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The A.S.H. Auction Story

Ever wondered how to start your own auction business? See how A.S.H. Auctions did it.

THE FOUNDING DATE:

A.S.H. Auctions was founded in 1994.

THE PARTNERSHIP:

Lee Sherratt (AUCTIONEER)
Glennis Hughes (AUCTION ADMINISTRATOR)

My partner Glennis and myself had been visiting auctions for some years before we had the idea of our own sale, as you know it is very easy to be drawn in to the auction fever and we spent most of our spare time at one sale or another. We noticed that apart from the larger auctions there were smaller ones starting up around the Stoke-on-Trent area. These auctions were held either in clubs or public houses, some were good some were not so good. This started me thinking that I would love to have a go myself.
One Friday night in the local paper there was an auction advertised so of course we went, and to be quite honest wished we hadn't it was terrible. In the car on the way home I said to Glen let`s start our own sale we can`t possibly be any worse than that. She was surprised to say the least and started to ask questions like how, where, are you mad, things like that. The biggest problem was that we both worked full time and how were we going to find the time. On the way home we visited some friends and told them, they said that it seemed like a good idea and would like to do it with us.

THE NAME:

A.S.H. Auctions.

The name came from our surnames which are Anchors, Sherratt and Hughes.

ITEMS FOR THE SALES:

We all collected items from all different sources for about three months prior to our first sale. As you can imagine we had stock every where our houses, garages, lofts, sheds looked like warehouses. But we had to put up with all the inconvenience to ensure that we had enough stock to do at least four sales. We hoped by then we would attract vendors to our sales.
When we had collected enough stock the next task was to find a venue.

THE FIRST VENUE:

The next question was do we start off small or go for a large venue. As we were still unsure of the outcome we decided on a function room in a public house called the Coach and Horses in Tunstall.

ADVERTISING:

We advertised the sale in the local paper and in local newsagents, post offices, shops etc. We thought that this might not be enough so we had 5,000 flyers printed and went posting them door to door, heavy on the shoe leather but it was worth it.

THE BIG DAY

THE DATE:

Sunday 13th March 1994

The big day finally came and with it came excitement nerves and every other emotion known to man. We had arranged with the landlord that we would be arriving to set up at 12 noon. We were up very early that day and went through all the arrangements and decided that we had done every thing that we could and the outcome would rest in the hands of the gods. We were disappointed with the response to our advertising campaign but as the hours ticked by the phone started to ring, no vendors but people asking directions and other information..
The time was 11.30 and we had loaded the van and were about to set off when again the phone rang, Glen answered it and a voice said I believe you have a sale tonight could I enter some items please.

We arrived at the venue and started to set up, we had decided to put around 150 lots of our own goods in the sale to start with and if needed add some more later on in the day. The gentleman who rang came with 25 lots and we had one more vendor with 15 lots. Around 3.00pm we had finished lotting up the items and the final count was 210 lots which we thought was about right for the first sale.

We had agreed the role of each partner. Ray and Brenda Anchors were going to be the porters, Glennis Hughes accounts and I Lee Sherratt the auctioneer.
The afternoon went by and soon the viewing time was upon us (which in them days was 6.00pm to 7.00pm)

We all wondered if anyone would turn up, but slowly people started to come in and by 6.30pm there were about 20 people viewing. We were relieved to say the least, by 7.00pm there must have been between 30 and 40 people waiting for the sale to begin (not bad eh) the room held about 50 people comfortably so everyone had enough room.
I introduced myself, the members of the team and the rules of the auction and the sale began. It started off slowly but then it went wild, by 8.00pm the sale was in full swing and everyone seemed to be enjoying every minute (I began to think what all the fuss had been about). The sale ended around 9.30pm and everyone was eager to know when the next sale would be. I announced that it would be a regular weekly sale from now on.

Well that's how it all started folks.

I am sorry to say that Ray & Brenda Anchors only stayed for 6 sales they thought it was going to be too much for them.
Glennis and myself have run the auction ever since. As for the venue the Coach and Horses got too small for us after 7 or 8 sales so we moved around the area until we found St. Peters church hall which we feel is ideal for us.
We have around 250 vendors on our books now (not all enter lots every week) thank goodness and we employ 5 staff for our weekly sales.
We have nationwide buyers who now visit us and we introduced a computer system for the sales in march 1998 which has proved very successful.

Thank you for spending the time to read this I think it is good to find out how projects get off the ground and I hope you do too.

Lee Sherratt
A.S.H. Auctions

Visit:
A.S.H. Auctions website.

Thanks to Lee Sherratt for sharing this informative and open story.

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