Online auction: the guide to sell your items

Our guide to online auctions will help you discover the most suitable solutions for auctioning your items quickly and at the best price! So, what are online auctions all about?

Online auction: what is it?

Appeared during the antiquity, the auction system which consists in selling a good to the highest bidder did not cease developing and adapting during the history.

In 1995, as the use of the Internet spread around the world, eBay successfully launched one of the first online auction sites.

The system is simple: individuals or professionals publish an ad accompanied by a description and a photo, without any indication of price. Once published, the ad is visible to a large number of Internet users for several days, and the item is sold to the last bidder at the end of the period.

Accessible worldwide and free from physical constraints, online auctions are a huge success.

Keen to meet the needs of their customers, traditional auction houses have been quick to introduce tools to digitalize their sales.

Online catalog of items, use of platforms enabling bidders to follow the sale and bid remotely, webcam broadcast of the sale, launch of online-only sales.

Did you know?

In 2020, 2/3 of all public auctions in France will be accessible online.

What is the difference between online auctions and physical auction houses?

To sell your object at auction, different possibilities are available to you:

• Entrust your object to an auction house

• List your item on an online auction site

Although both of these solutions aim to sell a property to the highest bidder, they do not offer the same services and guarantees at the time of the sale.

The online auction site

An online auction site acts simply as an intermediary in the transaction between the seller (who remains responsible for the item) and the buyer.

Its main role will be togive visibility to your object, so as to increase the chances of selling it at the best price. Before publishing your ad, you'll need to photograph your lot to show it off to best advantage, and fill in the item's description (description, period, artist's name, dimensions, etc.).

You are solely responsible for the information you provide and you may be held liable if you fail to comply with the regulations in force (counterfeiting, forgery, sale of ivory or protected species, etc.).

In addition, once the item has been sent to the buyer, the latter has a 14-day right of withdrawal in accordance with European Directive 2011/83 on consumer rights.

The auction house

An auction house, represented by an authorized auctioneer, acts as agent. It takes the place of the seller and assumes the responsibilities associated with the sale.

She appraises the object and verifies its authenticity (drawing on a network of specialized experts if necessary), takes the photos, organizes a sale, includes the object in the sale catalog and communicates about it to her network of buyers and collectors, online or in the press.

Auction houses and the appraisers who work with them are responsible for the authenticity of the goods offered for sale, so the buyer takes no risk whatsoever as to the nature of the goods purchased.

The sale is said to be "perfect" from the moment of adjudication, which means that the buyer has no right of withdrawal and must pay for the item as soon as the sale is completed, even if he or she has bid online.

Did you know?

Auctioneers are authorized to carry out inventories at home in the context of an estate. They can also help you to evaluate the value of your objects on photograph.

Examples of lots sold online at Auctie's

What types of items should be sold at an online auction?

Numerous auctions are held around the world every year. There are even auction houses specializing in the sale of horses, such as Arquana, based in Deauville.

However, the goods most traded at online auctions fall into the "Art and collectibles" category, which includes many sub-categories of objects:

• Archaeology & Antiquity

• Weapons and historical souvenirs

• Silver & Silverware

• Primary art from Africa, Oceania & America

• Art of Asia

• Popular art

• Jewelry and Watches

• Ceramics, Earthenware & Porcelain

• Drawings, Pastel, Watercolor, Gouache, Charcoal & Ink

• Prints, Engraving, Lithography & Etching

• Natural History, Minerals & Taxidermy

• Antique musical instruments

• Scientific instruments, Marine objects & Curiosities

• Books, Manuscripts, Comics

• Period furniture (before 1890)

• Modern, contemporary and design furniture (after 1890)

• Fashion, Vintage, Leather goods

• Numismatics, Coins, Coins, Banknotes

• Objects of art and decoration (before 1890)

• Works of art and decoration of the 20th century (after 1890)

• Orientalism: Art of the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin

• Clocks & Pendulums

• Photographs

• Sculptures in Bronze, Plaster, Stone, Wood, Earth...

• Older paintings (before impressionism 1870)

• Carpets, Tapestries & Draperies

• Stamps & Philately

• Collector's vehicles

• Wines & Spirits
  

  Did you know?

In 2020, French auction houses sold more than 1.2 billion euros worth of art and collectibles, 68% of this amount was sold to online bidders!

Online auction : Where to go ?

Auctions broadcast live

Imagine, comfortably seated on your sofa, you're following a live auction featuring the object of your dreams. You've carefully studied the auction catalog beforehand.

That's it! Lot 124 is presented to the camera, the bidding displayed on the screen. Now it's your turn! After a brief bidding battle and a brief hesitation, the hammer falls and you win the item. You've just experienced the thrill of the auction...

