LS Smellie & Sons

I have been attending Hamilton Auction Market for the past 40 years, as a child with father, as young up & coming trader & currently as a well established dealer in antiques & collectibles.
I attended there antique sale today & was told of this site by another bidder & I thought it would only be fair to add my comments regarding this Auction.
I have always managed to buy something on a weekly basis at the Monday market of general goods, some good, some bad, the bad are always my mistake as I control my bidding not the Auctioneer. Generally the stuff going through on the Monday is what they say it is «general Household plenishings», albeit, there are antique & collectibles gems there if you look or better still if you know what your looking for.
Mr. Smellie Snr. I have a bit of time & respect for, knowing him as the past Auctioneer for many years & always found him to be a perfect gentleman, even now when he drops in or does a bit of work at the antique sale he will find the time to say hello & enquire after you.
The current set up suits me fine, lot numbering is more organised & at least you know whats coming up, the viewing is 2 hours Friday & 2 hours Monday, like most auction rooms it is a mixed bag from week to week, one week its like the best chip shop in Hamilton with damages n all, other weeks the stuff is great, but that’s auctions for you, if you don’t view the gear you wont see the damages, more-​so, if buying stuff that is antique has been used & around for years, the Auctioneers can’t cover every chip, crack or ding in the place — my advice is get specs if you need em or accept the fact if you miss damage that’s your fault… build a bridge & move on with your life.
I read the comment that had previously been left & I have to say I was a bit taken a back, L.S. Smellie may not be Bonhams or Christies & no doesn’t have a restaurant on site; but I can say with my hand on my heart & in all honesty this is my favourite buying room in Scotland & I buy in many… the staff are OK, just hard working folk trying to do a job, the regulars are mostly the same — with some colourful characters mixed in — which gives the place its own character.
Cheers
I.S.

Continuing the fine family tradition. Old Robert is/​was one of the least honest auctioneers i have come across I even remember him sitting there as people were bidding up their own items when their surnames were even on the stickers. Now they have have switched to a numbered system it is made even harder to spot this going on. Next generation of Smellie’s in the less competent form of Andrew have taken over now but they are following in his footsteps.
To place this company in the Unilocal Antiques category is not accurate. Currently the antique selection is far poorer than it used to be and the specialised sales occur less often. The vast majority of the sale is low to average quality general house clearance and electricals. We seldom bother to go now as the goods are nothing like as good as they used to be. When last we attended they said how they hadn’t seen us in a while but we had come on a good day. Dear heavens if that was a good day I dread to think what a bad one is like, the piles left dumped at the end of a car boot sale come to mind.
The web-​site is poorly designed and the online catalogue is very problematic to navigate. Well laid out catalogues available as PDFs to print out are what we expect here in the 21^st century.
Oh BTW watch what they call «leather» furniture. For most of it the closest it has come to a cow is if it came from a house near a field.
Faults, damages and imperfections are not described in the listings of any items in the auction, it is very much buyer beware.
Some refreshments are available on the site but I would be generous if I called it basic. There used to be more onsite but I by default avoided the serving area as it was just so vile and greasy.
Compared to others at their level of the market I find their buyers premium to be rather steep. It is cheaper than some Glasgow ones but those Glasgow auctions deal in higher quality products so higher premiums are not unexpected.
Upon finding bad reviews this company’s staff added their own, I reported them and this does not incline me to alter my own. It does however demonstrate the honesty you can expect. Read Andrew’s comments, plain English seems to be as foreign to them as accuracy.(This is also obvious when you try to comprehend the catalogue)
My family has had dealings with this company going back to the current auctioneers Grandad we know what once it was and we know what it has deteriorated into. Judge for yourself but is any company actually going to openly admit to allowing what is done here?
Asking me to remove my review and contact them directly was something I found very shady. I share my experiences to inform others, not to simply remove them if it is made worth my while.