For winning bidders

    Auction delivery for a lot you have won or bought

    Bidding is the easy part. Getting the lot home from a saleroom two hundred miles away is the part nobody plans for. OctoFetch collects a lot you have already paid for from the auction house, its warehouse or whichever collection point the auctioneer nominates, and delivers it to your address. We run scheduled routes on set collection dates, so the thing to check first is whether one of those dates falls inside the collection period the auction house has given you.

    • For paid lots released to a nominated courier, not unpaid or unreleased ones
    • Lot number and invoice reference carried through to the driver
    • Your quote from two postcodes — see it before you bid if you want to
    • Scheduled route dates, so check them against the removal deadline

    Check your price and available route dates

    A bulky auction lot being loaded into an OctoFetch van at a saleroom collection point

    Collecting from an auction house or saleroom

    Auction houses sell; they very rarely deliver. Once the hammer falls and your invoice is settled, the lot becomes your responsibility to remove, and the saleroom wants the floor cleared for the next sale. This page is about that specific leg: from the auctioneer's premises or storage to your door, as the courier you nominate.

    You pay the auction house for the lot and the buyer's premium; you pay us for the journey. On the collection date, a driver attends the address you gave us, quotes the lot number and invoice or release reference you entered at booking, loads the lot as it stands and delivers it to you. We do not bid, do not pay the auctioneer, do not inspect or authenticate lots on your behalf and cannot accept a different lot from the one described.

    Two things decide whether we are the right choice, and both are worth knowing before you bid rather than after. First, the auctioneer has to permit release to a third-party courier against your paperwork. Second, one of our scheduled collection dates has to fall inside their permitted collection period.

    Delivery into the home, delivery to a room of your choice and protective packing are optional extras, each priced as a separate line during the quote.

    Check our collection dates against the auction deadline

    OctoFetch runs scheduled routes on set collection dates rather than on-demand nationwide pickups. Three minutes of checking here is what makes an auction purchase work smoothly.

    1. Ask the auction house for their collection period

    Most salerooms give a removal deadline — a stated number of days after the sale, sometimes with storage charges beyond it. Get the first and last day you may collect, plus the hours collections are accepted.

    2. Look at the collection dates we actually have

    Enter the saleroom postcode and yours in the quote form to see the live collection dates available for that route. These are real scheduled dates, not a date picker of every day in the calendar.

    3. If a date falls inside their window, you are set

    Where one of our available collection dates sits inside the auctioneer's permitted collection period, book it, tell the auction house the date and give them your booking reference and our name as the collecting courier.

    If the auction requires urgent, immediate or next-day removal and none of our scheduled dates fit that window, we are not the right service for that lot — and it is far better to know that before you bid. We cannot add a route or bring a date forward to meet an auction deadline.

    Buying from an auction house elsewhere in the UK

    Where the lot is standing when you win it decides the collection address — and the saleroom is not always that address.

    Auction house, shop or private seller?

    Auction purchases have their own paperwork and deadlines, which is why they have this page. If you bought from a charity shop, see charity shop delivery; from a dealer, clearance outlet or warehouse, see second-hand shop delivery; and from a private seller on Facebook Marketplace, eBay or Gumtree, read the marketplace delivery guide — private sellers have no invoice, release desk or removal deadline, so the process is quite different.

    What to check before you bid

    Everything below comes from the auctioneer, usually from their conditions of sale, the lot listing or one phone call to the saleroom office. Doing it before bidding is what stops a bargain turning into a problem.

    1. Whether third-party courier collection is permitted. Most auction houses release to a nominated courier against a paid invoice; some insist the buyer attends in person or requires written authority in advance. Confirm their rule, and ask what they need from you to authorise us.
    2. The collection deadline and the collection hours. Ask for the last day you may remove the lot, the days and hours collections are accepted, and whether storage charges start after the deadline. Those hours are the arrangement our date has to fit.
    3. Where the lot will actually be held. Salerooms often clear larger lots into an auction warehouse or a separate collection point within a day or two of the sale. Get the exact address the lot will be released from, including any unit or gate.
    4. Measured dimensions and weight. Auction catalogues describe lots, they rarely measure them for transport. Ask for length, width, height and weight, and whether the lot is one piece or several, so the quote matches what the driver finds.
    5. Access at the saleroom and at your address. Town-centre salerooms can mean loading restrictions, timed access and a carry from the nearest legal stopping point. Your end matters just as much: stairs, lifts, narrow doorways and parking.
    6. What the lot is, honestly. Weight, size and safety limits apply and some goods are excluded outright. Read our acceptable use policy before bidding on anything unusual, and note that we are a general courier, not a fine-art, piano or safe specialist.

    Check coverage for the saleroom postcode

    Check your price and available route dates

    Lot numbers, paid invoices and release authority

    Auction release desks work from paperwork. Getting three details into your booking is what turns up as a clean collection.

