Britannia AuctionsCollective auctions and single item consignments in Southampton
Haulage yards around the docks change shape every time a shipping contract moves. A forwarder at Nursling loses a customer and has a forklift, a set of pallet trucks, a spare trailer and a strapping machine it no longer needs. A marine engineer on the Itchen replaces a welding set or a compressor at the end of the refit season and the old one sits in the corner. Neither is a sale on its own.
A collective auction is where those items go. We put them into an online sale alongside lots from other vendors, each identified by lot number only, so a single truck from Southampton sits in a catalogue of a hundred lots, in front of the same audience as a larger sale. The buyer pays us, collects in an agreed window, and you are paid after the sale is reconciled.
Tell us what it is, where it stands and when it needs to be gone.
Single machines from the marine and aerospace suppliers
The marine and aerospace suppliers on Solent Industrial Estate and along the Eastleigh corridor are where the machine tools come from. A CNC router that cut boat panels, a toolroom lathe, a milling machine or a spray booth comes out when a firm changes what it makes, and one machine is all there is.
Machine tools of this kind are used across the country and buyers are used to fetching them. Eastleigh, Romsey, Fareham and Winchester are well placed to come and look before bidding closes, and bidding is online for anyone further off, who sends a haulier for what they win. A specialist model interests a narrower audience, wherever it sits.
A machine on a pallet is a forklift and a lorry job. A heavier one that is still bolted down and wired in can be catalogued in place, viewed by appointment and lifted once by the buyer after the sale. Send us the model, the year, the electrical supply and a photograph of the doorway.
Workshop lots from the boatyards and marine engineers
Marine work along Southampton Water is seasonal. Boats come out of the water in autumn, the refit trade runs through winter, and by spring the yards know which kit they are keeping. That is when a welding set, a compressor, a bandsaw, a pillar drill or a pressure washer becomes surplus, along with shelves of fittings and consumables that a tidy up turns out.
These are small lots and they rarely need a lorry. A van with a tail lift suits many of the yards on the Itchen, and we check the approach, the gate and the surface before choosing. The lot can then sell at our premises in the next collective sale with a set viewing day, where that is agreed.
Marine tooling is used well beyond the marine trade, a welding set being a welding set to any fabricator, while outboard stands and rigging tools suit yards around the coast, who bid online.
Tell us if the unit is on a pontoon or up a slipway, because that changes what we 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 Southampton
- We have one reach truck left after our forwarding contract at Nursling ended. Will you take it on its own?
Yes. A reach truck is a proper lot, and warehouses everywhere use one, so bidding is not limited to buyers who can attend. Send us the make, the year, the hours, the mast height and photographs of the truck and its data plate, and tell us about any faults. We will give you our opinion on likely interest and value, and say which sale it suits. A truck on finance stays with the funder until the agreement is settled, and we can take that up with them.
- Our boatyard on the Itchen is tight for a lorry. Can you still collect a compressor and a welding set?
We can, once we have seen the access. Small workshop lots travel on a van with a tail lift rather than a lorry, and the questions are the width of the gate, the surface and whether the items are on the ground floor or up a ladder. Send us a photograph of the access and the kit. Where a yard is too tight even for a van, you bring the lots to us or we meet a pallet at the gate.
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.