Asking a Question About a Lot

Who Can Ask

You need to be Signed In and registered with this auction house; approval to bid is not required, just registration. Signed out, the box is a sign-in link. Not registered there yet, it links to register instead. Questions are open from the moment the auction is published until the lot closes, and only when the house has questions turned on for this auction and this lot.

Steps

1. Open the lot and scroll to Questions About This Lot.
2. Type your question in the box labelled Ask <house> about this lot — up to 1,000 characters, words only, no photos or attachments.
3. Press Ask the House.

You can have only one question waiting on a lot at a time. A second attempt is refused with You already have a question waiting on this lot. Ask your next one once the first is answered, declined, or the lot's questions close.

What Happens to It

A person at the house reads every question before it goes anywhere; nothing you write is shown to anyone else until they act on it. Under Your Questions you will see one of:

• Waiting for the house — not yet looked at.
• Answered — the answer is there; a private tag means it was answered just to you, not shown to other bidders.
• Not published — the house decided not to publish it, with their note if they left one.
• Hidden — it was published and later taken down, with the reason.

You get a bell notice and an email when a question is answered, whether public or private; a bell notice only when it is declined or hidden.

Published Questions

A question the house answers and publishes appears above the form for everyone to read, as Asked by paddle #N — never your name — with the house's answer underneath. Your question is never edited, by you or anyone else; it is the record of what you asked.

Keep It Civil

Ordinary language is fine, swearing included. A short list of slurs — hate speech, not everyday swearing — is checked automatically on everything you send. One that uses a slur is refused on the spot: That question was not sent. It uses language this site does not allow. Nothing is stored except a private record of the attempt, which the house never sees. You are emailed once, right away, saying it was blocked for that reason — the word itself is never repeated — at most one such email an hour, however many times it happens.

Reporting a Question or Answer

See a published question or answer that should not be there? Press Report this underneath it and say why. The house's staff see the report on their Questions page, and platform support sees every open report across every house; either can hide the question or dismiss the report.

After the Auction Closes

Once a lot closes, the form is replaced with Questions closed with the lot — you can no longer ask. Every question that was published stays on the lot's page for good, so the answer is there for anyone looking back at it.

A question of yours that was still Waiting for the house when the lot closed is not lost. The house can still answer it or decline it afterwards, and you are told the same way you would have been before the close. It stays under Your Questions until they do.

For anything that is not about a particular lot — your account, an invoice, a shipment — see Getting help.