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Auction News Vintage fishing tackle auction -March 15th Ludlow Racecourse. Our year has got off to a good start at our established racecourse venue with 799 lots of collectable fishing tackle going under the hammer. Pre sale rumours and speculation were rife about the sustainability of the market place based on over 800 high to very high quality items being offered for sale without reserve just 4 days prior. Stories of collectors re mortgaging their homes, taking loans and panic selling of unwanted items prior to the sale all added fuel to the fire. Despite that sale totalling nearly £300,000 – and fewer buyers at our auction we are pleased to report a very buoyant market. Needless to say John Mullock and William Andrews were up for the challenge – the sale started just after 10am and finished just after 3.30pm – everybody came to buy which made their job at lot easier than was anticipated and we finished with just over 90% sold items and thought, that’s good, in fact that’s very good –and proves just how strong the market place is – if this was any other auction it may well have been a different story! The sale started off with 100 lots of books and the trade are strong, lot 16 British Angler of a Pocket Companion sold well over estimate at £205, Lot 63 a collection of Abu catalogues, nearly three times estimate at £190, Richard Walker letters sailed away for £460.Good quality Hardy reels sold well despite the sheer volume of the previous sale, our Hardy St George Salmon Lot 142 sold over estimate at £3,200, lot 155 Hardy St George Multiplier reel again well past estimate at £1600 .Rods are always strong at Mullock’s and this was typified by Lot 245 a rare B.James stepped up MK4 carp selling twice upper estimate for £500, cased and carved fish are good if the quality is right proven by Lot 252 a carved Farlow Trout, over top estimate at £920, A Roland Knight oil painting Lot 260 over top estimate at £950. Aerial reels still strong despite the glut of them at the Tuesday sale with Lot 263, a fine alloy Aerial selling nearly twice estimate at £800 ,and so it goes on. In the same week when £300,000 of tackle was sold we had what can only be considered as a strong sale. In the same week when the US Dollar hit a crisis point and sent a ripple through the financial world, it was pleasing to note that we had over 10 US and Canadian buyers up in previous sales but only 5 Japanese buyers down in numbers which may well have been a knock on effect from the previous sale. We all know the fragility of the US buyers and their economy, indeed as the case in Japan so this was another plus for the company and it’s reputation. So what this all suggests is that the vintage fishing tackle market is strong, very strong. Not many other markets could have absorbed this amount of quality items totalling 1650 lots in 4 days and remain buoyant. Mullock’s clear company policy of accurate and full descriptions, each accompanied with a high quality images and sensible market driven guide prices and world wide client base bodes well for 2008 . We look forward to helping you sell your prized collections or surplus items - our next sale is on July 5th so please contact either John Stephenson or John Mullock for further assistance 01694 771 771. |