Is selling your FISHING tackle through an auction really worth it?

That old auction commission charge discussion raised its ugly head again last week. I write this having had a foot in both camps. Working for an auction house for 16 years and now working within Thomas Turner (TT), note the subtle difference!

As a company we buy some items from auctions, no secret there, you will see my subtle shirts all over the place!

These are normally tackle items that suit our selling profile or we have customers waiting for. If we do not attend the sales, it’s normally the start of a stressful time returning items not correctly or inadequately described, so if I am not there we probably don’t buy.

Buyer Beware is the Auction House get out clause or ask for a condition report. The latter is again fraught with issues as most of the auction bods are not tackle specialists.

This is not so much about buying at auction but it’s worth noting the following;

If you buy from TT, there’s a 100% No Quibble return policy. Should you simply not like it, don’t love it, not what you thought it was or any other reason, money back guaranteed, hassle free.

If you have ever had cause to try to return an item to MOST auction houses, the battle royal starts and you will probably lose. Their bank account is probably much bigger than yours and here’s why.

Take the standard auction selling fees, up to 25-30% plus a myriad of additional hidden charges such as listing fees, lotting fees? That’s a good one! photography charges, storage and of course non-sold fees meaning you pay for the item which does not sell.

These can add up to a magnificent 35% of the selling value. So for the £100 reel you have sold approx. £35 goes to the auction company and you receive £65 sometime after the sale.

If the buyer doesn’t pay for the item, the auction company will not pay you and may charge unsold fees and admin charges to chase the buyer, so you’re now in debt, still not sold the reel having to pays shipping charges to have it back.

The buyer of the £100 reel also pays fees, again normally 25% plus various on-line fees which can range from 3-5% giving a nice chubby 30% for the auction house, less their on-line charges. Im addition, there can be storage charges after a few days and then expensive packing and postage fees.

Returning to your £100 reel, the auction house has taken up to £35 from the seller, up to £30 from the buyer and make a nice £65 gross profit from selling a £100 reel.

Going back to the “we buy from auction”  if we can buy at auction with all these charges and resell at the going rate, it makes all the sense in the world to sell direct to us, as they generally don’t reach value.

 TT pay on the day and the job’s done with no additional charges or hassle.