AMHERST — Weekly general estate auctions attracting people to bid on a variety of items have been part of the North Amherst community since the late 1960s.
But with less money being made off of these auctions, caused in part by attendance dropping and people only bidding on what they think has real value, Douglas Kimball, who owns Kimball’s Auction & Estate Services, recently opted against continuing to operate his business from a permanent site.
“It’s the law of diminishing returns,” said Kimball, who has been in the auction business for more than 20 years and opened the Amherst site at 169 Meadow St. in 2006, where it replaced Pioneer Auction. “People just don’t want to sit in an auction anymore.”
Though it’s the end of an era for the auction house, Kimball said it’s a change that will allow him to restructure the company, making it more profitable by focusing exclusively on live antique and specialty auctions.
At the same time, he will continue to offer the services when a person is moving or downsizing, or there has been a death in the family. These services include estate planning, house cleaning and liquidations.
“We will no longer use the general auction as the motor to dispense with household goods,” Kimball said. “We’re altering what we do. It will be a different model of doing business.”
Because his auctions feature no reserves, general household merchandise was increasingly slowing down the antique sales. “For that to work, you need a large enough number of people to attend,” he said.
While the weekly auctions brought in $4,000 to $6,000, the overhead of renting the building and hiring employees meant his business was losing an estimated $1,500 each time these were held.
“Spending so much time on the general auction was taking away time for the antique auctions,” Kimball said.
Antique sales, on the other hand, can make between $60,000 and $150,000, based on the people who would come to the North Amherst gallery to bid in person, along with participation from online bidders who help drive up the price. Some of these people participating are from as far away as Beverly Hills and Paris, and other locales abroad, who are willing to pay a premium.
“Our reach to them is one of the reasons antique sales are so successful,” Kimball said.
The decision to shut down the gallery was made easier by the sale of the building and its planned transition into a medical marijuana dispensary.
“We made the decision at that point that we wouldn’t seek a permanent location,” Kimball said.
Though he briefly considered using a Route 9 building as a new site for storage, that fell through.
With no permanent place at which to run the business, antique sales will instead happen elsewhere. In November, for instance, Kimball said he is planning to have an auction at a Northampton location that will be advertised on the website, kimballsauctions.com.
When a person is interested in seeking his services, Kimball said he will come out and give appraisals, explaining what items will do well at auction, and focusing time on antiques.
“The earlier they get us involved in the process, the better,” Kimball said.
This consultation is free, and he gives each client as much information as possible about the value of the estate.
“We view every client as a customer today, but also indefinitely,” Kimball said.
If a person chooses to hire him, Kimball may take items on consignment and receive a standard auction contract consignment fee of 20 percent. He also has the option to purchase all the items outright, with those not appropriate for antique sales to be shipped to another auction house, a flea market or other clients.
Kimball said auctioneers are licensed and bonded, making it a legitimate profession. If products are sold at a properly advertised auction, the money made is considered to be the fair market value.
Even with the changes, Kimball continues to volunteer service and demonstrate his knowledge and techniques of evaluating antiques, such as he did during a recent appraisal fundraiser for the Amherst History Museum.
There, people could bring in items and he would give them an estimate for how much might sell for at an auction.
Conversing with participants, he asks them questions about whether they got the objects to learn more.
One woman showed up with a vase and a statue. “You could probably get $1,200 for the pair,” Kimball said.
He also points to some of the same issues he is facing, such as the fluctuations in demand for antiques.
“The problem is the market’s a lot smaller,” Kimball said.
Katy van Geel of Amherst brought a medieval lockbox made out of wood, with metal lock mechanisms, that her husband’s maternal grandfather bought in Europe, and which has been in the family for decades.
Even though made in the late 1500s to early 1600s, Van Geel said she was less interested in its value than learning for about its history for her children. “It’s part of our family,” van Geel said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
