Britannia AuctionsMachinery and engineering auctions in Wolverhampton
Black Country engineering is pressings, fabrication, machining and finishing, and Wolverhampton has all of it. Press shops and fabricators fill the older estates at Bilston, Springvale, Wednesfield and Willenhall, with the Planetary and Strawberry Lane estates full of the small firms that supply the aerospace and automotive plants up at i54 and further afield.
The plant in those shops is heavy and often old, and the buildings are older still. That combination shapes how we sell. The catalogue has to give a press buyer the bed size, the stroke, the shut height and the guarding status, and it has to tell the rigger what they are up against on the way out.
We run machinery auctions across the city for firms that are retiring, closing, downsizing or moving to i54 and leaving the old kit behind. Tell us what is on the floor through the contact form and we will come and look.
Press shops and the fabrication trade
Most of what we sell around Wolverhampton is metal forming kit. Mechanical and hydraulic power presses, press brakes, guillotines, section rolls and welding sets. The trade in Walsall, Dudley, West Bromwich and Telford is a short trip from the viewing day, and the sale is online and open to the rest of the country.
A press is catalogued by capacity, bed size, stroke, shut height and control type, with a photograph of the nameplate. Whether the guarding meets current standards matters to a buyer who has to put the machine straight to work, so we say what is fitted rather than what ought to be. Press brakes and guillotines are listed by length and tonnage and by whether the backgauge is CNC.
Older presses in good order still have a market. What decides the bidding is condition, the guarding, the control and how easily the press comes out. We give an estimate for each main machine before the sale.
Narrow estate roads and what they mean for riggers
The older Black Country estates were laid out for smaller lorries. Wednesfield and Willenhall have units on tight roads with shared yards, and Bilston has older buildings with low doors and floor loadings that nobody knows until they are checked. What one unit can take tells you nothing about the next, which is why we measure each one.
So access goes in the catalogue. We measure the doors, check the yard, note where an articulated lorry can stand and where it cannot, and describe what we find about the route out. Buyers price the removal before they bid, and the collection days run to plan because nobody is surprised.
Buyers book and pay for the removal of their lots, including specialist movers for the heavy plant. We agree the collection window and the order with you, attend, and release lots against paid invoices. Where a unit cannot take a big lorry, the smaller machines can come to our own premises and sell from there.
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 Wolverhampton
- Our press shop is on a shared yard in Willenhall and the neighbours use it all day. How does collection work?
We agree the collection days with you and, if you are willing, let the neighbours know in advance. Heavy lifts are booked into slots so that the yard is only blocked for the time it takes to load one machine, and the hours go in the catalogue. If a crane is needed, the buyer's mover arranges it and any permit that goes with it. It takes a little more planning than an estate with its own yard, but it is a normal part of a Black Country sale.
- The business is moving to i54 and the old machines are not coming. Should we sell them before or after the move?
Before, if the timetable allows. Selling from the old unit means the machines are viewed and collected where they stand, and you do not pay to move plant you are about to sell. The sale is timed so that collection finishes before the lease ends, with time left to make good the floor. If the move has to happen first, we can still sell the machines from the empty unit, or collect them and sell from our own premises.
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.