Although we haven’t had much of a break over the summer in Fernhurst, like others the beginning of September marks the start of the new season for us. We have just relaunched our website to make it more user friendly, and this is part of the drive further along the road of demystifying the auction process. The fact is that while people are used to going down to the shops and increasingly buying things online from the likes of Amazon, a significant number still avoid the best way of buying: at auction.
It’s no use people like me complaining about this; it’s up to us to prove our point and make the whole process as easy and accessible as possible so that the general public discover this truth for themselves.
That’s not to say that auctions haven’t come on leaps and bounds over the past decade or two. Catalogues? Estimates? Time was when you would have been lucky to find either, a state of affairs that dealers were only too happy about as it meant they didn’t get any competition for bargains from private buyers. I’m glad to say that times have changed and many more people are happy to consign their belongings and bid in the room, via the phone, on commission or live via the Internet. But we could be doing more still and I intend to continue doing my bit.
