Your Bidding Limit

The most you can have committed at one house at once, and how to raise it.

An auction house may give you a bidding limit: the most you can have committed there at one time. Committed means the maximums on lots you are currently winning, plus the bid you are placing. It counts maximums, not current prices, because that is what you would owe if nobody outbid you.

If a bid would take you over the limit, it is refused and the lot tells you. Your other bids are unaffected.

Limits rise as a house gets to know you. To ask for more, use Ask a question before the auction closes, or call the house. Staff can raise it on the spot, even while an auction is closing.