Britannia AuctionsSurplus equipment sales in Aberdeen
Inspection and test equipment is the surplus most often overlooked in this city. The service companies and subsea firms at Altens, Tullos, Dyce and Westhill hold ultrasonic sets, pressure test rigs, torque tools, calibrated gauges and hydraulic power units against contracts that have ended or gone quiet, and because those items are small they never make the list when someone asks what could be sold. They should. Calibration certificates and a known history give a buyer something firm to judge, and bidding is online and open to bidders across the country and further afield where the sale justifies it.
We sell it, alongside the workshop and yard plant that any engineering business produces, without stopping the business that owns it. Cataloguing is done on site around your work. Bidding runs online, usually for a week or two depending on the number of lots. Collection is booked in slots. You are paid once the sale is reconciled from cleared funds. The yard keeps loading out for the next job while the surplus leaves through the other gate.
Test kit with a certificate has a wide market
Buyers of inspection and test equipment want the paperwork before the price. A pressure test unit with a current calibration and a service record goes into the catalogue with both, and an inspection firm anywhere in the UK can then judge it from the listing, with export interest possible where the specification suits. The same unit with no records is offered as untested, and that changes what a buyer will pay.
So we ask sellers to find the certificates before we photograph anything. Where an item is due a calibration anyway, having it done before the sale gives bidders something firm to work from.
Workshop plant from the same firms, lathes, mills, welding sets, hydraulic presses and torque machines, is catalogued for fabricators, engineers and dealers, and the trade from Inverurie to Stonehaven is well placed for the viewing day. Yard kit, lifting frames, baskets, containers and skids, is written up for the offshore supply trade, with the ratings and certificates that trade looks for.
Loading out of the Altens yards
The big estates south of the city were built for heavy engineering, and many of the yards have hard standing and room to lift. We check rather than assume, so the first visit covers how a vehicle gets in and turns, loading facilities, door sizes, floor levels and any shared ground, and what we find goes in the catalogue before anyone bids. The Western Peripheral Route gives a lorry a way to Altens or Dyce without the city centre, which matters to a buyer sending a transporter north.
The complication on an oil service site is the same as on any working yard, only more so. Visitors need inductions, permits, PPE and a signed in escort, and a crane lift has to be planned with the yard's own lifts for the day. We build that into the collection window. Buyers are booked into slots, one crew at a time, and our staff attend to release each lot against a paid invoice.
Small, high value items, gauges, torque tools, meters and instruments, can come to our own premises and be sold there where that suits the timetable.
What these sales can include
- Machine tools and CNC equipment
- Forklifts and access platforms
- Pallet racking and shelving
- Compressors and air tools
- Welders and fabrication kit
- Vehicles and trailers
- Test and measurement equipment
- Site accommodation and containers
- Packaging and labelling machines
- Obsolete stock and components
- Office furniture and IT
- Catering and canteen equipment
Selling from a live site
Most surplus sales happen inside a business that is still trading. That changes how we work. Cataloguing is done around your shifts. Viewing is by appointment or on a single day, with visitors signed in and escorted. Collection is booked in slots so that nobody is moving a machine through the middle of a production run.
Items that are still bolted down, plumbed in or connected to services are isolated by a competent person before collection, with electrical and gas disconnection done by qualified people. Buyers arrange and pay for the removal of their lots, and they do not disconnect services themselves.
Tell us about anything that affects access: weight limits on floors, door heights, crane availability, restricted hours. It all goes in the catalogue so buyers plan the removal properly.
The surplus equipment sales page covers what counts as surplus, one sale or a standing arrangement, pricing, reserves and the buyer's premium, after the sale.
Questions about selling in Aberdeen
- A lot of our surplus is offshore rated and colour coded for a client. Does that affect the sale?
Not much. Lifting frames, baskets, skids and containers in a client's colours are still standard items, and paint can be changed. What does matter is the certification. A basket or a frame with an in date test certificate and a plate is worth more to a buyer than one without, because it can go straight to work. Client markings can be removed before the sale if the contract requires it, and we will ask.
- Does the state of the oil industry change what our kit is worth?
It is one of the factors. Demand for specialist offshore gear follows the work available, alongside condition, specification, age of controls and how hard an item is to remove. Bids are placed online and the sale is open to the whole of the UK, which takes the sale beyond the local sector, and general engineering equipment, forklifts, vans and containers suit a wider range of buyers again. We give you a view on likely interest before you commit, and you can set reserves on the items that matter most.
More questions about surplus equipment
Related services
Guides
- 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.