This is the promise of digital platforms that list the catalogs of public auction houses and allow you tobid live during the sale.

On the seller's side, when the auction house to which you have entrusted your item uses the services of one of these platforms, you can be sure that it will benefit from high visibility.

These platforms havehuge databases of potentialbuyers all over the world. Each user can access the sale catalog and will be notified as soon as an item matching their search criteria goes on sale.

Here is a selection of the best online auction sites offering live auctions:

With over 2.6 million visitors a year and 5,300 auctions broadcast by 600 partner auction houses, the Drouot auction platform is France's No. 1 for art and collectibles.

Each year, nearly 2 million items are offered for sale by Drouot.

By bringing together voluntary and judicial auctions on its platform, Interenchères boasts a communitý of nearly 1.1 million buyers.

In 2020, 2.3 million items were put up for sale on the platform, 58% of which found takers on the live site, for total sales of €396 million (of which €176 million in the "Art and collectables" category).

A well-known player in the world of marketplaces dedicated to art auctions, the Auction.fr platform enables you to consult the catalogs of over 400 auction houses.

The platform now offers its users the opportunity to follow live sales via webcam, and to bid on items put up for sale via its platform.

An international auction platform based in Boston (USA), with offices in France, the UK and Australia, Invaluable works with 5,000 auction houses worldwide.

It brings together 4 million registered collectors, with nearly 300 million euros worth of items sold on the platform every year.

Online auctions

The Drouot, Interenchères and Invaluable auction platforms enable auction houses to set up online sales.

On this type of sale, you won't see any auctioneers tapping their hammers: the entire sale is managed by computer.

Once the catalog is available online, bidders have several days to bid, and as soon as a higher bid is made, the previous bidder is notified. When the countdown ends, the last bidder wins the lot.

Online auction sites

We saw earlier in this article that it's important to differentiate between online auction platforms (e.g. Catawiki, E-Bay...) which act as simple intermediaries between seller and buyer.

Online sales sites such as Drouot.com, Interencheres.com or Auction.fr enable public auction houses with a mandate to digitalize their sales. The guarantees offered are not the same.

Let's take an example: Imagine you decide to sell a ring set with a beautiful diamond. You choose to sell it directly on an online auction site, without going through an auctioneer.

Once sold, you send the item to the buyer as agreed. A few days later, the buyer sends you a message saying he would like to return the ring for a refund.

You're annoyed, but you accept because you don't really have a choice. The ring finally arrives at your home, but something worries you: the diamond doesn't sparkle like it used to.

You go to your local jeweller, who examines the ring and surprises you with the news that the stone is synthetic. You're sure of it: the buyer replaced the diamond before returning your ring.

But how to prove it? The fraudster denies everything, and the online auction platform has never had the opportunity to appraise the ring...

Useful advice: We advise you to sell only on these online auction sites, items of moderate value, easily identifiable and not likely to give rise to contentious situations.

Second-hand sites

It's also tempting, particularly for your fashion items (handbags), but also your watches, jewelry, etc., to sell your valuables on sites inspired by the authentication procedures inherent in auctions (Vinted, 1st Dibs, Vestiaire Collective, etc.).

Our advice is to be careful, and pay close attention to the guarantees that protect you during these sales. Very interesting for Gucci pumps or a Sandro dress, these platforms are less suitable for selling items such as Birkins.

The more valuable your object, the more it needs to be appraised and authenticated by a qualified professional. It may be worthwhile to sell a lithograph online, but much less so a painting.

In fact, many buyers are trapped on these platforms, despite consumer protection regulations at European level. The flow and the sometimes relative level of specialization of the experts do not systematically enable disputes to be settled fairly.

How does an online auction work?

How to sell an item on an online auction through an auction house?

To sell your item through an auction house, you can contact the public auction house of your choice, here are the different steps:

• The auctioneer will appraise your item and determine an estimate of its value based on market trends.

• If you agree with the proposed estimate, the auction house will ask you to fill out a sale requisition, a document that summarizes your contact information, the description of the item, the estimate, the selling expenses, the possible reserve price you have indicated and the general conditions of sale.

• Once this document is signed, the auction house will have a mandate and will be responsible for your object. It will include it in the catalog of one of its next sales.

• You will be able to follow the sale of your property live or in the auction room.

• Was your item successful during the sale? The house will contact you quickly for the payment!

• If you don't find a buyer, don't worry, you can put it back on the market or reclaim it.

Did you know?

At Auctie's we estimate the value of your objects online, free of charge, in less than 48 hours. Need an estimate? We look forward to hearing from you!