Tales from the banger auction. 1980's style.

[Lankytim]

There's a new Auction house opened next to the M6 in Birmingham, Just north of Spaghetti Junction. It's BCA from memory- anyone gone yet?

[vaughant]

So ended up going tonight to WOMA in the end for a nosey. Very little chod, I've taken some pics and added relevant prices to the more Shiteer's level of stuff. As soon as I work out how to add pics I will update but as a sneak peak highlights were a bmw e36 318iS which was pretty good, bit of arch rust but well worth the £250 with a long long mot. I know you lads are into renaults so a fat arse megane with 80k, 1 owner and dci motor at £500 seemed cheap, body was excellent too.

Bargains of the night for me were a nice xc90 derv for £2550 but cat d (appeared very clean), x plate zetec Mondeo with 72k and no rust but obligatory bumper scuffs for £125, mot til May and my personal fave and a real pretty car was the 407 2.7 derv coupe for £1700.

 

Worst buys were a 54 Merc ml derv for £3600 PLUS fees, clean yes but that's over retail money and a 56 plate Corolla with no mot for £1800 plus fees, struggle to get half that back in my eyes. Most of the cars looked good though but IMO at near retail money. Fancied a derv Mondeo estate in red as it was ghia x and looked good , 73k but at £1200 for it and with a slush-o-matic belt snapping box and troublesome 2.0 tdci motor I felt it was double what anyone should have paid, would have made about £350 in westbury.

Took a pic of the fees as well to see what it really costs and I haven't added that to any of these examples, looking at that ML it would be £42/4300 or so before you drove it away.

Nice to get out and see the world but it's a sellers auction not a buyers, still the same faces every week bidding away so someone's making money. Place was packed too, perhaps there's life in it yet?

[vaughant]

£250 plus fees

[vaughant]

Very clean car but 2.0 petrol put most off, 72k with one owner and fsh, giffer rust repair on front wing and some crappy scratches here and there but a genuinely nice motor.

Still, £1250 plus fees? Big money I thought.

[vaughant]

List of fees, Westbury is way cheaper.

[vaughant]

[warren t claim]

Expensive!

[Timewaster]

I haven't done the auctions for years.

They used to have a Monday evening auction just around the corner from the spares place where I worked.

Tuesday mornings you were guaranteed to sell out of jump leads, easy start and Radweld.

By Friday stocks of P40 would be getting low.

I watched many a £20 Talbot get pushed past the podium whilst enjoying a dirty hotdog and monoxide poisoning.

[AMC Rebel]

and my personal fave and a real pretty car was the 407 2.7 derv coupe for £1700.

 

IIRC there's  a version of these that is 226g/km on Co2 which pushes it into the next road tax band by one gram as the limit is 225 - which may be part of the reason they are unloved.

 

I agree they are pretty though.

[somewhatfoolish]

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?

Someone linked to it(shitty buyers trick thread I think?) and like a spod I didn't read the date. [tugs forelock, bows head and shuffles off]

 

I'm nearish the naval ghetto of Helensburg so in the sticks but not so far that my mother is also my sister and aunt.

[AMC Rebel]

I knew a bloke who claimed to have put a Bunter (Hillman Hunter) through the auctions with terrible rust on the rear arch - inside.  He took off the door card and self-tappered one of the rear doors closed so it couldn't be opened to view the holes.  He also claimed to regularly swap or add parts (hubcaps, door mirrors, even coachlines) only to the side that would be seen as it passed in front of the bidders.

 

He also claimed to have taken all the pistons out of a V6 Zephyr to use in another engine then sent it back through the auction as a non runner.

[Timewaster]

I blame the exhaust fumes for some of the shit I bought in the vain hope of making a few quid.

 

Mk3 Cav with no 4th gear.

Mk3 Astra with two head gaskets fitted.

Mk3 Escort with a boot full of water and wet paint.

Sunny koop that in daylight turned out to be about 6 different colours.

Triumph Acclaim with seemingly French electrics.

 

But the best was a Mk1 Golf 1.1 that my mate bought which was unbelievably gutless. All the servicing, fettling and tuning (conventional and Italian) couldn't persuade this thing to go properly.

Further investigation as to why half the service bits were wrong involved checking the engine number which revealed that it was fitted with an 850 Polo engine!

 

*Edit* Incase anyone cares, we put a cam slipper and a rear arch on the Cavalier before we discovered the gearbox was knackered.

