An auction is not a shop with a countdown on it. The price is discovered in public, the catalogue is a set of opinions rather than a specification, and the number you see is not the number you pay. None of that is difficult, but it is different — and most first-time mistakes come from one of those three facts.
Before the sale: register, read, ask
You register once for the site, confirm your email address, and then join the individual sale you want to bid in. Some houses approve bidders before a sale; some do not. Registration is free, and it commits you to nothing.
Then read the catalogue properly. For each lot, the useful facts are:
- The description — what it is, what it is made of, its measurements and any faults.
- The estimate — the auctioneer's guide to what it might make, not a price and not a promise.
- The condition — if it is not stated, ask for a condition report before the sale, not on the day.
- The costs — buyer's premium, VAT, any online bidding fee, collection or delivery.
A photograph shows the front of an object. A condition report tells you about the back, the repair, the missing stone. If a lot matters to you, ask.
The two kinds of sale
Timed sales
Every lot has its own closing time, often staggered through an afternoon or evening. You can leave a bid at any point. Many timed sales use a soft close: a bid in the last couple of minutes pushes the clock back, so a lot is not won by whoever has the fastest connection at the final second. The exact rule belongs to the sale's terms — read it.
Live sales
The auctioneer is in a room or on a stream, and online bids compete with the room, the telephone and absentee bids in real time. You can bid as the lot is called, or leave a maximum bid in advance and let the system bid for you up to that figure.
The four ways to bid
| Method | How it works | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Online, live | You press Bid as the lot is running; the next bid is the current bid plus the increment. | A dropped connection is not an excuse; leave a maximum if the lot matters. |
| Absentee / commission | You leave your maximum before the sale; the house bids on your behalf up to it. | It is a maximum, not a target. You may pay less, never more. |
| Telephone | A member of staff calls you and bids for you as the lot runs. | Lines are limited and must be booked in advance. |
| In the room | The traditional raised hand or paddle. | You need to have registered and collected a number. |
Some sales add a fee for online or telephone bidding, often around 3%, and some absorb it. The sale's terms say which, and the fee is part of your real cost.
Increments: why the next bid is not your number
Auctions move in steps. The increment is set by the sale and rises with the price: a few pounds at the bottom, tens in the middle, hundreds or thousands at the top. If the current bid is £480 and the increment is £20, the next bid is £500 — you cannot bid £481.
This is why a maximum bid is useful. You decide the most you will pay before the excitement of the moment, and the system does the arithmetic. It also stops a bidder with a faster connection from winning by a pound.
The last two minutes
In a timed sale, the last two minutes are where soft close matters. If a bid arrives inside the extension window, the closing time moves back — commonly by two minutes — and the lot stays open. The point is to give everyone a fair chance to respond, rather than rewarding a snipe at the deadline.
Not every sale extends. If the terms say hard close, the clock does not move, and a bid at the final second either lands or does not.
If you win
You will receive an invoice. It is the hammer price plus the buyer's premium, any applicable VAT, and any online fee. Payment is due by the date on the invoice, and collection is by the date in the sale's terms. Storage charges can start quickly.
Do not assume delivery is included, or even offered. Large furniture, fragile ceramics and anything needing export paperwork are usually collection-only unless the house says otherwise. Ask before you bid, especially for a lot you cannot collect yourself.
If you do not win
You may be outbid, or the lot may not reach its reserve and go unsold. Both are normal. An unsold lot is sometimes available afterwards — ask the house rather than assuming.
The mistakes worth avoiding
- Bidding before reading the condition, the measurements and the collection terms.
- Treating the low estimate as the price you will pay; the premium and VAT sit on top.
- Leaving a maximum you would not be happy to pay. It is a commitment, not a hint.
- Bidding in the final seconds on a bad connection when a maximum would have done the job.
- Forgetting that two similar lots are two separate purchases, each with its own costs.
Done properly, an auction is the most transparent way to buy something whose value is not written on a label. The price is public, the competition is real, and the result is the market's answer on the day.