    Your lot number

    The lot number is how the saleroom finds your purchase. Put it in the booking notes exactly as it appears on your invoice, including any sale number or date prefix, and add each lot number if you won several.

    A settled invoice

    Auction houses do not release lots against a pending payment. Make sure the invoice, including the buyer's premium and any charges, is paid and showing as cleared on their system before your collection date arrives.

    Release authority in your name

    Where the auctioneer requires written authority for a courier to collect on your behalf, send it to them in advance and name OctoFetch as the collecting courier along with your booking reference.

    Also give us a named contact at the auction house and a direct number for their collections or office desk, not only your own number.

    Collection hours, warehouses and collection points

    Auction premises vary more than any other collection source we deal with, so tell us what the auctioneer has told you.

    The saleroom itself

    Often a town-centre building with viewing rooms and a single loading door. Expect limited parking, timed vehicle access and a carry to the van, and expect the release desk to be busiest in the first days after a sale.

    An auction warehouse or storage site

    Usually a straightforward yard collection with set goods-out hours, and sometimes a booking-in slot, a gatehouse to report to or site rules to follow. Give us the hours and rules and we work to them.

    Never assume saleroom staff will load

    Some porters will help; plenty of salerooms will not, on policy or insurance grounds. We do not promise their assistance. Ask the auctioneer directly, and if the lot needs two people, arrange for someone to be there.

    One driver, no crew

    OctoFetch is a driver-led courier service. There is no two-person delivery, no white-glove or room-of-choice-by-default service, no packing or crating, and no specialist fine-art handling.

    Declaring stairs, long carries, height barriers, slot times and awkward loading during the quote is what keeps the price fixed on the day.

    Access information we need before collection

    You are the person who knows both ends of this journey. What you tell us at the quote stage is what the driver plans around.

    1. The exact release address and any site instructions. Saleroom or warehouse, unit number, which entrance, whether to report to a gatehouse or office first, and any high-vis or booking-in requirement.
    2. The collection hours you have been given. So the booked arrangement sits inside the window the auctioneer accepts collections, rather than a time nobody is there to release the lot.
    3. How the lot will be presented. As sold and unwrapped, boxed, blanket-wrapped by the saleroom, or on a pallet. Palletised and forklift-only lots are not always suitable for a van, and it is better to establish that at quote stage.
    4. Loading and carrying at both ends. Stairs, basements, upper floors without a lift, cobbles, long carries from the nearest legal stopping point, and anything that makes a single-driver load unrealistic.
    5. Delivery access at your address. Parking, door and stairwell widths, gate codes and where you want the item left. Add delivery into the home or to a room of your choice during the quote if you need it.

    How auction collection and delivery works

    All priced and booked online, with the dates visible before you commit.

    1. 1

      Enter the release postcode and yours

      The auction house or warehouse address is the collection point and your address is the delivery point. Both are checked against live route coverage.

    2. 2

      Describe the lot and the access

      Measured dimensions, weight, how the lot is presented, and the loading situation at the saleroom and at your address.

    3. 3

      Add your lot number and invoice reference

      Plus a named contact and direct number for the auction house's collections desk, so the driver can be released against your paperwork.

    4. 4

      Choose a scheduled collection date inside their window

      Pick from the live dates available for that route, pay for the booking, then tell the auction house the date and your booking reference.

    After you book

    You get a booking reference, a written confirmation and a status link where every change is recorded. Mislaid it? Resend your booking link.

    What this service does and doesn't include

    Stated plainly, so an auction purchase holds no surprises.

    Scheduled routes, not urgent collection

    We collect on set route dates. There is no immediate dispatch, no next-day nationwide collection, no guarantee of a date within any given number of days and no bespoke route created to meet an auction deadline. If the deadline is tight and no date fits, we are not suitable for that lot.

    Delivery only, for lots you have bought

    We are not a removals company or a house-clearance service, we do not buy or bid, and we cannot collect a lot that has not been paid for or authorised for release.

    No packing, crating or specialist handling

    Lots travel as the auction house presents them. We do not pack, crate, wrap to specification, restore or provide specialist fine-art, piano or safe transport, and we do not assemble, dismantle, install or disconnect anything.

    No disposal, and item limits apply

    We do not take old items away or return a lot to the auctioneer as part of a delivery. Weight, size and safety limits apply and some goods are excluded — see our acceptable use policy, and our cancellations and refunds policies for what happens if a collection cannot go ahead.

    Auction delivery FAQs

    What winning bidders ask before booking a courier to collect a lot from an auction house.

    Price an auction collection before you bid

    Enter the saleroom postcode, your postcode and the lot details to see your quote and the live scheduled collection dates — then check those dates against the auction house's collection deadline.

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