That went back in the auction - broke even financially but wasted lots of time.

The Astra sold for a very small profit.

The Escort actually looked pretty good once the paint dried. Binned the mouldy boot carpet and rear belts Sold through the local paper for a decent profit.

Sunny Koop went back in the next auction for roughly what we paid.

I can't remember what happened to the Acclaim. I think I lent it to someone who binned it.

 

Sum total 6 weekends wasted for about £200 profit between 2 of us.

[Dead_E23]

What a great thread!   Seems like auctions have been the making (or undoing) of many of us.    

 

I have fond memories of the Friday night sales at Eastbourne car auctions in the late 80s when it occupied a cramped and seedy site in the town centre.  It had a grubby tea counter right near the auctioneer's podium and the place was crammed with sheepskin wearing London traders talking on Motorola DynaTac 'walkie-talkie' phones with pockets full of spare batteries.  

 

Shoreham auction was even worse; we didn't go there often, but I remember watching an Alfa 6 make £50 and being gutted that I couldn't afford it.

 

Caveat emptor, though:  one trader I knew famously acquired a Metro that had suffered a whack in the side such that the sill was banana shaped and the door completely stoved in.  Our hero welded a door into the aperture and tacked a cover sill over the bent one, then entered it into the sale with 'drivers door does not open' in the description. He also pushed an engineless Renault 8 through a sale whilst swearing loudly about it having run out of fuel and sold that too.   Good luck getting out of either of those!

 

He was also hugely skillful with filler - one morning I saw him with the rustiest Maxi you've ever seen on his truck and asked him if it was getting weighed in.  Nope - it was going in the auction that very evening, and later that day he passed by to show me it resplendent in a fresh coat of paint, probably having consumed several giant tins of wob, which he used to mix up in batches about the size of your fist then apply really speedily and so accurately that it needed very little sanding.   Wonder how long it was before that sank, or started falling out of the holes!

 

 

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

There's a new Auction house opened next to the M6 in Birmingham, Just north of Spaghetti Junction. It's BCA from memory- anyone gone yet?

 

looks like its at what is/was ContainerBase next to the old Lucas sports ground

[sierraman]

That Passat is about £250 over what I'd expect to pay private. That's the problem when two people who are a bit 'green' shall we say start a bidding war under the illusion that as they are at auction it must be a bargain.

 

Unless you are trade and get discount on fees, at the bottom end it's rarely worth the bother, you might save £80-100 but you can't look the car over properly.

[Cavcraft]

I went to Queensferry auctions last night to meet a lad I was buying a bike off. They had loads of stuff there from the good to the bloody horrible.

An untested, paint strippered Punto with a flat tyre looked quite appealing*

 

[vaughant]

Expensive!

Yeah I thought so.

Agreed on the Passat comment too, was in really good nick but not perfect by any means for the money, would have been a good buy though to keep but absolutely no profit in it at all.

 

Couldn't get over the ML, £3600 plus fees by my calcs was £4200 minimum. I know it's at least £1000 more than one on eBay etc as I own an older one myself and hence I was intrigued to see if it could pull £2k. Might put my one in there when the time comes!!!

[vaughant]

Also lots of people there (and at westbury) writing down the prices every car went for no doubt doing a load of research then on t'internweb and totting up the £1,000,000 they'll make off their first few sales.

Just like we all have over the years.

Ummmm, maybe not in my case.

Auction fodder has actually probably been my only source of profit on cars over the years but the ballache of SWMBO meant it probably wasn't worth it.

Best cars to sell when I was at it regularly were mk3 Astra 1.7d estates, literally put them in the paper and they sold instantly, phone ringing at 730 am from the Freeads (who????). Escort derv was ok until I got to Merthyr and the box started whining like a pig, ended up breaking even tops.

Meganes sold well, especially the pointless scenic in resale red, the blue mint as a minty mint shaped thing took a while to go but did turn a nice profit, corsas were easy sellers, fiestas too, all cheap small margin stuff.

