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Tales from the banger auction. 1980's style.


warren t claim

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In the late seventies / early eighties there used to be a couple of brothers [John and Tony Wells] who had a couple of pitches in the Christchurch / Bournemouth area. Picked up some fantastic old chod from them, including a really nice PB Cresta that someone had lobbed a 4.2 Jag lump into. Very scarey..............

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Do any of these shite auctions still exist then? I would love to go to one, but have in my head that they have gone the way of the scrapyard full of wobbly piles of old motors that you can clamber on/nick small parts off.

 

I used to hammer the one on the coast road in 1995-7 when I was a student, bought any amount of old shit from there with the idea of smartening it up then flogging it at a profit through the trader. E-reg orion 1.6L, E-reg Scorp 2.0 Ghia, C-reg Audi koop, B-reg escort, I was crap at it and it was these efforts that taught me the essentials of flogging old motors to the public, i.e. dont fuggin do it under any circumstances.

 

Loved going there though, I liked the menacing looking traders who pulled 2-inch thick wads of cash out their pockets to buy a greasy dog burger with.

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I used to love a night out at Ipswich car auctions.

 

Ditto, great entertainment. I can recall some cracking cars going through there. Never bought anything there apart from a box of magazines for 50p, but my '83 Sunny did get sold at Cecilia Street in 1994 for £175.

 

As well as showing a rather interesting Mirage Turbo, these shots give a good idea of the bilge which was on offer then:

 

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1984 Colt Mirage Turbo (Ipswich Car Auctions, c.1996/97) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

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1984 Colt Mirage Turbo (Ipswich Car Auctions, c.1996/97) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

This Corolla GT actually belonged to someone who visited there regularly, I've seen it elsewhere since. It shows the building they were in off Wherstead Road when they moved after the Cecilia Street site became a cinema.

 

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1984/85 Toyota Corolla 1600GT (AE86) c. 1996/97 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

The'posh' stuff used to get kept inside.

 

Trigger tells me the auctioneer James now works for Landspeed in town. He always seemed a bit posh for the auction, but not above a bit of the usual practices...

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The aforementioned auction in Ellesmere Port is quite 'old fashioned' in that it's just really shite, an old shed, and a lot of crap going through, with loads of old, unsold cars littering the main 'arena' parking area, most somehow having completely smashed windows, with 1 foot of rainwater in them.

 

That's because the owner of the auctions won't part with anything until he's made money on it. At one point he had a really shagged out old Orion (all smashed up) a Mk1 Mr2 that you'd have to take away with a dustpan and brush and various other old horrors kicking about. He'd buy them himself (something he's supposed to be a dab hand at) then run them through until they turned a profit. Obviously seeing the reserves of everything in front of him meant he knows what is below book, so he'd call the owner make an even lower offer than their reserve and have it himself.

All this 'allegedly' comes from people who'd work (or did work) for him over the years. It's a shame because after DMA went bust and he took the site over a few months later it was never the same.

 

Oh well, some of the cars he bought below book were erm 'slightly more shagged' than he knew about so he didn't always get a bargain ;)

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The aforementioned auction in Ellesmere Port is quite 'old fashioned' in that it's just really shite, an old shed, and a lot of crap going through, with loads of old, unsold cars littering the main 'arena' parking area, most somehow having completely smashed windows, with 1 foot of rainwater in them.

 

That's because the owner of the auctions won't part with anything until he's made money on it. At one point he had a really shagged out old Orion (all smashed up) a Mk1 Mr2 that you'd have to take away with a dustpan and brush and various other old horrors kicking about. He'd buy them himself (something he's supposed to be a dab hand at) then run them through until they turned a profit. Obviously seeing the reserves of everything in front of him meant he knows what is below book, so he'd call the owner make an even lower offer than their reserve and have it himself.

All this 'allegedly' comes from people who'd work (or did work) for him over the years. It's a shame because after DMA went bust and he took the site over a few months later it was never the same.

 

Oh well, some of the cars he bought below book were erm 'slightly more shagged' than he knew about so he didn't always get a bargain ;)

 

100% true.

