Britannia AuctionsStock clearance auctions in Cardiff
The stock we clear around Cardiff tends to come off the east side of the city, where the merchants, the fleet yards and the food producers sit between the port and the M4. Builders merchants closing a branch or dropping a range leave packs of timber, sheet materials, insulation, fixings and plumbing stock. Fleet operators carry tyres, filters, oils and consumables for vehicles they no longer run. Food and drink producers hold packaging and ingredients from contracts that ended.
Auction suits all of it, because the trades that use the stock are the ones the catalogue is written for. Building stock is lotted for smaller merchants, roofing and groundworks contractors, landscapers and general builders. Fleet consumables are lotted for workshops.
We catalogue on site, sell online over a week to ten days, and clear the lot in a fixed collection window.
Merchant stock and timber sold by the pack
Building stock sells in the units the trade buys it in. Timber goes by the pack, with species, size and treatment stated. Sheet materials go by the pallet. Insulation, plasterboard, roofing and drainage go by the pack or the pallet, and small fixings by the box or the bin. We do not break packs to make pretty lots, because a contractor pricing a job wants a full pack at a known price.
Stock that has been outside matters. Timber that has greyed or twisted, board that has taken water, bags that have split and bricks with frost damage are described as such, photographed and lotted apart from the clean stock. Buyers will still bid, but they price the condition in, and they hold us to the description.
Plumbing, heating, electrical and ironmongery lines are worth lotting small, because merchants and maintenance contractors use them and they take up little room in a van. What they make depends on condition, quantity and how current the range is.
Selling from the Wentloog estates
Wentloog and Capital Business Park were laid out for articulated lorries, and the first visit confirms what your own site can take: how a vehicle gets in and turns, hard standing, loading facilities and the reach of any forklift or crane truck. A merchant clearance then runs on booked slots, with packs loaded onto flatbeds and curtainsiders.
Units on Hadfield Road, Penarth Road and around Leckwith are checked for shared yards, road parking and turning space, and what we find goes in the catalogue so buyers know what vehicle to bring. The plan follows it: timed collections, smaller lots, a limit on vehicle size and one buyer in the yard at a time. Where a site cannot take that, the stock can be brought to our own premises and sold from there.
Newport, Caerphilly, Bridgend and Barry are a short run from the docks estates on the A4232 from junction 33. The sale is online, so the trade in the rest of the UK sees the same lots.
What these sales can include
- Discontinued product lines
- Overordered components and parts
- Customer returns and graded stock
- Seasonal goods
- Ex display and showroom items
- Packaging and consumables
- Raw materials and fabrics
- Bulk trade stock on pallets
- Tools and hardware
- Homeware and furniture stock
- Clothing and footwear
- Building products and fixings
Running the sale
A stock clearance runs as an online timed auction, open for a week to ten days in most cases. There is a viewing day at your premises, or at the location where the stock has been gathered. Bidders inspect the lots, then bid online until each lot closes.
After the sale, buyers collect within a window agreed with you, usually a few days. Collection is the point where a stock sale needs organising. Buyers arrive with vans and lorries, lots have to be handed to the right person and the paperwork has to match. Our staff manage the door and sign each lot out.
If you cannot host viewing and collection, the stock can be moved to our premises or a third party warehouse where that is agreed. That adds transport cost but keeps the process away from your trading site.
The stock clearance auctions page covers when an auction is the right route, lotting the stock, offered as seen and the buyer's position, alternatives to auction.
Questions about selling in Cardiff
- The timber has been stored outside for a year. Will it still sell?
Mostly yes, at a price that reflects it. Treated softwood that has weathered grey still sells for fencing, groundworks, formwork and site hoarding, and buyers know what it is for. Timber that has twisted or gone soft is worth less and we say so. Sheet materials that have taken water are the difficult case, because delamination is hard to see in a stack, so we look at each pack before deciding whether to list it or send it for recycling.
- Do buyers from the valleys collect, or can you deliver?
Buyers collect. Every lot is sold on the basis that the buyer arranges and pays for removal within the collection window, and a trade buyer near the site will often bring their own vehicle. For buyers further away, or for a large lot, we can put them in touch with a haulier or arrange transport at their cost. Delivery is not part of the sale, because the price and the timing assume the buyer does the moving.
More questions about stock clearance
Related services
Guides
- What insolvency practitioners need from an auctioneer
For office holders realising physical assets. Covers the instruction letter, the asset schedule and valuation basis, retention of title, finance checks, site security, health and safety during the sale, and the reconciliation you need for the file.
- 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.