How to buy
Buying is the same on every sale here: register, get approved, bid, pay. Nothing is charged until you have won something.
- 1
Create an account
Register with your name, email and address, then confirm the email we send you. Your details and your bidding history are yours alone — they are never shown to other buyers.
- 2
Register for the sale
An account is not the same as a paddle. For each sale you want to bid in, open the sale and register for it. Some auction houses approve bidders before the sale opens — you will see “pending approval” until they do, and you will be told when you are approved.
- 3
Look at the lot properly
Every lot shows an estimate range — what the house expects it to make — and, underneath, the figure that actually applies: the current bid, or the starting bid while nobody has bid yet. Those are two different things and both matter.
- 4
Place a bid
Type your maximum and we bid the smallest permitted step on your behalf, up to that limit. Each lot has its own bid increment, shown on the lot page, so you can see exactly what the next bid has to be.
- 5
Pay and collect
If you win, you will be emailed an invoice with the hammer price, the buyer's premium, VAT where it applies, and the payment and collection arrangements for that house. Payment and collection are handled by the auction house that ran the sale.
A few things worth knowing
Estimates are opinions, not promises.|A guide price is the house's judgement of what a lot should make. Lots sell above and below it. Nothing is charged for bidding.|You pay only if you win. Buy-It-Now|means you can buy outright at a stated price instead of bidding. It is offered on the lots that carry one. Withdrawn lots|disappear from the sale. A lot marked withdrawn is no longer for sale and cannot be bid on.