Auction Sale Question

[Maroochydore]

I was just watching a programme on the television called Bangers and Cash. It is about a family owned auction house for classic cars etc.

A bidder won the auction for a dilapidated Mini Cooper, full of rust etc, for £18,000. It had no reserve.

After the hammer went down the auction house phoned the vendor to see if he would accept the winning bid. They said yes and this was relayed to the purchaser.

I was confused. I was under the impression that once the hammer went down it was all over, sale complete. Why would they ask the vendor if the bid was acceptable. The purchaser was at the paying window when the news was relayed to him so no question of him not completing the purchase.

Any thoughts?

[scottnsilky]

I have bought many cars at auction, and in my experience, if a lot is offered at 'no reserve', it sells for whatever is the highest bid. No questions asked.

I watched that programme some time ago, and what a rusty wreck it was! The final bid just goes to show, in my opinion, how outrageously high 'classic' vehicle prices have become. That Mini-Cooper will presumably need a Heritage bodyshell, so will no longer be 'original', thus possibly reducing its resale price.

There's an American old car programme, called 'Chasing Cassic Cars', where the front man, Wayne Carini, sells lots of cars at prestigious auction houses, Bonham's etc, many times at no reserve, and he constantly points out, it will sell to the highest bidder, whatever the bid. Of course, US laws and English auction laws, may not bo exactly similar.

I don't know why they would ask the owner for permission to sell.

dp

[AF62]

A bidder won the auction for a dilapidated Mini Cooper, full of rust etc, for £18,000. It had no reserve.

After the hammer went down the auction house phoned the vendor to see if he would accept the winning bid. They said yes and this was relayed to the purchaser.

I was confused. I was under the impression that once the hammer went down it was all over, sale complete. Why would they ask the vendor if the bid was acceptable. The purchaser was at the paying window when the news was relayed to him so no question of him not completing the purchase.

Any thoughts?

I suspect an editing error given it was the 1st episode of the 1st series. There was a logo on the screen saying "no reserve" but the auctioneer didn't mention whether it did or did not, and it was mentioned at the end it was a "provisional bid" which would indicate that it did have a reserve.

As a spoiler, it seems rather common in the following episodes for virtually none of the cars to actually reach the reserve and it then ends up with the phone call you saw. Seemed a bit 'off' to me.

As for the mini cooper s, it seemed rather Trigger's Broom; what will be left after of the original after the restoration? A log book and VIN plate.

[SalvorHardin]

After the hammer went down the auction house phoned the vendor to see if he would accept the winning bid. They said yes and this was relayed to the purchaser.

I was confused. I was under the impression that once the hammer went down it was all over, sale complete. Why would they ask the vendor if the bid was acceptable. The purchaser was at the paying window when the news was relayed to him so no question of him not completing the purchase

I've never seen this show. I suspect that this scene was arranged by the producers to add a bit more to the program. Once the auctioneer accepts the bid and closes the auction then the goods must be sold to the highest bidder.

The law states that the auctioneer acts as the seller's agent and is therefore the seller for the purposes of accepting offers. If the offer meets the reserve price or there is no reserve price then the seller is obliged to sell to the highest bidder. This is long established case law. Barry v Davies (2000) is a recent example; here the auctioneer refused to sell the goods because he deemed the price to be too low, even though there was no reserve. The court ruled that the highest genuine bid had to be accepted in cases where there was no reserve.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_v_Davies

One exception I can think of is that if the auction is advertised with a reserve, but the bidders are specifically informed before bidding starts that if the highest bid does not meet the reserve then the auctioneer will contact the seller to see if they will accept the highest bid. In this case the highest bidder must buy the goods if the seller accepts their bid. I have never come across this in practice, but when I did contract law some fifteen years ago this cropped up as a theoretical example. Some of the class were regulars at auctions and they liked to discuss hypothetical cases.

You will sometimes see on an episode of "Flog It" that the auctioneer sells even though the highest bid is below the reserve price. In cases like this the auctioneer will reduce their commission to ensure that the seller receives the reserve price. This is because the auctioneer is liable to the seller for the difference between the reserve price and the highest bid if the bid was accepted and the auction then closed.

[richlist]

That's all very interesting.
Does it apply to online auctions such as EBAY ?

[AF62]

Does it apply to online auctions such as EBAY ?

eBay doesn't' consider they are an auctioneer -

eBay is a marketplace that allows users to offer, sell and buy just about anything in a variety of pricing formats and locations.

eBay does not have possession of anything listed or sold through eBay, and is not involved in the actual transaction between buyers and sellers. The contract for the sale is directly between buyer and seller. eBay is not a traditional auctioneer.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/me ... nt?id=4259

[88V8]

That's all very interesting. Does it apply to online auctions such as EBAY ?

Ebay say it does in most of their categories. If one buys pots n pans and one doesn't pay up, one may be the subject of sanctions as regards one's eBay account.

However, cars (and perhaps other categories unknown to me) are different. There, one wins the right to first refusal at the bid price. One is not obliged to complete the purchase, and the seller, regardless of reserve or not, is not obliged to accept the high bid.
Which makes things a bit of a lottery.

That said, I have sold two cars on eBay without transactional problems, and bought four, two of which I still own.
And yes, both are V8s.

V8

[AF62]

That's all very interesting. Does it apply to online auctions such as EBAY ?

Ebay say it does in most of their categories. If one buys pots n pans and one doesn't pay up, one may be the subject of sanctions as regards one's eBay account.

Similarly if the seller will not complete the sale (usually because it didn't reach a high enough price). But in reality nothing happens in either situation on eBay.