Britannia AuctionsCollective auctions and single item consignments in Stoke-on-Trent
Ceramics runs on equipment that is specific to the trade. A pottery in one of the six towns closes a line and has a spare kiln, a jigger and jolley, a pug mill, a spray booth or a set of moulds that no other industry wants. The likeliest buyer is another pottery, and there are still potteries across the city. What there is not, for one kiln, is a sale of its own.
That is where a collective auction earns its place. We enter your kiln alongside lots from other vendors, so a decorating firm in Fenton, a plastics moulder at Trentham Lakes, a food producer at Festival Park and a distribution operator on the A500 all sell in the same online catalogue. Newcastle-under-Lyme, Leek, Crewe and Uttoxeter are close enough to attend a viewing day, and bidding is open to buyers from any part of the country.
Tell us what you have. A kiln needs a plan for the move, and we look at that first.
Kilns, moulds, spray booths and the odd forklift
The lots that come out of the ceramics trade are unusual and we describe them for the buyer who knows what they are. A kiln is listed with its type, internal dimensions, power or gas supply and controller. Moulds go in lots by shape and quantity. Glaze spray booths, ball mills, filter presses and casting benches are photographed in place with the services shown. That detail is what another pottery bids on, and a vague description gives a buyer less to work with.
Around the ceramics firms, the rest of the city's industry sends ordinary lots into the same sale. A forklift from a warehouse at Etruria Valley, a compressor from an engineering unit at Parkhall, office furniture from a building products firm, a van from a tile distributor. Grouped sensibly, these make up much of a collective sale.
The floor on value applies. One box of moulds is grouped with others. A kiln in working order usually carries a lot number of its own.
Moving a kiln, and who disconnects it
Many estates around the city have wide roads and hard standing, which can make a heavy lot easier to handle than the same machine in an older mill town, and the A500 runs to the M6 at both ends of the city. Even so, the yard, the door, the floor and the route out are checked for the individual site before anything is booked, and what we find goes in the catalogue.
Ceramics plant can then be collected and sold from our premises where that is agreed. Once your electrician or gas fitter has disconnected the kiln, it is collected once and sells with a set viewing day and staff on hand to release it to the buyer. You do not open a working pottery to viewers.
Smaller items travel in a van. Moulds, hand tools, consumables and small plant from one site go in one run, and the transport cost is quoted before you agree to sell. Where a kiln is built into the building, it is catalogued in place and the buyer removes it 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 Stoke-on-Trent
- Is there still a market for a second hand kiln from a pottery here?
There is still a trade in used kilns, for one in working order with a known history. Potteries, tile makers, colleges and studios buy them, and what yours makes depends on the type, the size, the controller, the services it needs and the cost of taking it out. A studio kiln and one built into the building are not the same proposition. We give you a view on likely interest and value before you commit.
- Can I put a few pallets of surplus tableware in a collective sale?
Yes, if the quantity makes a lot. Stock is described by line and quantity, and by condition, and we photograph a sample. Firsts and seconds are lotted apart so that each is described accurately and bid on for what it is. Wholesalers and retailers bid online, and tableware ships easily, so the audience is not limited to the city. Send a stock list and we will say which lines are worth entering.
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.