Worst car I ever got lumbered with was a mk1 mr2, could not sell it, kept lowering the already competitive price, one phonecall in literally a month, total time waster, ended up swapping it back with the guy I had it off luckily, nice little car to drive as well. A Porsche 924 was a hard sell as well despite a long ticket and very clean body, next owner made it a 100% car but also struggled to move it on. This would be all around mid 2000's, I think high interest rates and property ATM's meant classics were not as effective as "buy to let properties " and everyone seemed to be driving a Mitsubishi l200 with some sort of "property maintenance " banner on the side.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I first went to WOMA in May 1988, and bought a dreadful 1977 R Cortina for £125.  I bought perhaps 40 or 50 cars between then and @ 1992, mainly Ford and BL stuff. The last cart I sent though was RMB90V, a very nice Cortina Mark V around 1992/3. It hasn't changed much.

[sierraman]

Anyone been to the new Auction that's opened at Rotherham just outside greaseborough?

[Datsuncog]

Cor, another thread resurrection from the Shite Archives, courtesy of the latest instalment of Warren's job histories...

 

Love me some banger auctions, I really do. Some brilliant pics and memories on here.

 

I quite hadn't realised just how fortunate I am to still have one of these fine establishments on my doorstep, kicking through substantial quantities of absolute rammel every Wednesday night. £70 Corsas, £180 Mondeos - that sort of thing.

 

 

 

Godawful end-of-life trade-ins on flat tyres with interiors like a crimescene:

 

 

 

 

Shagged executive saloons with cut springs and fucked gearboxes being nursed through the ring by 14yr-olds (and their girlfriends):

 

 

 

OMGCLA$$IC INVESTMENTS laden with so much wob that the bodywork's cracked like a dropped vase:

 

 

 

 

The kind of vehicles on offer that make you think you've fallen through a timeslip:

 

 

 

 

Catering of uncertain provenance:

 

 

 

BUY WITH CONFIDENCE

 

 

 

 

If this kinda thing floats your boat, do check out the Chod & Ulster thread...

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/32260-for-chod-ulster-social-in-carrick-tonight-wed-jan-30/?p=1541983

 

 

[sierraman]

I love those proper dodge pot auctions, always full of mike brewer types getting a right shock that the £180 Mondeo is about £350 out the door. And it’s fucked.

[ProgRocker]

Ah, memories. I used to visit the auctions with my dad. There used to be a great tat auction at the former livestock market, South of Norwich.

I remember back in the early 1990s seeing an x reg BMW 7 series at this auction which I was enthused with. It didn't look that great but I was still taken with it. It went for around £300.

 

My nearest car auction place is in the Norfolk Market town of Wymondham. I'll have to pay a visit once it gets a bit warmer.

[NorthernMonkey]

WTAF was in that food tray?

 

Say what you like about BCA but at least the free breakfast is edible(ish)

[Datsuncog]

WTAF was in that food tray?

 

Say what you like about BCA but at least the free breakfast is edible(ish)

Heh, that was billed as a cheesy chip, to which I unwisely added a squeeze of something calling itself 'baconnaise'... I swear it wasn't actually green though, that appears to be an unfortunate interaction between the overhead lights and the camera on my cheap phone... added purely for the lolz of 'most unappetizing'... donkeyburgers at Ballyclare are ok, though.

[vaughant]

My god I can't believe that was 3 odd years ago I posted that ???.

It was while I was still on 3 shifts, my oh my, a lots happened since then for sure!!! 

 

Really must make a date for going to the auctions, well, after lockdown etc. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

On 2/1/2019 at 7:52 PM, NorthernMonkey said:

....Say what you like about BCA but at least the free breakfast is edible(ish)

In the 1990s I remember the oul man going off in the morning with a friend to BCA (or was it ADT) in Enfield.

By the late afternoon he came back....with a black 1987 W126 280 SE. He looked mighty pleased with himself. Thirteen hundred quid from the auction, he said.

Anyhow, he took it into the nearest Merc specialist to get it checked over. They found the steering wasn't quite how a big Merc should be and quoted him for the cost of repairs. Two grand. Plus VAT.

The Merc went back to the auction the following week. He got seven hundred quid back.

The oul fella hasn't been to a car auction since.

 

[1duck]

I used to love going to the auction at Morley it used to sell some right dross, watching senators get pushed through by a Toyota pickup with a mattress strapped to the bullbars. Think the highlight was seeing an escort catch fire and be dragged back out the shed into the yard where they put it out with about 6 powder extinguishers.

[Rod/b]

Did it go back through about ten minutes later, covered in powder and smouldering?

[Rod/b]

WTF is a Volkswagen Take Up?