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How Can I Find the Right Auction?

Choosing the right auction house can make a remarkable difference to the final selling price of your collectable.

I was reminded of this while watching an episode of Flog It!, where a vendor brought in an original Coldplay Platinum presentation award signed by all four members of the band. The experts on the programme suggested a valuation and reserve price of around £200.

The item eventually sold for £300 at a general local auction house. While that may have seemed like a reasonable result, it almost certainly wasn’t the best outcome. In a specialist music memorabilia auction, where the auctioneer has an established client base of collectors actively seeking signed music items, the same piece could quite realistically have achieved £1,000 or more.

The lesson is simple: the right auction house is often just as important as the item itself.

General auction houses do an excellent job with a wide variety of antiques and household items, but specialist collectables often require specialist knowledge. An auctioneer who regularly handles furniture, ceramics or house clearance items may not fully appreciate the demand for signed memorabilia, vintage toys, original film posters or other niche collectables.

Specialist auction houses understand their markets. They know how to catalogue items accurately, market them to the right audience and, most importantly, attract buyers who are prepared to pay premium prices for quality pieces.

Before consigning a valuable collectable, it’s worth taking the time to seek advice from someone with genuine expertise in that particular field. Choosing the right specialist auction can significantly increase both the level of interest and the final hammer price.

At CollectorApproved, we’ve recommended a number of specialist auction houses covering a wide range of collecting interests. Each has proven expertise within its chosen field, giving collectors the confidence that their items will be presented to the right audience rather than being lost amongst general household lots.

A little research before you sell could make a very big difference to the final result.

About the Author

Garry King has been collecting autographs for more than forty years and has worked full-time in the autograph and signed memorabilia industry for over thirty-five years. He is the owner of Autografica.co.uk and has written extensively on autograph authentication. His expertise has been featured on television and radio throughout the UK, as well as in numerous newspapers and specialist magazines.