WHAT makes for a popular auction – one that attracts more ‘bums on seats’ than a competing event elsewhere? In a digital age the question is not quite as trite as it first appears.
There’s no doubt the old values still hold true. Market-fresh, quality merchandise offered at an appealing price remains the primary draw to any sale. Seasoned dealers and collectors instinctively know when one of these key ingredients is missing and no amount of spin or promotion can get past that.
Adam Partridge, whose firm trades from Macclesfield and Liverpool, puts the impressive volume of registered bidders at his sales down to these first principles. “The single most important factor is that we have large two-day multi-discipline sales with items predominantly from deceased estates and private homes that are priced to sell and not consigned by traders with unrealistic reserve prices.”
The right price
Guy Schooling, managing director of Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet, concurs: “The reason we have been successful with online registrants is because we have items that people want to buy at prices they are willing to pay.” Rejecting some of the low-quality material since the company’s sales moved fortnightly has doubtless helped in this regard.
“We also ensure our lots are well illustrated. We employ two full time photographers who take many images of each lot.”
Schooling says the Essex auction house gets the best response online when it holds broad-based auctions such as a country house sale. More registrants sign up for a general, multi-discipline sale than for a specialist sale.
All the sales featuring in the tables of ‘most registered bidders’ on these pages are for events that attract bidders across the collecting spectrum.
The number of online registered bidders can dwarf the amount of people in the room and this does present challenges.
Partridge says: “Fewer people attend in the room these days, which means the auctioneer has to try harder to give the sale a sense of occasion and atmosphere.” He estimates online activity – purchasers and underbidders – touches over 50% of the lots in each sale and sometimes as much as 70%.
Highest total registered bidders on thesaleroom.com from Jan-Dec 2016
Highest average registered bidders per auction on thesaleroom.com in 2016 (minimum 12 auctions per year)
Stroud Auction Rooms sells around half its lots to absentee bidders – more in sales of small portable items such as jewellery or medals and militaria. Its last auction attracted 1000 online and 240 ‘room’ participants.
Nick Bowkett told ATG the Gloucestershire firm answers condition report requests on the day they are received and has recently started taking multiple photos of items, which has led to an increase in online bidders.
“Success is largely down to customer service. We always do our best whether it is a £30-50 lot or a £30,000-50,000 lot. We don’t differentiate between the two.”
Packing is still an area where many auctioneers are reluctant to expend manpower – or wish to accept responsibility. Special Auction Services in Greenham Common, Newbury, is among the few to offer this full service.
An in-house packing service for purchased lots is suited to the firm’s many specialist sales in niche collecting areas. “Where possible,” director Neil Shuttleworth says, “we can send bidders their purchases anywhere in the world.”
Derbyshire-based Hansons had a stellar year for online registrants (see tables), with bidders hailing primarily from the UK, but increasingly the US, France, Spain and Asia.
Charles Hanson attributes his firm’s high volume of online bidders to several factors, including local and national media coverage.
But like SAS, Hanson singles out the auctioneer’s investment in a packing and delivery department as a key way to attract bidders to return for more. “The ease of bidding online and the sophistication of thesaleroom.com technology is supported by our backroom operation,” he says. “Any firm can generate lots of online bidders who buy for the first time but they won’t become back if they have a bad experience. They expect that Amazon-style ease of customer service and delivery.”
SAS director Thomas Plant believes the firm’s range of merchandise at all price points is also key – “offering plenty of choice and tiered specialist auctions which cater for all budgets”.
Plant concludes customer loyalty can also come down to old-fashioned brass tacks. “The one big way we encourage returning buyers is having a low rate of premium. We are still only 15% plus VAT to buy, which makes us highly competitive.”
