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Concertinas at Auction in Bath


Lester Bailey

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Hmmm. The auction room is only 10 minutes drive from my office. I might pop in during my lunch hour on Thursday when they're on display and have a shufty.

 

I've been to auctions at Gardner Houlgate before when decent concertinas have been up for sale. The auction almost always become a duel between Chris Algar (bidding on the phone) and his Irish bête noire (bidding via the auctioneer as proxy).

 

Chris

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Hmmm. The auction room is only 10 minutes drive from my office. I might pop in during my lunch hour on Thursday when they're on display and have a shufty.

 

I've been to auctions at Gardner Houlgate before when decent concertinas have been up for sale. The auction almost always become a duel between Chris Algar (bidding on the phone) and his Irish bête noire (bidding via the auctioneer as proxy).

 

Chris

 

Looking forward to hearing your assessment of these instruments Chris.

 

By the way, shouldn't an individual be able to outbid any dealer at these Auctions? :huh:

 

After all, the dealer is going to be looking for a hefty pound of flesh, from the deal, while an individual won't be quite so greedy ... will they? ;)

 

Cheers

Dick

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Looking forward to hearing your assessment of these instruments Chris.

 

By the way, shouldn't an individual be able to outbid any dealer at these Auctions? :huh:

 

After all, the dealer is going to be looking for a hefty pound of flesh, from the deal, while an individual won't be quite so greedy ... will they? ;)

 

Sadly I didn't get there due to the first dollop of snow arriving in these parts just at the wrong time.

 

Well, your theory ought to work but doesn't because the current going price of top concertinas is always more than you think it is, C/G anglos in particular being heavily marked up due to the silly prices people in Ireland were willing to pay (that may be changing now, of course). It'll be interesting to look in on the Gardiner Houlgate site in a month or so when they put the final prices up.

 

Chris

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Sadly I didn't get there due to the first dollop of snow arriving in these parts just at the wrong time.

Darn it .. that's a pity! :(

 

.... the silly prices people in Ireland were willing to pay (that may be changing now, of course).

Indeed, it' going to be very interesting to see if the prices in Ireland take a dive now ....... or not! :unsure:

 

It'll be interesting to look in on the Gardiner Houlgate site in a month or so when they put the final prices up.

Chris

Aye, please keep us posted Chris. B)

I'd dearly love to have an Auction Room like that near me here. It must be great fun checking out a batch like that.

 

Cheers

Dick

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I didn't hear all of the sales but the Wheatstone Duet went for £1800 and the Jeffries 30 button was hammered down for £2900.

 

The Jeffries looked in good condition but was Ab/Eb so in todays' market, that's probably about right for an instrument that may need work and tuning whether you're a dealer or an ordinary customer

 

Alex West

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I didn't hear all of the sales but the Wheatstone Duet went for £1800 and the Jeffries 30 button was hammered down for £2900.

 

The Jeffries looked in good condition but was Ab/Eb so in todays' market, that's probably about right for an instrument that may need work and tuning whether you're a dealer or an ordinary customer

 

Alex West

 

Well on the assumption that the real prices paid are at least 10% higher (And what service ARE the auction houses performing for the purchasers for the buyers fee?) that's decent for the Maccan, on the assumption that a missing button implies it needs a good work-over.

 

Well unless the odd button number (usually 61 or 67) is a clue that it was a bit of a collectors piece rather than poor counting by an auction house muppet as I assumed.

Edited by Dirge
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Well on the assumption that the real prices paid are at least 10% higher (And what service ARE the auction houses performing for the purchasers for the buyers fee?)

 

Closer to 20% with this auction house, plus they charge the seller as well as the buyer. Rather puts ebay fees in perspective.

 

Chris

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Various nice looking concertinas from the estate of Ruth Askew

 

Gardiner Houlgate

 

Actually, only the melodeons appear to have been from Ruth's estate (the third and final part of them to be sold) and the concertinas are from other sellers.

 

So guess who's just back from Bath after collecting 2 lots (=13) of Ruth's melodeons off Gardiner Houlgate... :rolleyes:

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Various nice looking concertinas from the estate of Ruth Askew

 

Gardiner Houlgate

 

Actually, only the melodeons appear to have been from Ruth's estate (the third and final part of them to be sold) and the concertinas are from other sellers.

 

So guess who's just back from Bath after collecting 2 lots (=13) of Ruth's melodeons off Gardiner Houlgate... :rolleyes:

 

 

Sounds like you had it Buttoned up !

 

Geoff.

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So guess who's just back from Bath after collecting 2 lots (=13) of Ruth's melodeons off Gardiner Houlgate... :rolleyes:

Stephen, you should have popped round and said hallo! It takes me all of 20 minutes to drive to Corsham, and now the snow's gone ...

 

Chris

 

Chris,

 

Will do next time, only I didn't realise where Gardiner Houlgate were now (they were in Bath itself last time I went to one of their auctions!), nor that I'd be passing all these signs for Bradford on Avon... :(

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Well on the assumption that the real prices paid are at least 10% higher (And what service ARE the auction houses performing for the purchasers for the buyers fee?)

 

Closer to 20% with this auction house, plus they charge the seller as well as the buyer. Rather puts ebay fees in perspective.

 

Chris

 

To be precise their fee is 15% + VAT (on the 15%), so 17.625% in total. :huh:

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To be precise their fee is 15% + VAT (on the 15%), so 17.625% in total. :huh:

 

VAT was temporarily reduced to 15%, but is now back to 17.5%, though your arithmetic is correct (15*1.175=17.625)

From January VAT is going up to 20%.

 

regards

 

John

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