Britannia AuctionsCollective auctions and single item consignments in Warrington
The vehicle and trailer trades here produce lots that other towns do not. The service firms on Woolston Grange and Appleton Thorn take in units for repair and end up owning the odd one, along with tail lifts, axles, a tyre machine or a jacking beam that a customer never collected. The distribution sheds at Omega and Winwick Quay turn out forklifts, pallet trucks, roll cages and racking when a contract ends. Fabricators near the Ship Canal replace a welding set or a guillotine.
Each is a single lot and a collective auction is where it goes. We enter your item into a regular online sale with lots from many vendors, listed by number only. Bidding runs online with a viewing day, the buyer pays us and collects in an agreed window, and you are paid once the sale is reconciled.
Send us what you have and where it is.
Trailers and tail lifts from the vehicle trades
Commercial vehicle work is one of the town's trades, and it produces lots that are simple to move. A curtainsider trailer is towed to us or sold from your yard. A tail lift, a set of ramps, a jacking beam, a brake tester or a commercial tyre machine goes on a rigid lorry. Welding sets, compressors, guillotines and plasma cutters from the fabrication shops travel the same way.
The trades that use this kit are hauliers and other trailer firms, and Widnes, Runcorn, St Helens and Wigan are all within a comfortable drive of the viewing day. Bidding is online for everyone else, and a buyer who sends a driver is on the M6 or the M62 within minutes of collecting.
Trailers need their plate and any test paperwork. Anything held under a lien for unpaid repairs needs the position sorted out before we can list it.
The last few lots when a shed hands back
Big distribution sheds rarely close all at once. The main plant goes in a sale of its own and the tenant strips the racking. Then a fortnight before the hand back date there is a forklift with a flat battery, a shrink wrapper, a set of dock plates and a stack of roll cages still on the floor. These are collective sale lots, and they are common here because Omega and the estates around Gemini turn over tenants often.
Collection in one visit with a lorry can be arranged, and the newer sheds are laid out for that, though we check the yard and the loading dock before booking. The lots can then sell at our premises in the next sale, where that is agreed, so the shed is empty before the landlord's inspection and you are not paying to store the leftovers.
Dilapidations set the deadline. Tell us the date the keys go back and we will propose a timetable that works backwards from it.
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 Warrington
- Our trailer workshop on Woolston Grange has a curtainsider a customer abandoned. Can we sell it?
That depends on whether you have the right to sell it, and you should take advice on the lien position before you call. Once that is settled, a trailer makes a good collective sale lot. Send us the make, year, plate and test details, and photographs of the body, floor, tyres and coupling. It can be towed to our premises, or sold from your yard and collected by the buyer, whichever suits the timetable.
- We hand back a shed at Omega in three weeks and have a forklift and some racking left. Is that enough time?
It is tight, but it can work. Collective sales run on a cycle, so there is normally one being catalogued, and how soon it closes is set by the number of lots and the bidding period. If the lots are collected now, they sell from our premises rather than from your shed, so the building is clear regardless of the sale date. Tell us the hand back date and we will confirm a timetable we can hold to.
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.