Guide to Successful Bidding with County

Losing by one bid step can be very disappointing.

Bid that little bit more - bidding more does not automatically mean paying more. With County you can bid £20 on a £10 lot yet still get it at £10. However, we recommend you do not bid too much in case another bidder also puts in a high bid to make sure he gets the item too.
Bid early - If we get 2 equal bids on a lot, the first one received wins.
Bid on many lots - The more lots you bid on, the greater your chance of success.
To keep within a budget, you can specify a total limit (excluding postage). We simply stop buying for you when you reach your limit. If requested, we attempt to allocate your limit to lots in the order you listed your bids.
Use our '+' option A '+' placed by a bid, increases it by one step (5-10%) (++ means 2 steps). We use this option only if you would otherwise not get the item.
Example: If we get two bids at £10 and £10+, the + is used and the second bid is increased by one bid step to £11 to beat the £10 bid received earlier. If these same bids are received in the reverse order, £10+ & £10 the first wins at £10, + not used this time as the first £10 wins anyway.

Bid at realistic levels - we estimate at the price we expect the lot to fetch. Over the last year the sum of all our realised prices and the sum of the corresponding estimates agreed within 2%. While individual lots may sell for more or less than our estimate, it indicates that overall we are estimating accurately.
- Some auction companies have a different pricing policy. Some might estimate a lot at £120 and then sell it at £80. With the County pricing structure we would probably estimate that same lot at around £85- £90 but still not expect to sell it below £80. Consequently bids much below our estimate are not accepted (indeed, except the clearance section or double dagger lots, the computer automatically rejects bids less than 90% of the estimated price – bids below that waste our time and yours).
- Other auction houses may estimate very low with the intention of attracting bidders to their sale room. A low estimate does not mean a low result. A while ago, a public auction advertised a mint PUC £1 estimated at £80. They got many bidders to the saleroom but it still fetched over £350. In County we would simply have estimated it at £350 in the first place.
NO buyer's premium – please allow for it – many auction houses charge a buyer's premium and an £80 hammer price has 15% or more +VAT added. On top of that there may be postage, packing, VAT, insurance or other charges which could bring the final amount to well over £100. The County equivalent price is £80 + postage = £80.85 (for a small lot and UK 1st class postage). This means you can bid 20%-25% more with County than in many other auctions and still pay less.

Guide to Successful Bidding with County

Losing by one bid step can be very disappointing.

With County you can bid with confidence. All lots are guaranteed.

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