
A site check before the lorry leaves
Older sites near the water can be tight. A unit on a quay or a narrow street behind the harbour may not take an articulated lorry, and sending one is a wasted trip. So we ask for photographs of the approach and the doorway, and check the turning space, the surface, the door dimensions and what loading help is on site before anything is booked.
The newer estates at Estover, Langage, Roborough and Southway were built for lorries and sit close to the A38, but we check those sites too rather than assume, and what we find goes in the catalogue.
A lot can be collected and sold from our premises with a set viewing day where that is agreed. A heavy machine still bolted down is catalogued where it stands, isolated by a competent person, and lifted 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 Plymouth
- We are a seafood processor at Sutton Harbour with one ice machine and a vacuum packer to sell. Will they find buyers this far west?
They can, because the bidder does not have to be near you. Processing kit of that kind is used by fish merchants and food producers across the UK, and bidding is online, so the winning bid may come from a long way off. Send us the make, model, capacity and photographs, and tell us about any faults. Both fit on a tail lift, and one visit is enough to collect them, or you deliver.
- Our boatyard is at the end of a lane by the Tamar. Can you collect from there?
Usually, with the right vehicle. Send us photographs of the lane, the gate, the yard and the lot itself, and say whether it is on hard standing. We look at the width, the surface, the turning space and the weight before choosing between a van with a tail lift, a small rigid lorry or a trailer. Where even a van would struggle, you bring the lot out to the road and we meet you there.
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.