Selling old stuff/possible antiques at auction. Any advice?

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

After my Dad passed away earlier this yr, we found he had a lot of stuff to work thru.
We found a load of old Dinky & Corgi vehicles, old coinage - some collectible like Charles & Di's wedding, others just monetary. Some as old as 1897.
Other stuff too like old Box cameras, glass marble bottles etc.

What I'm trying to figure out is would it be better to sell the lot at a local auction or go to a specialist auction, or even just ebay it.

Has/is anyone got some experience of auctions here & what is the best way of going about doing this?

[Super Grover]

My wife and I have.

My Mother in Law passed away 3 months ago.

We got in touch with a local auction house. A valuer came around one day and looked over everything we wanted to sell.

They are able to tell what will and will not sell, and decide what should go into consolidated lots.

You'll be suprised at what will sell and what will not.

Payment for items sold (less auction fees) take a month or so to come through.

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

Ok thanks for the info Grover

[Duncan James Waugh]

For the diecast toys don't put them in a General Sale, find an auction house that has a dedicated Toys and Collectibles Sale as you'll get a lot more footfall than at a general one, which are mainly just for antiques shop owners to hoover up stock cheap. At the local auction house there's been an increase in the number of private sellers, but you'll still find a lot of people at the sales are actually purchasing stock for their retail or eBay shops (at trade prices), so depending on the rarity of the items in question you may do better going straight to eBay yourself.

The auction house round here charges customers 20% on top of the price they bid and sellers 20% of the bid price, which I believe is fairly standard. So while the sellers fees are broadly in line with eBay/Paypal don't forget the buyers are factoring that 20% bump in to the price they bid.

At our local place you go and drop the items off, they then go away and decide how many lots to split the items up into and do all the photography and descriptions for the catalogue, letting you know what valuation they've put on it then. General lock in is 6 weeks before the auction date and you leave the items with them the whole time. They have Toys and Collectibles sales once a quarter, but you can leave the stuff with them months ahead of time.

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

Thanks again Duncan. Will look into the toy specific auctions & c if there's any happening in my neck of the woods