The Yorkshire Auction House Britain has a lot of auction house shows, the general public must have a good interest. I like them, especially Bargain Hunt. I'm interested in the objects for sale and I like the experts on the show. They have a good knowledge of many aspects of the trade. Angus Ashworth has been in the business for about 20 years, he had his own auction house for 13 years and has appeared on Antiques Road Trip. He's quite an affable fellow and a champion of Yorkshire. Ryedale Auctioneers is located in the pretty Yorkshire town of Kirbymoorside. He sells all sorts of stuff, his specialty is house clearances and removals.
Angus has several employees that run the auction house's day to day biz. He often travels quite a distance, often as much as 250 miles, to pick up collections and clear out houses. They'll take just about anything and sell as much as they can for what it will get at the auction. Some stuff is donated and some is tossed into the skip.
Each 45 min episode has a couple of stories, that family is selling their pub after the younger woman's husband died. They want to get all the stuff out of the building they can and get some cash for it.
The ladies had some interesting lots, those Chinese porcelain figures sold for £1250, a bar game table for £700 and 4 stone heads for £800. A lot of the less interesting bits and pieces went for tiny amounts by comparison but there were many small lots. After commission fees the family netted £3726.
One family had a massive payout, the young brother died and the two older sisters sold off his collectables. He had boxes of silver dishware and dozens of high value watches. They went home with just shy of £45,000. Not everyone makes that much, £1000-2000 is a more common figure after the auction.
There's a common thread running through the show, people get old and what do you do with their stuff. Some of the stories are sad, a death in the family, that sort of thing. Many of Angus's clients just have too much stuff to downsize to a smaller living space. They need someone to take their stuff and sell it. The client would make more money selling it online themselves but that's a lot of work and hardship, most of them just wouldn't do it. They need someone to take the goods and flog them. The client's get invited to the auction so they can see their stuff sell.
The clients get kind of emotional but most of them seem to have convinced themselves that they're better off without all their stuff. I'm glad I don't have that much attraction to the stuff I have. I've always easily sold off or tossed away many bits and pieces over the years. I just seem to get more anyway. I sold my comic collection, got a better one. I also have lost interest in a hobby and given away the left overs. Especially books, they take up a lot of room and don't have much resale value. I did notice that the clients rarely seemed to have a lot of books. Only a couple out of 60 families had more than just a single bookcase. I was entertained and would watch the next series at some point.
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