Consigning
After your items have been valued and you agree to sell with the auction house you will need to complete the necessary paperwork with the auctioneer to consign the items.
First, the auction house will need your details so they know how to contact you. The personal information is fairly standard and will usually require you to provide your name, address, email, phone number and company information if relevant. The auctioneer will also ask for your preferred payment method at this stage so they know how to send you your funds after the auction is complete. You usually have the choice between cheque and bank transfer. Bank transfer is much simpler so I would recommend using this method. Cheque payments are becoming scarcer by the day as the process takes longer and is more costly both in time and money for the auction house.
While you are completing this form the specialist will be writing in the details of the items you are consigning to auction on the receipt. A receipt is a form that acts as the contract between the auction house and the vendor. At this point, the descriptions of the items won’t be too detailed as they are only getting the basic information down. This is because in the majority of cases they will need to do more research about the item, such as looking into the artist/maker and performing tests such as diamond grading for a piece of jewellery. If you have brought a van full of items the auctioneer might simply write ‘two boxes of mixed ceramics’ and fully catalogue the lots later to save time. At this stage, it is only acting as a basic inventory of the consigned goods rather than a final catalogue description.
At the end of each line will be a preliminary estimate of the lots value and the agreed reserve. An estimate is made up of two figures, the low estimate and the high estimate. This is the range that the auctioneer thinks the hammer price will be between based on their knowledge of the item and its current market value. This is an ‘estimate’ though and should not be taken as gospel. It is common for lots to sell both above and below the estimate range. At this point you may also be given the items reserve. This is usually tied to the estimate with the reserve being the same as the low estimate. This can also be below the low estimate but it is rare for the reserve to be above the low estimate. For example a lot worth £200-£300 may have a reserve of £200 or £180 but would rarely be set at £220. The estimate may change after the lot has been fully catalogued, if this is the case you will be informed of this further down the line.
There are multiple reserve types but the three most common are fixed, discretion and sell. A fixed reserve means that the auctioneer will not sell for below the agreed reserve. A discretion reserve means that the auctioneer will use their ‘discretion’ to sell the lot if the current highest bid has not reached the reserve. This is usually 10% below the reserve, so for a lot with a reserve of £500, the auctioneer would sell for £450 if that was the highest bid but not £440. This is the most common reserve type as it gives the auctioneer the most flexibility and avoids unsold lots and the vendor having to pay unsold fees (if applicable) if the bidding was only £20 below your fixed reserve. The final reserve type is ‘Sell’. Quite simply if the auctioneer doesn’t write a reserve down this item has a sell reserve and means that the auctioneer will sell to the highest bidder no matter the amount. This is usually the case for low-value items (below £200) but may apply to higher value lots too if you just want them to be sold no matter what. When the auctioneers starts the bidding they usually begin around 20-30% below the low estimate so this doesn’t mean an item worth £1000 would sell for £50 if that was the highest bid, it may sell for £750 though.
When you have read the receipt and are happy with the estimates and reserves you will be asked to sign the document. Before doing this you should be aware of the relevant charges and the auctioneer’s terms & conditions. The main charges to know about are vendor commission, photography charges and unsold charges. I go into more detail about charges in my articles about vendor commission and other vendor charges.
Once the receipt has been signed the items are under the care of the auction house and are their responsibly. They may contact you before the auction if there are adjustments to the reserve and estimate, but if that is not the case the next piece of documentation you will receive will be the pre-sale advice. This usually goes out a couple of weeks before the catalogue goes live to ensure you are happy with the description and estimates.
That concludes my article on consigning items to auction and the receipting process. As usual, I would recommend reading the terms and conditions of the auction house in question to fully understand their processes and charges.
