A simple toy steam locomotive left a vendor chuffed as it made a hammer price 115 times its top estimate.

‘Lost’ episodes of TV series have become sought-after items, not least among Doctor Who fans. Of interest to collectors is an archive of photographs and copies of plans from The Power of the Daleks – the completely missing third serial of the fourth season first broadcast by the BBC in six weekly parts from November 5-December 10, 1966.

Sport shirts at regional auction houses in Cardiff and Surrey win fans.

The inaugural staging of an expanded antiques arms fair in west London will welcome a number of European dealers.

An England football shirt worn by the late, great goalkeeper Gordon Banks is coming up for sale at Surrey auction house Ewbank’s.

Three and a half years ago Welsh saleroom Rogers Jones set a world record for a rugby shirt at auction when a jersey from the 1905-06 New Zealand tour to the UK made £180,000 – and now another All Blacks shirt from that era is on offer from the same auction house.

Anniversaries can tempt out collections to auction but it can have a longer-lasting effect. Last year marked the centenary of votes for women in Britain and a lot coming up in 2019 shows the consignments are still out there.

Every collecting field starts out with a broad umbrella title: classic cars, for instance. Easy. However, as you descend through the levels it not only drops into sub-sections, but veers off to the side, so you also get automobilia, the ephemera surrounding those cars.

With the British Library’s acclaimed Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition shedding light on this sometimes overlooked and misunderstood period, the timing is perfect for a Derbyshire saleroom’s announcement of a remarkable collection coming up for sale.

The medals group of “a brilliant and meticulous planner” who worked on the Dambusters raid and then the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz is coming up for auction in London.

The London auctions ‘hub’ of 25 Blythe Road will now operate under a single banner of Olympia Auctions.

Pub names can provide a snapshot of British history. Many years ago now, while subsisting on cheese on toast at a university hall of residence in south London, I was fascinated by the name of a nearby boozer called the George Canning.

Collecting often leads to a certain obsession, as many enthusiasts with attics filled to burst or garages stuffed with boxes will admit. Take the example of a group now forming 700 lots to be dispersed at an Irish sale.

A ‘Moonraker’ laser rifle and letter from Roger Moore are among sales highlights at a James Bond auction in the Midlands as Surrey auction house Ewbank’s prepares for its Bond and Beyond memorabilia sale.

While Booker White is usually not the first bluesman who comes to mind, the musicians he inspired are instantly recognisable: the likes of Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and The Rolling Stones.

Suave and sophisticated are the terms that come to mind when referring to the late, great and saintly James Bond actor Roger Moore. A raised eyebrow perhaps. But certainly not the word ‘bollocks’.

Relics from the hard-fought defence of Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu War are among the lots for sale in a Kent auction as part of an extensive collection from the period.