Auction 59 in November proved immensely successful, with good solid prices and more than 50 bidders.

This auction was undoubtedly a success, with 254 of 394 lots sold (63.45%), and over £15,000 sold on behalf of the family of our late Chairman Peter Andrews. All lots were despatched and vendors paid before the end of the month. Overall, 35 of 43 email bidders were successful, winning a total of 148 lots. In the room ten bidders took 106 lots. Room bidders outbid emailers on 50 lots and bought a further 47 lots that had not attracted mail bidders. 182 of the Andrews 294 lots were sold (61.9%), 81 of them in the room.

A serious note was raised however by the combination of vastly increased PayPal charges and higher postal rates leaving the Circle facing a critical shortfall from 24 of the 35 successful email bidders, with net-paid totals failing to reach the invoiced total for lots plus commission, even when an extra 3% had been paid to counter PayPal‘s charges. The situation was not helped by high postal charges on books or bulky lots in binders, both of which we should consider before accepting in future. We must also however consider increasing commission charges, or charging full postage costs (in which case we will need to delay sending invoices until postal charges can be added).

Payments received by PayPal incurred charges of £306.02, much higher than expected and leaving 19 invoices underpaid by small (and one large) amounts, though members were happy to accept the requested 3% surcharge. This amount must be reviewed, as must the practice of paying all but the heaviest postal charges out of commission..

Postage of £30.75 was invoiced on two bulky/heavy packages, offsetting to some degree much higher postal charges. Grateful thanks go to Dr Sherif Samra for carrying some material back to Cairo, and to Abdelrahman Daw for arranging collection of several bulky lots from the Auctioneer's home. Postage paid totalled £232.90.

Thanks to all for bidding.

Mike Murphy

A list of the winning prices can be found HERE

A link to the full list of lots can be found HERE