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Do you still get For Sale car meets in carparks where loads of folk who want to flog their car turn up and park them all in a car park, while punters wander around?

I always quite like the idea of that as it was like creating a temporary dealer lot in a dixons car park.

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Well, Bawtry was a let down last night. Plenty of 6-10 grand prestige tackle, loads of £1500 'Deos and Veccies. The only two pre 51 platers were a shagged P reg Astra and a Y red Fiat Braver-than-me.

 

Bit of a let down on the shit front - Bawtry used to a brand name in rubbish cars. :x

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Well, Bawtry was a let down last night. Plenty of 6-10 grand prestige tackle, loads of £1500 'Deos and Veccies. The only two pre 51 platers were a shagged P reg Astra and a Y red Fiat Braver-than-me.

 

Bit of a let down on the shit front - Bawtry used to a brand name in rubbish cars. :x

 

 

Gutted. It doesn't seem 18 months ago that I was there surrounded by rotten early-mid 90s fords, 205s and mk3 cavs which all needed a booster pack and about 30% of them made some clearly chronic engine noise. When I actually work it out, it was 2003 when I last went!

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  • 5 years later...
On 2/4/2011 at 7:35 PM, M'coli said:

I used to love going to the one in Glasgow's Graham Square, it's where I bought my first car.

 

Many a happy day passed in the 1990s, choking on exhaust fumes in the old meat market; it beat going to boring lectures anyway. A particular memory was a 4 year old giffer spec Metro in hearing aid biege, 12,000 miles and every one of them driven by a blind dodgem pilot judging by the fact the only undented panel was the roof. Immaculate interior and yours for £20. Presumably the meat market's been turned into yuppy flats by now.

 

I've not been to a car auction for a decade or so, I'd probably not be interested in any of the modern chod going through now; it might make for an interesting shiter meet though, we could egg each other on to bid on the worst wreck under the hammer.

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Many a happy day past in the 1990s, choking on exhaust fumes in the old meat market; it beat going to boring lectures anyway. A particular memory was a 4 year old giffer spec Metro in hearing aid biege, 12,000 miles and every one of them driven by a blind dodgem pilot judging by the fact the only undented panel was the roof. Immaculate interior and yours for £20. Presumably the meat market's been turned into yuppy flats by now.

 

I've not been to a car auction for a decade or so, I'd probably not be interested in any of the modern chod going through now; it might make for an interesting shiter meet though, we could egg each other on to bid on the worst wreck under the hammer.

That's what happens at Cannock Chase, there's a bunch of midlands-based shitters and some of the SVM come down for a day at the auctions.  I've yet to be able to make it down from Yorkshire as-yet, much to my dismay.

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Used to love doing the auctions. I've even been to the 'posh' ones (closed ones, trade only) for Austin Rover, Ford ones, and a couple of German marques. You get a better class of scumbucket at 'posh' auctions!  :)

 

I also used to frequent Plympton occasionally as it was a riot there and every dirty trick under the sun was used to get a bargain or to sell soe rancid heap of shit that the scrapman had turned away, best was wandering around trying to spot which cars were the ones that still stunk of fresh paint...

 

When I went to the closed Austin Rover ones, used to go with a mate who was sales manager for a AR main dealer and he could bore you for tears for hours on the EXACT date of a certain vehicle and how you could tell as the red pinstripe was in a different position or thicker/thinner or different shade. He was a brilliant bloke and a great bloke  but what he didn't know about BL chod wasn't worth knowing...but what he did know wasn't worth knowing either!

 

Bought loads of Jersey Joes, Metros etc and they were all cracking buys as they just needed a prolonged Italian tune-up and they were good to go - mega low miles and nearly new (ex rentals as BL used them to get sales figures up and shift a few 'real' cars) just a bit gutless as the island has a low speed limit and no open roads. It was all good fun.

