Tucked into a basement level suite on Rue Griffith in Montreal’s West Island area, Encan West Island Auctions runs an online bidding platform that the business describes as the first of its kind to serve the West Island and Saint Laurent area specifically, rather than folding local estate items into a citywide or provincewide auction house. The company built its model around convenience: instead of requiring bidders to show up in person to inspect lots and raise paddles, Encan West Island lets buyers browse catalogs, place bids, and track results entirely from home, while sellers consign items without needing to host a physical sale themselves.
The auction house runs two distinct sale formats on a recurring schedule. Regular auctions happen roughly twice a month and handle a broad mix of vintage, retro, and collectible merchandise, while a separate Select or Premiere auction runs monthly and is reserved for higher end or more curated estate pieces. That two tier structure lets the business serve both everyday secondhand shoppers hunting for affordable finds and more serious collectors chasing specific categories, without either group having to sort through listings clearly meant for the other. Consignors who want help offloading an estate, downsizing a household, or liquidating an inventory can work with the company’s team, which charges a consignment fee in the twenty to thirty percent range and handles the cataloging, photography, and listing work that turning raw estate contents into sellable auction lots requires.
For clients who want more hands on guidance before committing to a full consignment, Encan West Island also offers private onsite consultations, billed at 100 dollars per hour with a two hour minimum, during which staff can walk through a home or storage unit and advise on what pieces are worth bringing to auction versus donating, recycling, or discarding outright. That consultative layer separates the business from a simple drop off auction service, positioning it instead as a partner for families working through an inherited estate or a household in transition. The company states it draws bidders from local, regional, and national audiences, and describes cultivating what it calls an international network of clients, meaning a vintage lamp or a piece of estate jewelry consigned in the West Island can just as easily sell to a buyer well outside Montreal as to a neighbor a few blocks away.
Office hours run Monday through Friday, generally within a window of ten in the morning to six in the evening depending on the day, with the business closed on weekends, a schedule oriented around consignment intake, photography, and customer service calls rather than public walk in browsing, since the actual buying and selling happens through the online bidding platform rather than a storefront. Now in its eighth year of operation, the company has built its reputation specifically around bridging West Island estate collections with a wider pool of collectors who might never have found those items through a traditional brick and mortar auction house.
Encan West Island Auctions is a Montreal based online auction house that connects West Island and Saint Laurent area estate collections and consignments with local and international bidders through regular and premiere online sales.
