Saturday sales are a success
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• Saturday auctions held for individual operators are a continuing success story for independent dealer Malcolm Harrison, says trader Robert Reynolds.
"We're seeing retail customers bidding in most cases, and the prices being realised are retail rather than trade prices," he says. "The people who attend on Saturdays for the most part don't have time to visit sales held during the week." In one recent sale a 1997 P-reg Scania R124 400 6x2 mid-lift tractor fetched more than £29000, says Reynolds. But the Seddon Atkinsons that accounted for the rest of the entry attracted plenty of interest too.
"We had 1997 curtainsider semitrailers, triaxles on air, with Montracon chassis and Boalloy bodies, fetching 111,000-1995 examples were going for £8,000 to 0,000," he adds.
Could some of the big auction firms learn something from Malcolm Harrison's approach? "For a start we don't use a fax-u-back service to handle inquiries," Reynolds says. "Instead, we always talk to callers direct. That way, they know they're dealing with people who know about lorries, and can speak their language.
"We're happy to give them advice and assistance, and we find they like the personal service,'' he concludes. "We're not looking at operating mid-week sales, however, or becoming full-time auctioneers."