Hammer falls on region’s last auction house
The last remaining auction house in South Canterbury has closed its doors for the final time.
Timaru’s The Auction owner Craig McConnell said it was a sign of the times and that the business was no longer viable.
The business, in Heaton St, held its final auction on Thursday.
‘‘It’s not something I wanted to happen, unfortunately we are not a charity, we are a business, and we need to be able to make a profit. That just hasn’t been happening, so we have had to pull the pin.’’
McConnell has owned the business for 17 years and in that time has seen all sorts of things coming through the doors to be auctioned off, including portholes and 150 other items from the ship, Rangatira, which featured in The World’s Fastest Indian film.
‘‘The Rangatira was certainly an interesting auction.
‘‘I’ve never had a day that I didn’t want to come to work, I’ve enjoyed meeting people and having weird and wonderful things coming onto the floor.’’
Facebook marketplace, although a wonderful service, was killing businesses, he said.
‘‘That’s just a part of life, things evolve and so forth.’’
However, he said trading on such platforms was not without risk – as there were often stolen items being sold and cases where sales are never completed when buyers don’t turn up.
‘‘There are some shonky people on there selling things that’s not really theirs.
‘‘Here, we don’t really have that problem when someone drops off goods; we’re the ones that deal with the tyre kickers, not the vendor.
‘‘The feedback I’ve had from people is that it was so easy, you came, picked it all up and dealt with it, we didn’t have to worry about anything. So people did appreciate our service.’’
He said Covid-19, along with the rising cost of fuel, staff wages, the economy and changing times had contributed to his decision to close.
‘‘The Government is not being friendly to small businesses. I’m not saying that they should be giving them lashings of money – as that doesn’t work – just change their policies to make them more business friendly.
‘‘The last two auctions have gone incredibly well and you kind of question yourself, ‘am I making the right decision?’ But even though the last two have been good, previous ones, not so much, so you just have to move on.’’
McConnell has nothing but praise for former customers and staff and said he will miss them.
‘‘The staff have been fantastic over the years, they’ve been very supportive and gone above and beyond what a lot of employees would do.’’
McConnell had no immediate plans for the future but said he was still reasonably young and is sure he would find something to do.