Credit: Amazon Prime Video
Auctioneers have highlighted the value of selling more ‘unusual' items through the marts after Jeremy Clarkson sold his tractor during the latest season of Clarkson's Farm.
In the episode, Mr Clarkson and Kaleb Cooper head to the sale, held by Cheffins Auctioneers and see his Deutz-Fahr tractor beat its guide price, to the surprise of Mr Cooper.
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Oliver Godfrey, Head of Machinery at Cheffins Auctioneers said: "Following various modifications, this was no longer just a standard Deutz-Fahr, it was a product of Clarkson's Farm and feasibly, the most famous tractor in the agricultural industry.
"Auction is the perfect route to sell something like this for the most amount of money.
"The joy of auctions is that items for sale get the global exposure which comes with Cheffins' unrivalled database of buyers, which allows all machinery to get the highest residual value.
"Auctions create the most transparent platform for both buyers and sellers, and ultimately, culminates in the best bid for an item," he said.
"We have often seen that the more unusual items get the most attention, particularly if they have seen significant media coverage."
He highlighted the Stepney Tyres sign which sold at Cheffins in March for £83,780, having been estimated at £10,000.
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"This was a rare and large-scale piece but should it have been offered privately, it would never have sold for that level.
"So for unique items, the best way to find out their true value is by putting them under the hammer."
He added it could be argued Mr Clarkson's machine would have made ‘significantly less' if it had been sold privately, as the scale of views for the auctions and the press coverage in the lead up to the sale helped really generate some excitement before it was sold.
"At auction, we offer all sorts of weird and wonderful items, our vintage sales see everything from classic tractors to stationary engines, motoring ephemera, unusual vehicles right through to smaller bygones such as pamphlets and instruction manuals from days gone by.
"This gives auctions a real treasure hunt-type feel, where you don't know what you are going to find.
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"It is not only big scale agricultural machinery which is destined for farms worldwide, rather it can be small pieces or real one offs which create the most excitement.
"Other memorable recent sales include a Land Rover which had crossed the Bering Strait, a Howitzer decommissioned artillery gun and a remote controlled scale tank which saw real attention at sales recently.
"Arguably these types of items would struggle to find a market privately, however, by coming to auction they sparked the imagination of hundreds of buyers and achieved more than we had expected."
