Placing a Bid and Maximum Bids

Steps

1. Open the lot. The bid box shows the least you can bid right now.
2. Enter the most you are willing to pay and press Bid. The site bids for you one step at a time, only as far as it takes to stay in front.
3. The lot page tells you where you stand: winning, or outbid with the maximum you had, so you can raise it.

What You Actually Pay

You pay one step above the next-highest bidder's maximum, never your own maximum unless someone else's bid pushes the price there. If you enter $500 and the next person's maximum is $200, the price sits at one step above $200 and stays there until someone bids more.

The steps come from the house's bidding ladder: small steps at low prices, bigger ones higher up. The bid box shows the minimum you can bid right now.

Bid Increments

Under the bid box, Bid increments opens the table of steps for this lot: from each price, how much the next bid must rise. The minimum shown above the box is the current price plus the step for that price. Your maximum can be any amount at or above the minimum, and the site bids for you in these steps only as far as it needs to. The house sets the steps; an auction or a single lot can use its own table, so check it on the lot you are bidding on.

Raising Your Maximum

Bid again on the same lot with a higher amount. That replaces your old maximum; the price does not move unless someone else is close behind you. You are not emailed about your own raise.

Where You Stand

Every bid on a lot is listed in its Bid History table, by paddle number, with what each one did; see Reading the bid history.

Once you have bid on a lot, its page tells you where you are: You are winning with the current price and your maximum, or You have been outbid with the maximum you had, so you can raise it on the spot. After the auction it says You won this lot with a link to your invoice. Only you see your own figures; nobody else's maximum appears anywhere.

Who Sees Your Maximum

Other bidders never see it, during the auction or after. The auction house does not see it while the lot is open either: nobody on its staff, owners included, can read a bidder's maximum during bidding. After the lot closes, the house can see it. That is so, if the winner does not pay, the house knows who came second and can offer them the lot at a fair price (second-chance offers). Every time the house opens that view, it is recorded.

Before an auction's bidding opens, the lot page shows the opening time instead of a bid box. Watch the lot and come back then, or register with the house now so you are ready.

Reserves

Some lots have a reserve, the lowest price the seller will accept. The lot says reserve not met until bids reach it; the number itself is never shown. See Reserves.

Accepting the Terms

Before your first bid in each auction, the bid box has a tick: I accept the terms of sale (or the terms of this auction, when the house wrote rules for that auction alone — the link shows them). A bid without the tick is refused with Tick the box to accept the terms before you bid. Once ticked it does not come back for that auction, unless the house changes the text. Every acceptance is recorded under your name against the exact text you saw.

Bids Are Final

A bid is a commitment to buy at that price plus the buyer's premium and any sales tax. If you bid by mistake, contact the auction house right away through Ask a question; staff can void a bid while the lot is still open.