The Tom Randell Collection Sale
Tom Randell Collection, Norwich, Norwich · Norfolk
Auctions Tue 25 Aug – Tue 1 Sep 2026
Next up: The Tom Randell Collection Sale — Tue 25 Aug – Tue 1 Sep 2026, Norfolk.
An auction saleground on viewing day is one of the great free days out in this hobby, and hardly anyone tells you that. The lots are laid out in rows across a field, the ropes are down, and you can walk between four hundred tractors, lift a bonnet, kick a tyre and talk to the people who dragged them out of a barn. Nobody expects you to bid.
The Cambridge Vintage Sale at Cheffins' Sutton saleground near Ely is the giant of the calendar. Recent editions have carried around 3,500 lots, several hundred of them vintage and classic tractors, which makes it the largest sale of its type in Europe. The Harrogate Vintage Sale at the Great Yorkshire Showground has been running for close to thirty years and is the biggest of its kind in the north, with over a thousand lots in recent years.
We list the collector sales worth travelling for: the vintage and classic machinery auctions, the named single-owner collections, the automobilia sales where the enamel signs and petrol globes go, and the big on-site plant sales. We deliberately leave out the routine monthly trade sales and farm dispersals. There are hundreds of those a year, they are working auctions rather than days out, and putting them here would bury the ones you actually want to see.
Tom Randell Collection, Norwich, Norwich · Norfolk
Auctions Tue 25 Aug – Tue 1 Sep 2026Thimbleby & Shorland, 31 Great Knollys Street, Reading · Berkshire
AuctionsCheffins Machinery Sale Ground, Sutton, Sutton, Ely · Cambridgeshire
Auctions Fri 16 – Sat 17 Oct 2026Paul Ducksbury Collection, Newark, Newark · Nottinghamshire
Auctions Mon 2 – Thu 12 Nov 2026Cheffins Machinery Sale Ground, Sutton, Sutton, Ely · Cambridgeshire
Auctions Sat 21 – Mon 23 Nov 2026Cheffins Machinery Sale Ground, Sutton, Sutton, Ely · Cambridgeshire
Auctions Fri 23 – Sat 24 Apr 2027Cheffins Machinery Sale Ground, Sutton, Sutton, Ely · Cambridgeshire
AuctionsCheffins Machinery Sale Ground, Sutton, Sutton, Ely · Cambridgeshire
Auctions Fri 16 – Sat 17 Jul 2027Cheffins Machinery Sale Ground, Sutton, Sutton, Ely · Cambridgeshire
Auctions Fri 15 – Sat 16 Oct 2027Cheffins Machinery Sale Ground, Sutton, Sutton, Ely · Cambridgeshire
AuctionsYes, and plenty of people do. Viewing day is when the lots are laid out and accessible, and walking the rows costs nothing at most machinery salegrounds. Check the auctioneer's terms before you travel, since arrangements vary between houses and sales.
The next one is 16 and 17 October 2026 at Cheffins' Machinery Sale Ground, Sutton, Ely, CB6 2QT. The 2027 dates are 23 to 24 April, 16 to 17 July and 15 to 16 October, all at the same saleground.
Cheffins' Cambridge Vintage Sale near Ely, which recent editions have run to around 3,500 lots and which the firm describes as the largest auction of its type in Europe. In the north of England the biggest is Cheffins' Harrogate Vintage Sale at the Great Yorkshire Showground.
Yes. Every auction house requires registration and identification before you can bid, whether in the room or online, and most ask for it in advance. Follow the link on any listing to the auctioneer's own page for their process and buyer's premium.
A sale with no live auctioneer, where lots close one after another at set times and you bid through the auctioneer's website. Collection sales are often sold this way. The machinery still physically exists somewhere, so check the auctioneer's page for viewing arrangements before bidding on something you have not seen.
Every date here is taken from the auctioneer's own published calendar and rechecked every week. Sale dates do occasionally move, so use the link on each listing to confirm with the auctioneer before travelling a long way.