So you’ve stumbled across a piece of lost antique treasure at your local car boot sale, had it valued (by ValueMyStuff’s online service, naturally) at several thousand times what you paid for it, and now you want to cash-in your good fortune by selling the item at a prestigious auction house.
But unless you’re a professional dealer who has been down this route many times before, this is a bit of a minefield. To begin with, the auctioneers want to charge you a hefty commission. Should you pay it? And if you do pay it, how do guarantee you’re going to get value for money. How, in other words, do you ensure that the auction house does a good job of selling your item, and gets the best possible price for it? After all, you’re only going to get one shot at this. Once it’s sold, it’s sold.
In this week’s blog, ValueMyStuff.com founder Patrick van der Vorst, offers a checklist of the five key things to think about when going to auction. Patrick, who spent 13 years as a department head at world famous auction house Sotheby’s, has invaluable experience garnered from a career spent buying, selling and valuing antiques, so don’t miss this chance to benefit from his expertise and insight.
For further viewing, we recommend our videos on reading terms and conditions before going to auction, auction condition reports, and the costs of going to auction. Watch all those, and you’ll be as expert as Patrick!
And don’t forget our competition to win 1 of 3 iPod Shuffles. We’ve given away two shuffles now, but there’s still one left to go. For a chance to win it come and “like” us on Facebook before the end of September!