Earlier this month, I published a post about my introduction to Russell Kaplan Auctioneers. Initially this campaign was only going to include one blog post about the items up for auction at the Russell Kaplan Summer Wunderkammer (which ran from 5-15 March), and some fun facts on how auctioneering works. But as soon as I walked into the Russell Kaplan showroom, I knew I wanted to write a second post about bidding on, and hopefully procuring, some items at the auction. Thorsten and I recently renovated a house and this showroom is a home furnishing wonderland.

People browsing at the viewing event at Russell Kaplan’s showroom in Ferndale on 3 March, before the summer auction started.

As I mentioned previously, the Russell Kaplan auctions are no longer in-person; the bidding process takes place totally online. And once the auction kicked off, I learned that shopping online and bidding online are two very different things. Ideally you should go into the auction with a strategy, which I most definitely did not have. But I managed to bumble through and come away with two great purchases for the house. I thought I’d share a few tips that I picked up during my online bidding debut.

What I Learned During My First Auction

Let me start by emphasizing that I still have no idea what I’m doing. There are lots of online bidding experts out there who will probably laugh at these tips and have much better advice. (Please share away, if you’re one of those people.) But here’s what worked for me in my first attempt:

Tip #1: Attend the viewings and get there early.

If you plan to bid on anything up for auction, I highly recommend attending at least one of the in-person viewing events at Russell Kaplan. There were five viewing days leading up to the auction, and I actually went twice because I was so overwhelmed the first time. There were 8,500 lots up for auction, so there was a lot to look at.

Thorsten and my friend Fiver browse the art room at the opening viewing event.

Testing out a rocking chair that I loved but couldn’t afford.

Fiver on a leopard-print love seat that matches her dress.

Cool mirror.

The opening viewing night was packed, so if you want to browse freely without bumping elbows, I recommend getting there early or going another day during working hours. The opening night is really fun though, with live music, bubbly, and tasty hors-d’oeuvres. It’s a great event to see and be seen and just to look at a lot of beautiful things.

These glass pieces glow in the dark because they have uranium in them!

Do not miss the magical room full of cardboard boxes. These boxes contain a delightful selection of dish sets, glassware, kitchen appliances, and knick-knacks like this wooden owl.

I loved this glassware — I bid on it but lost.

Tip #2: Tag your watched lots.

At opening night I bumped into my friend Wesley, an auction veteran, who tipped me off about the “Watched Lots” feature on the Russell Kaplan app. When you see something you’re interested in, type the lot number into the search field on the app, find the item, and check the “watching” box. Once you’re “watching” an item, you can easily refer back to it to see if there are any bids, and the app will notify you a few minutes before that item goes up for auction.

That rocking chair I liked. At the time I took this screenshot, it already had a bid for R6000. R6000 was my total budget for this auction so I didn’t even try.

Even if you’re not planning to bid, it’s fun to “watch” a few big-ticket items and see how much they sell for.

I love this silkscreen print by renowned South African artist Walter Battiss. I watched it sell for R22,000 (about $1,300) — not a bad price for an art collector.

Tip #3: Be ready for the online bidding.

Auctioning off 8,500 items over the course of 11 days, even online, is quite an involved process, and you need to be prepared if you’re serious about acquiring something. Different groupings of items — mid-century furniture, paintings, glassware, carpets, etc. — go up for auction on different days, but you can’t know in advance exactly when on that day that a particular item will open for live bidding. (This is why the “watched lots” are so important.) You can hedge your bets by pre-bidding on things you want, and you might win if no one else bids during the live bidding window. But also, you might not.

I pre-bid on a set of funky blue and green wine glasses that I saw in the magical cardboard box room. I bid the minimum amount, R600 (about $35), and I won them, even though I wasn’t able to log on for the live bidding.

Luckily no one else was interested in an odd number of eccentric blue wine glasses. I love them.

I picked these specifically because I knew how nice they would look on this shelf in our kitchen.

The other item I wanted was a carpet — we really needed one for our lounge. And Persian carpets, it seems, are far more in demand than eccentric wine glasses. I had tagged about ten carpets, and I was ready on my laptop when the carpet-bidding kicked off on a Thursday afternoon. One after another, the carpets opened for bidding and I was outbid again and again. Just as I was about to lose heart, on about the ninth carpet, I won. Whew!

I think someone else had pre-bid R6000 (about $350). I upped it to R6500 and no one countered me.

Here it is in our house, with me, inexplicably, wearing a Basotho hat.

Important note: In order to bid on items in the auction, you have to register as a bidder, either through the Russell Kaplan app or on the website. It’s a very easy process but you should do this well in advance so you’re ready to bid when the time comes.

Tip #4: Prepare for uncertainty and disappointment.

Obviously, bidding on things in an auction is a crapshoot. Unless you have unlimited funds to outbid all of your competitors — many of whom are probably professional collectors/resellers — you probably aren’t going to win everything you try for. Some items will sell for the minimum bid and others will sell for way more than expected. My budget was extremely fixed (although I did go a little bit over — oops) so I really couldn’t afford to get drawn into any bidding wars, but I could see how it would be easy for that to happen. So I think it’s best to go in ready for disappointment and have lots of backups chosen in advance in case you don’t win your first choice.

Tip #5: Don’t forget about commission and VAT.

Once you win an item at auction, the price you bid is called the “hammer price”. But it’s important to know that you also have to pay a 15% commission on that price, and then VAT (value added tax) on the commission. So the final price you pay is 17.25% more than the hammer price — just a reminder to factor that in while bidding.

And those are my rookie auction tips. Russell Kaplan is already soliciting items for their next auction, so keep an eye on their website for the dates.

The carpet with all of our furniture (and Thorsten and Trixie the cat). We still need to get it cleaned but we’re really happy with it.

Thanks to Russell Kaplan for working with me on this super fun project. I’m already excited for the next auction, which will be online from 14-24 May.

This post is part of a partnership between Russell Kaplan Auctioneers and 2Summers. Opinions expressed are my own.