Britannia AuctionsStock clearance auctions in Portsmouth
Portsea Island runs out of room quickly. Industrial space on the island is old and tight, and a business at Hilsea or Fratton with a store full of stock it no longer sells is paying for floor it cannot use. The stock we see here follows the trades. Defence and electronics firms hold components, connectors, cable and boards on reels and in trays that were bought for a programme now finished. Marine businesses at Trafalgar Wharf hold cloth, rope, deck hardware and antifouling for a season that did not go to plan, and the trade counters on the older estates hold dead lines the rep never took back.
A clearance auction sells all of it in one go. We count and lot it on site, sell it online over a week to ten days, and buyers collect in a short window. If the site cannot take buyers, we move the stock to our own premises and sell from there.
Reels, connectors and part numbered components
Electronic component stock has a market of its own. Independent distributors, repair houses, hobbyists and smaller manufacturers buy it, and they buy on the part number, the quantity, the date code and the packaging. So we list it that way. A reel of one part with its label intact is a lot. A drawer of mixed loose parts is a lot, described as mixed and priced accordingly. Sealed moisture barrier bags stay sealed and we say so.
Components bought on a defence contract may carry conditions. Some are export controlled and some were free issued by the customer, and traceability records may have to go with them. We go through this with you before anything is listed, and what cannot be sold is set aside.
Cable, connectors, enclosures and fasteners are simpler. They sell by the reel, the box or the pallet to panel builders and installers who do not care what programme they were bought for.
Getting pallets off the island
Everything leaving Portsea Island goes over one of a few roads, and the M275 is the one that matters for a lorry. Voyager Park and the rest of the Airport Industrial Estate at Hilsea sit close to it. What your own unit can take is checked at the site visit: the approach, kerb parking, turning space, the loading door and whether there is anything on site to lift with. The lotting follows, with full pallets where a yard and a forklift allow it and box or cage lots where the way out is a pallet truck and a tail lift.
Dunsbury Park at Havant is a different case. The park was laid out for HGVs, and where the yard and the loading equipment are available, collection is mostly a matter of booking.
Havant, Fareham, Gosport, Waterlooville and Chichester are well placed to come and look before bidding closes. Buyers further off bid online and collect by carrier, which suits the electronics stock.
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 Portsmouth
- Our component stock is past its date code. Does anyone still buy it?
Yes. Date code matters for production lines with a strict process, but the repair trade, small batch manufacturers and the independent distributors who supply obsolete parts can use older stock. We list the date code where it shows and let the buyer decide. Stock stored dry and in its original packaging is described as such, because that is what a buyer prices on. Loose parts from open drawers are lotted as mixed and priced accordingly.
- The sailcloth and rope were bought for the spring season. Will it still sell in autumn?
The buyers differ by season. Sailmakers and riggers work through the winter on refits, so cloth and cordage have a use all year. Antifouling and fillers with a use by date are closer to their use before the spring lift in. If you have a choice of dates, we will suggest which stock suits which sale. If there is no choice, it all goes together and the dates are described so buyers price them in.
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.