Some of our work is covered by security conditions. Can you still photograph and list the machines?

Yes, with care. The machines themselves are ordinary commercial machine tools and can be photographed and described like any other. What we avoid is anything of the customer's. Parts, drawings, job cards, programs on the control and fixtures made for their work stay out of the shots and out of the catalogue. Tell us when we walk the site what the conditions say, and if your customer needs notice before capacity is disposed of, we build that into the timetable rather than finding out on viewing day.

We are moving from Fratton to a bigger unit at Havant and leaving half the machines. Is that a sale?

It is, and it is a common one. A move is the point at which a shop decides which machines are worth the rigger's bill and which are not, and the ones left behind are easier to sell as a group than one at a time on the phone. We catalogue the machines you are leaving while you move the rest, run the sale from the old unit and time collection to fall before the keys go back. Your new unit carries on in the meantime.

Machinery and engineering auctions in Portsmouth

Portsmouth's machine shops work for the navy and for the firms that supply it. That shapes the plant. Precision turning and milling for defence electronics housings, ship repair kit that is big and old, welding and fabrication plant, and small toolroom machines in units on the Airport Industrial Estate at Hilsea and the older estates at Fratton and Cosham.

It also shapes the paperwork. Defence subcontract shops keep records, and their machines come with histories that engineering buyers will pay for. We put those in the catalogue with the specification and photographs.

The sale runs online for a week or two with a viewing day at your premises. Buyers arrange and cover the cost of the removal of their lots, on collection days we agree with you. We deal with the whole job from the first call, on Portsea Island or out at Dunsbury Park and Portchester. Tell us what you have through the contact form.

Defence subcontract work and what it leaves behind

When a defence package ends, a shop is often left with machines bought for it. A machining centre with a fourth axis, a wire eroder, a coordinate measuring machine and the fixtures made for parts that will not be made again. The machines have value. The fixtures usually do not, except as scrap, and we say so.

Two things to settle before the catalogue is written. First, whether the customer owns any tooling, gauges, fixtures or programs in the shop, because those stay out of the sale. Second, whether anything on the machines or in the photographs is restricted. We photograph the machine, not the parts, and we clear the drawings and job cards off the bench first.

Electronics firms on Voyager Park and at Dunsbury Park add a different kind of lot. Pick and place lines, reflow ovens, inspection microscopes and test equipment suit a separate trade, and we run them in the same sale with their own advertising.

Off the island with a machine on the trailer

Portsea Island has one set of roads in and out, and the M275 carries most of the traffic. A low loader with a five tonne machining centre on it has to cross the island from Hilsea or Fratton, and the older estates were not laid out with that in mind. Streets are shared with housing and the yards are small, so a mover's lorry can block a neighbour's access while it loads.

So we agree collection by slot. Each buyer's mover gets a time and the yard is kept clear, and the order is set by the site rather than by a fixed rule. Sites at Dunsbury Park by the A3(M) and at Trafalgar Wharf are checked in the same way before the catalogue is written.

The trade in Havant, Fareham, Gosport, Chichester and Southampton is near enough to view in person. The online catalogue reaches the rest of the country, with export interest possible, which matters for the precision lots, because the buyers for a wire eroder or a measuring machine are few and spread out.

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 Portsmouth

Some of our work is covered by security conditions. Can you still photograph and list the machines?: Yes, with care. The machines themselves are ordinary commercial machine tools and can be photographed and described like any other. What we avoid is anything of the customer's. Parts, drawings, job cards, programs on the control and fixtures made for their work stay out of the shots and out of the catalogue. Tell us when we walk the site what the conditions say, and if your customer needs notice before capacity is disposed of, we build that into the timetable rather than finding out on viewing day.
We are moving from Fratton to a bigger unit at Havant and leaving half the machines. Is that a sale?: It is, and it is a common one. A move is the point at which a shop decides which machines are worth the rigger's bill and which are not, and the ones left behind are easier to sell as a group than one at a time on the phone. We catalogue the machines you are leaving while you move the rest, run the sale from the old unit and time collection to fall before the keys go back. Your new unit carries on in the meantime.

Related services

All business asset auctions in Portsmouth

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.

Machinery auctions elsewhere

All areas for machinery auctions