Buying jewellery from auction

[SylviaTrench]

Does anyone do this? Any tips or advice welcome.

It's not something I've ever looked at but an auction house advert popped up on my Facebook earlier. I'm quite tempted to bid on some gold earrings.

Is it like eBay where you can enter a maximum bid but then it goes up in increments? Or is your max bid the price you'll pay if you win?
I know there's extra fees to pay plus VAT.

The bidding should go up in increments, however if the auctioneer receives more than one commission bid, they will start the bidding at the highest of these.

Other things to note: if you bid online there is an additional charge; and if you cannot collect the item from the auction house you will have to pay postage, which I have found to be considerably more expensive than what any eBay seller charges. And VAT is also added to that charge.

I'd recommend attending in person if you can, as you can inspect the items of interest before bidding begins. There have been times I've seen things of interest in a catalogue, but been put off when I saw the item in person. Everything is sold as seen, so you need to be happy it's something you really want before you bid.

Check if the auction house does a 'live auction' online, I've only bought something from an auction house once and I could watch the auction from their website and just enter a bid when the item came up and then enter another and so on till I won the item. It seemed quite a straight forward way to do it, but it did work out expensive when you add on the fees after.

Be sure you check out all the fees. One auction house I saw added 25% of sale price as their fee/commission!

Thank you, I’m going to phone the auction house today.
The earrings are £440 to buy brand new so would be great to get a bargain.

So the buyer pays the commission fee? (Are all charges transferred to the buyer or does the seller also have to deal with some?). I ended up watching a Christies art auction while unable to sleep and started wondering. Especially when such huge figures are involved.

The buying fees at this auction house total approx 22%, depending on if I bid in person or online only. I'm going to bid online, I think I'd get carried away if I was in the room.

Both the buyer & the seller pay fees to the auction house.
I would highly recommend attending in person but if you can’t then as a must go to the viewing day, things can look awfully different “ in the flesh”. If neither is possible the auction house is obliged to answer any emails you send requesting a condition report or anything else you want to know.
Remember too, as a previous poster said, that once the hammer goes down it is yours, sold as seen, no changing your mind.You need to collect or arranged to have delivered within a set time, often a week, otherwise you will be charged storage & there is no such thing as being able to get a refund if when it arrives it isn’t as you wanted like there is with normal buying online or by post.
I’ve often bought at auction but, personally, would never buy unless I could attend both the viewing day & the auction in person.