Everything people ask, answered plainly

No. This is a demonstration site. Every lot, seller, bid, hammer price and result on it is invented to show how the design behaves. The bid controls run entirely in your browser, nothing is submitted anywhere, and no money can change hands.

The increment is the smallest step by which a bid may rise, and it is set by a published table rather than by us on the day. Below $100 the step is $10; from $100 it is $25; from $500, $50; from $1,000, $100; from $2,000, $250; from $5,000, $500; from $10,000, $1,000; from $20,000, $2,500; and from $50,000, $5,000. The next acceptable bid is always shown on the lot page.

You leave the maximum you are willing to pay. The system then bids on your behalf, one increment at a time, only as far as it needs to in order to keep you in front. If nobody reaches your maximum you pay less than it — often considerably less. Your maximum is never shown to anybody, including the seller.

The lot extends. Every lot has a three-minute soft close: a bid inside the final three minutes pushes the closing time out by three minutes from that bid. There is no cap on extensions, so a contested lot closes only when three full minutes pass with no new bid. You never need to be at your keyboard at the published closing minute.

A lot that passed attracted bids, but the bidding did not reach the seller’s reserve, so it was not sold. A lot that went unsold attracted no bids at all. Both appear on our results pages with the same prominence as the lots that sold, because a results page that only publishes the wins is a marketing page.

The buyer’s premium is 18% of the hammer price on most lots, and it is added to the hammer price. A lot that hammers at $1,000 costs $1,180 before shipping. Every lot page shows the hammer, the premium and the true total for the current bid, so you never have to do that arithmetic in your head at speed.

No. Every lot carries its own packed-and-shipped estimate for domestic delivery, shown on the lot page before you bid. Fragile and heavy items cost more to send than they cost to buy surprisingly often, which is exactly why we publish the number up front rather than at checkout.

Seller commission is 14–16% of the hammer price depending on category, with no listing fee, no photography fee and no unsold fee. If a lot does not sell you pay nothing. Settlement is made within 10 to 14 business days of the buyer’s payment clearing.

Because "minor chip" is not a claim and "4mm chip to the rim, glaze only, body not exposed" is. Every condition note on this site is pinned to the coordinates on the photograph where the thing it describes actually is. The markers are keyboard-reachable, and the same notes are repeated as plain text below the photograph for anybody not using a pointer.

On a real sale, yes, and it is the single most useful thing a distance buyer can do. We aim to answer condition requests within four working hours during a live sale. On this demonstration site the contact form does not send anywhere.

Furniture and vessels are the two things that photograph misleadingly from a single angle. Where a lot has a turntable you can drag it, or use the left and right arrow keys, and see the object from eight sides under identical lighting. It is a genuine photographic sequence, not a rendering.

Previews run Wednesday to Saturday, 11 to 6, at the saleroom on SE Water Avenue. You are welcome to handle anything you are considering, and we would rather you did. Bring the measurements of your doorway.

For small objects, yes. For furniture, generally no — the freight cost usually exceeds the hammer price, and we would rather tell you that before you bid than after.