SSG Auction 72 Final Report
Auction 72 is my eighth as auctioneer, and I am starting to get used to the semi-annual rhythm of doing it. Where does the time go? This time, I unexpectedly had to go on fieldwork to Ethiopia (only as far as Addis) just after mid-November for 4 weeks, to work on some collections in the National Museum, which meant I was unable to deal with collecting and distributing everyone’s winning Lots this time. Luckily, our former auctioneer Paul Grigg very kindly stepped in, so it is thanks to him that everyone received their Lots before 2024 (I hope). Many many thanks, Paul, for doing this, especially as I came back to the UK with a massive head cold and did virtually nothing but cough and sneeze over Christmas!
I received postal bids for 55 of the 100 Lots on offer from four vendors, with 16 bidders. Several Lots were hotly contested and so achieved high sales figures, although many were only single bids. As before, vendors sent only their sold Lots to Paul to distribute after the sale had closed, thus saving considerable postage costs for both vendors and SSG.
Income: Auction sales totalled £952.00. The SSG 10% commission income is £95.20, with an additional 0.5% charged to cover insurance (£4.78). Both are charged only to the Vendors.
Expenses: SSG postage costs are £12.10 for the auction announcements/call for Lots, and £11.00 for paper catalogues/call for bids, both sent only to members without internet, totalling £23.10.
Result: SSG total income for Auction 72 is £72.10, being £95.20 (commission) less £23.10 (postage). Further postage costs of £54.90 to forward sold Lots to their successful buyers are charged to the buyers; vendors having paid their own costs directly.
The next, Auction 73, will be conducted live at the Annual Conference on 19-21 April 2024, with non-attendee postal bids accepted in advance. I will be sending around the call for submissions in a few weeks’ time. See you in Derby!
Jacke Phillips
29 December 2023