The horror stories i have had via online auction houses (not counting ebay in this),the latest was trying to pay for my lots,three payments all refunded(via bank transfer),had to ring up and pay direct in the end,but all done in good humour,not so good was a large missing lot out of 11 lots,also a gift set with a missing car,i spoke to the auction house over 10 times and kept promising me they would look etc in the end i gave up,loads of times the gem was missing,even once i bid for my mate and he just wanted the head off an action man,when it came no head!
Picking up your items is a really good idea,a couple of times i have not been given the full lot and had to question the porter,the lastest was 12 boxed corgi,only one in the picture and tried to fob me off with that one,the other 11 were been photographed for the following timed auction!(i got them).i had a £180 lot that went missing at the auction house(got a full refund and free postage for next order),had one lot delivered to someone else who said it was rubbish and said they had binned it and only had two items left(got a full refund and free postage).The most i was charged was £176 for postage then alarm bells started to ring for me ,it was getting a bit stupid then,it has improved,unless the auction house does its own packing and post,i will not bid unless i really want it,then i use mailboxes(these do vary from place to place)
So my top tip is ,only use auction houses that post themselves,keep a record of these good auctions so you can use them again.
check your local auction houses try to travel a bit further than you would normally to give you more choice and pick up personally.
do your maths,hammer plus comission,plus internet charge ,vat on comission and charge,plus postage packing plus vat on pp,it adds up.
so why do we do it,well theres bargains still
this lot went for £12 hammer(i didn,t bid
) at a local auction house.