Britannia AuctionsMachinery and engineering auctions in Peterborough
Diesel engines built the engineering trade here and it still shows in the workshops. Crankshaft grinders, honing machines, line borers, dynamometers and heavy lathes turn up in sales around Fengate and Woodston in a way they do not in most towns, alongside the CNC turning and machining centres of the precision subcontractors who grew up around the same work.
Out on the edges of the city the agricultural machinery dealers run service bays with presses, welding sets, lathes and a lot of hand and air tools. Those sell too, and to a different buyer.
A machinery sale here has to serve both. We catalogue on site, give an estimate for each significant machine, run the sale online and manage the riggers on collection day. Tell us what is in the shop, with makes and models where you know them, through the contact form.
Engine reconditioning plant and who still wants it
Engine shop machines have a narrow market. A crank grinder or a boring and surfacing machine suits another engine reconditioner, a plant engineer or a marine engineer, and export interest is possible. Those buyers know the makers and the wear points, and completeness is a large part of what decides the price.
So we lot the fixtures with the machine. Grinding wheels, chucks, adaptors, mandrels and the measuring gear that goes with each one stay together, and the catalogue lists them by name.
The precision shops are simpler. CNC lathes and machining centres with common controls have a broad trade market, and a good photograph with a full specification lets a buyer bid without viewing. Corby, Huntingdon and Stamford are well placed for the viewing day. We photograph the control screen with the hours showing.
Harvest, the A1 and the collection day
Timing matters more here than in most places. Agricultural engineers and dealer workshops are busiest from spring drilling through to the end of harvest, so a viewing day in August competes with their working season. Late autumn and winter give that trade more room to look, and a machine released in January is not one that was needed in July.
Access is checked before the catalogue is written. Fengate, Woodston, Orton Southgate and the Gateway site at Alwalton are estate sites linked by the A1139 parkway, with the A1(M) close by, and farm and village workshops beyond the city are measured for how a vehicle gets in and turns in the same way.
Bidding is online and open to bidders well beyond the area. The trade along the A47 at Wisbech and March, and down the A15 from Lincoln, is well placed for the viewing day.
What these sales can include
- CNC turning centres
- CNC vertical and horizontal machining centres
- Manual and toolroom lathes
- Milling machines
- Surface and cylindrical grinders
- Press brakes and guillotines
- Laser, plasma and waterjet cutters
- Bandsaws and cold saws
- Radial arm and pillar drills
- Welding sets and positioners
- Coordinate measuring machines
- Tooling, chucks and workholding
- Compressors and dust extraction
- Cranes, hoists and forklifts
Viewing, bidding and the buyer's premium
Machinery sales run as online timed auctions. The catalogue is published with photographs and specifications. Buyers register, view the machines on the viewing day, and bid online until the lots close. The sale is advertised to the engineering trade, and bidding is online and open to buyers across the UK and beyond.
The buyer pays the hammer price plus the buyer's premium. VAT is charged where it applies and shown separately on the buyer's invoice. Ask and we will go through the specifics for your sale. Where a buyer is overseas, they arrange their own export.
Machines are offered as seen under the auction terms, and buyers are expected to inspect before bidding, which is why the viewing day matters. Machines that can be run safely stay connected for the viewing day so your staff can demonstrate them where that is agreed, and everything else is isolated and left safe.
The machinery and engineering auctions page covers what the buyers want to know, what affects demand, reserves and estimates, removal and access, when a private sale beats an auction.
Questions about selling in Peterborough
- We are an agricultural dealer with a service bay, not a machine shop. Is that still a machinery sale?
Yes. The plant in a dealer's workshop, presses, welding sets, a lathe, a pillar drill, compressors, jacks, lifts, diagnostic kit and a great deal of hand and air tooling, suits other agricultural engineers, plant fitters, garages and vehicle workshops. We catalogue the machines individually and lot the tooling in trays by type so buyers can bid on what they want. If there is stock, parts or vehicles as well, they can go in the same sale under their own headings.
- Our crank grinder is thirty years old and nobody local wants it. Will it sell at all?
That turns on condition and completeness more than age, because the design of that kind of machine changed slowly. The market is small and spread across the country, with export interest possible, so the online sale and direct advertising to the reconditioning trade matter more than the viewing day does. We say what interest we would expect and an estimate before the sale, and you can set a reserve. If the estimate is close to scrap weight, we will tell you.
More questions about machinery auctions
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.
- Preparing machinery and equipment for sale
What to do before viewing day. Keep the machines that can be run safely available to demonstrate, isolate the rest, clean but do not repaint, find the tooling and manuals, and sort out access for removal.
- How used machinery is valued
Buyers pay for what a machine will do for them, less what it costs to get it out and running. This guide explains how make, hours, tooling, demand and removal cost feed a guide price, and why that price is not book value.