Tips for buying at appliance auctions

It sounds like a good plan: buy all your big-ticket kitchen appliances at auction and save stacks of money. But unless you know what you're doing, buying at appliance auctions could leave you holding lemons.

Appliance auctions have everything on offer from ovens to fridges and even rangehoods. But just because it's being auctioned doesn't necessarily mean you'll pick it up for a good price. To get the best price at an appliance auction, you need to do your research first, and that means spending a lot of time comparing the retail prices of different brands and models so that you're clued up as to what's a bargain, and what's not.

Appliance condition

Probably the biggest concern people have with buying at appliance auctions is whether or not the item they're buying is in good working order. According to consumer advocate Choice, goods sold at auction are sold 'as is', meaning it's assumed that you have inspected the appliance before placing a bid. The difficulty here is that it's not always easy to check that an oven or a fridge operates as it should.

So what do you do if you get the appliance home and it doesn't live up to expectations? The first thing is to check whether the vendor – the person who sold you the goods – is a business, because if so, fair trading laws will apply and that will be your first course of action. If it's an individual, or if an auctioneer has acted as an agent on behalf of an individual, then it's a bit trickier and you will have to approach the person who sold you the goods to try and negotiate a solution. 

Choose your appliance auctions wisely

Ask around and you'll discover that some auction houses only sell new items, such as end-of-line, ex-display, factory-second or liquidation stock. The beauty of this is, because they're still new, these items come with a manufacturer's warranty.

While online appliance auctions can also feature new goods for sale, it can be worth asking about the existence of warranties; and before you place a bid, be sure to check what sort of feedback other people have provided online about a particular seller.