Verifying Your Identity
Most bidders never need to. Once you have won more than the platform's limit in thirty days, a one-time identity check with our payment processor keeps you bidding.
Most bidders never verify anything beyond their email. An identity check is asked for only once your winnings make you a high-value buyer.
Steps
- Account → Verify My Identity (also offered on lot pages once you near the limit).
- On the processor's page, photograph a government ID and take a selfie. About two minutes with a phone.
- Payments and ID in your account shows pending, then verified, usually within a minute or two.
When It Is Asked For
The platform sets a limit on what an unverified account may win in any rolling thirty days (the current figure is shown on your account page). It counts lots you have won, at the hammer price, across every auction house on the platform. Bids you place, and lots you are merely leading, do not count.
- At 80% of the limit a notice appears on lot pages and under Your bids asking you to verify. You can keep bidding.
- At 100% new bids are refused until you verify. Bids you already placed stand: a lot you are leading stays yours to win, and nothing is ever cancelled.
- Once verified there is no limit.
The check happens when you place a bid, never when a lot closes, so it can never change the outcome of a lot you are already winning. The 80% notice is there so you can verify at a calm moment rather than in the last minute of an auction.
What the Check Is
Verify My Identity on your account page takes you to a page run by Stripe, the platform's payment processor. You photograph a government ID (driver's licence, passport or ID card) and take a selfie so the two can be matched. It takes about two minutes on a phone. Stripe does the checking; the platform learns only the result — verified or not — and keeps no copy of your documents.
The result usually arrives within a minute or two. Your account page shows pending until it does, then verified. If the check could not be completed, the reason is shown and you can try again.
Privacy
Your ID is handled by Stripe under its own privacy terms. The platform stores the fact that you verified, the date, and a reference to the check. It does not store the images. Verification is once, for your login, and counts at every auction house.
If you are ever locked out of your account, you may be asked to do the check again so the platform can confirm it is really you. See the data policy for exactly what is kept.
Would rather not take a selfie, or not use Stripe at all? Email [email protected] and we will arrange another way. The same address handles a request to delete the details Stripe holds from your check.