A GENERAL auction that has been popular for bargain-hunters since the Occupation has become the latest victim of the credit crunch and rising costs.
Auctioneers Maillard’s have announced that their final weekly general auction will take place this month. Reasons for stopping the Island institution have been blamed on the rise in online auctions, eBay and GST.
A statement released by the company, which moved from Glencoe in St Lawrence to the old Butterfly Farm at Haute Tombette in St Mary in 2006, said that these factors meant they could not carry on in the current economic climate.
Online auctions are said to have increased in popularity, boosted by the belief among disappointed vendors that they might be able to sell on the internet what they failed to sell at normal auctions. The last general auction will start at 10.30 am on Saturday 24 January.
• Picture: The sound of Tommy A’Court’s auctioneer’s hammer will be heard for the last time at a Maillard’s general auction on Saturday week. Picture by David Ferguson (00610820)
