Viewing Before the Auction

The first step to buying at an auction is to find out when and where sales are being held. Look out for newspaper advertisements listing up and coming sales, or take a look at our Auction House directory, where you will find links to all the major auction houses across the UK. All of the salerooms listed will give upcoming sale details, and many will make their catalogues available to view online.

If you have found a sale or item that you are interested in, the next step is to go and take a further look. There will always be a preview day (or days) when the auction house will put all items for sale on display so that buyers can examine them. Viewings are usually two or three days before the day of the sale; the times and dates will be clearly marked in the catalogue.

All auction pieces are sold "As Is" (meaning that the piece is sold with no guarantees against defects or faults), so it is in your best interest to carefully examine whatever you wish to buy BEFORE you bid on it.

Once you're at the preview, you see that all the items are identified by a number. This is their lot number, and corresponds to the number in your catalogue. Items are seldom displayed in strict numerical order, so if there's something in the catalogue that you'd like to take a further look at, but can't find, ask one of the saleroom staff to help you.