Let the bidding begin

Many BGCS members satisfy their collecting desires in the nation’s auction rooms. Here, we speak to Ben Jones, owner of Mullock’s specialist auctioneers in Telford, which organises three golfspecific auctions a year.

How much preparation goes into one auction?

We will be working on it three to four months in advance and try to get catalogues finished a month ahead of the auction.

Are there separate auctions for books, clubs etc?

We try to have a bit of everything in every auction, but it largely depends on what comes in. If we get a huge collection of books or clubs, we’ll split those over various auctions if need be, because having too many of one item is not good for anybody.

What are the standout items at the moment?

Penfold Men [advertising figures] are always nice. Nice medals, golf clubs – if we have standalone golf clubs they’ll do very well. Dunlop Caddies do very well too (see photo). They’re nice decorative items. But it’s like fashion really – things go in waves. Something that goes for £200 in one auction may not sell at the next, and that comes down to what’s going on in the world, who’s in the room and so on.

With clubs, does pre-auction repair work enhance the value or the opposite?

Some people want it as it was, while others are looking for something they’re happy to put up on a wall. We always say everyone’s got different eyes, which is right, isn’t it?

Are specific eras more in demand?

Anything pre-war has gone down in price considerably, because you get to a certain age with a little more disposable income and want to look back on your own childhood. So it’s perhaps more 1950s and 1960s now. And we are finding that persimmon woods from the 1970s and 1980s are now of greater interest, because guys used to play with them or remember their dads playing with them.