Over the last 20 years I’ve been lucky enough to turn a life-long interest in “old things†into my current day jobs – auctioneering in Emsworth Auctions and running an antiques & collectables shop, Emsworth Antiques Etc. in the town’s West Street.
For over 12 years now, we have been holding monthly auction sales in the Parish Hall by St. James in Church Path.
So many people asked us to organise an auction for them that eventually we gave in, and 13 years later we run 10 sales a year with about 500 Lots per sale.
We sell all sorts of antiques, curios, vintage and ‘retro’ from useful boxes of crockery, albums and packs of stamps, silver and gold jewellery, coins and medals, furniture, books by the volume or box, fabrics and furnishings, records, to decorative china and glass.
Our sales are on Friday evenings. Everything for the sale arrives in the morning. Viewing is from 3pm until the sale starts at 5pm. Our excellent catering team ensure no-one need go hungry or thirsty if they’re coming on from work.
Sellers pay £1 per lot as a ‘Lotting Fee’, and non-sellers pay £1 entrance, so our commission for both is just 12.5%.
Highlights of our sales? Good, international-level prices for early Star Wars collectables; unusual taxidermy : a stuffed kangaroo; a record price for an AB’s Falklands War medal; the lady who nearly fainted when she was paid-out over £1,000 for her goods.
It doesn’t start and stop on the day, though. I make free house-calls throughout the month for people clearing their own or relatives houses, de-cluttering for down-sizing or clearing their own collections.
The sale is relaxed enough to be enjoyable. And I never take bids from people scratching their noses, so you don’t have to worry about buying a stuffed kangaroo if you don’t want it.
What about a New Year’s Resolution? If you’ve never actually been to an auction before, why not come to one of ours? We really are local.