Barons takes auctions online

No more attended live sales will be held at Sandown Park

Barons Auctions is ending its 24-year run of holding classic car auctions at Sandown Park Racecourse in Surrey. All sales will now be staged in a live online format, based at Barons’ facility near Southampton. They will be held on the last Friday of each month, starting on 27 May.

Auction Manager Tim Gascoigne told us, ‘We’ve been running the same model for almost 24 years, it’s time for us to move with the market. It’ll still be a live sale with an auctioneer selling lots via telephone and commission bids, and online bidding. Customers will be able to watch the live broadcast of the sale via our online bidding provider Easylive Auction. Conditions and commissions will remain the same. We’ll be offering our Premier entry package for free for the first sale.’

Barons Director Tony Cavell added, ‘We’re now going to be able to offer a much better service to our customers, with vendors able to leave their cars with us up to three weeks before the sale so that we can take professional photos and a video of each vehicle to allow us to market it effectively, as well as host all viewings.’ Those will be by appointment during the two weeks before each sale.

Gascoigne also told us of another interesting development in Barons’ business. ‘One of our shareholders is a South African who runs a shipping business, and he imports quite a large number of classic cars from all over South Africa into the UK. A lot of these cars will now be sold through our auctions. As such, we’ll be marketing ourselves – both in the UK and South Africa – as a specialist in importing South African classics, and we can help customers with the import and registration process in the UK.’

For more info and the lot-list for the last Sandown Park sale on 27 May see www.barons-auctions.com.