Cambridge Cluster

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No need to wait for Lord Sugar and his Apprentice programme, go along to Mid Sussex auctions general sale every month held at the South of England Show Ground.  If you cannot make the viewing on the Friday, you need to be waiting outside the doors for the 8:45am opening.  The first part of the auction is furniture and the dealers are circling.  Last Saturday the first lot went for over £3,000 for a small table with samples of marble after a fierce competition between a phone bidder and a personal bidder.

Later in the day the auction moves on to clearance lots which are boxes or plastic bags with a wide range of similar articles such as shoes, jackets or crockery.  The furniture boys -seemingly all boys – go off in their vans and then the bidders are made up of a mix of men and women.  Fascinating to watch the different way people bids; some holding up their cards and others flashing up and down.  The lots are going for less than £100 so the auctioneer cannot hang around and, although very professional, is moving the lots along.  So yours truly missed out on a box of clothes in which there was an XXL leather jacket.  I thought that it was knocked down to me as I was holding up my number and I thought that the auctioneer was looking at me.  But he did not see my number and knocked it down to the person behind me.  I realised my loss when the winning number was read out.  I protested but was told very nicely to make myself known more forcefully.

But most of the punters are professional and buying to resell and know their markets.  The fifteen flat screeen TV stands, retail for nearly £200, were knocked down for £10 each to the owner of Dragoon Solutions so he had a good pay day and, most importantly, knows the product, the price to pay and the market.  He also goes all out to buy the laptops so if you outbid him, you are in unchartered territory.  Remember you are not allowed to power up the machines and most come without power supplies.

But I waited to the end and the owner of lot 913 kindly let me be the owner of the leather jacket and the rest of lot 913 were at nil cost to him.

Next day, the Show Ground hosts a car boot sale and so you can test your buying and selling skills over the weekend.  Just take a table and chairs, test out your entrepreneurial flair and make sure you have time to think through your business plan.  And thanks to the owner of lot 913 who made me very happy.