 

Not been to an auction since the mid 00s and it was only for the laugh then as fees were ridiculous, gone are the days where you could turn a few quid buying at one and then scooting to the next and flogging them (Exeter - Saltash was a firm favourite) on, not big money but a quids a quid! :)

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The first auction I went to would be Witney (WOMA) on the old A40. I first went in 1987 and bought a shite Cortina IV for £150. Over the next 3 years I bought various sub £1000 Metros and Escort 111's, Cortinas and my first Sierra, an Escort RS1600i, Ambastardor HL, an XJS V12, 633CSi, Alfa 33 etc. It's still going, possibly with old John Bond Smith doing the selling. It was (is) a great auction with plenty of old shit, good cars and ex plod stuff - and unlike Mannnnheim they don't rip you off on fees. I don't know what BCA are like on fees, but modern auction 'centres' are just horrid places.

 

Milton Keynes and Bawtry are two other long established purveyors of shite with a good old fashioned feel.

WOMA is pretty poor for old chod now, still a few shitters going through but not many plus in my opinion the fees are very high, it's £75 minimum for anything up to £100 then jumps up quite steeply so if it's say a grand your at £1250/1300 time you get it out of there.

The auctioneer is a right cheeselord as well and iirc he is called John, well there's actually 2 of them, he says things like " doesn't she look lovely and square" and " this looks a really nice car, £1000 under book", yeah, top book.

But their prices are wildly high, despite them seemingly selling a lot of stuff, I saw a low miler (60k) Volvo 2.4 v70 on a 52 plate, thought I'd go to perhaps a grand on it and it went for over £2k!!!! Saw one that looked cleaner on retro rides for £950 !!!

A great chod auction is westbury down on the Wiltshire/BARRRRRFFF borders, by the huge copart site, proper old school, civics for £50, saw a pug 206cc with no tax/mot/v5 abs cat c sell for £75, was running as well!!! Lots of late 90's/ mid 00's stuff there, usual fodder, veccys,mondeos, fiestas,micras, audis and so on.

Good bargains too, saw a 56 plate Audi A4 2.0 Turbo petrol estate go for £900, looking about that was nearer £2k most places, had a good spec too.

Only problem is NOWADAYS you almost need to be in the trade to shift anything, gone are the days of putting it in your dads name to use your tpft drive any car insurance/booking it in for a mot etc to get it home, leave it in whoevers name was on the v5 for 9 months etc. Years ago the filth would slap you on the wrist if the tax was "in the post" but now the ANPR wouldn't be so kind.

It's either trailer or trade plates really.

Fees are good in westbury too, I think up to £5k it was only £200 or something? Leominster used to be awesome too, but I've not been for say 5/6 years but it was still good then, slightly newer stuff creeping in.

WOMA is on tonight, I may sneak up and have a look or leave it til Thursday.

One thing I'll say in their defence is they do list any faults on the cars, management/dash lights on etc, cars are all cleaned and you see them start from stone cold so you get an idea, they spend a while in the queue to go in so overheating can be spotted etc.

Seems to be the same people there every week so they must make a few £££'s???

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Many a happy day past in the 1990s, choking on exhaust fumes in the old meat market; it beat going to boring lectures anyway. A particular memory was a 4 year old giffer spec Metro in hearing aid biege, 12,000 miles and every one of them driven by a blind dodgem pilot judging by the fact the only undented panel was the roof. Immaculate interior and yours for £20. Presumably the meat market's been turned into yuppy flats by now.

 

I've not been to a car auction for a decade or so, I'd probably not be interested in any of the modern chod going through now; it might make for an interesting shiter meet though, we could egg each other on to bid on the worst wreck under the hammer.

Thread resurrection question: what were you looking at that you found this thread, or was it a random page in the past?

 

PS, furryboots in Argyll-ish are you?

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Gr9 thread.

 

I bought my first car at the Forfar banger auction. A mk2 escort for £375 in 1986. Drove it all over including a few 500 mile Kirriemuir to Reading trips.

 

There was one in Kinross and also Perth where lots of scrappers were sold. I bought a 4 year old cavalier at the Kinross one which was post prang wobb filled.

 

Always loved an auction and I still like to see what's going through the ring at Morris Leslie's at Errol. Not much chod there though thanks to the minimum £150 buyers premium.

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