How to Bid in a Timed Auction with Plymouth Auction Rooms
In a timed online auction, there is no auctioneer taking bids from a live audience in a room. Instead, each lot can be bid on for a defined period of time. Bids are placed online. At the end of the period, the bidder who has submitted the highest bid wins the lot, provided the bid exceeds the reserve price.
Timed Auctions with Plymouth Auction Rooms typically last a week or two. All of our timed auctions have the end date and time clearly displayed on the lot page. You can bid at any point from when the auction starts, to when it closes.
As a bidder, you can enter a max bid – the most you are willing to bid, using our set bidding increments and we do the rest. We will bid intelligently for you, bidding only enough for you to meet the reserve or stay in the lead.
Your max bid stays secret in our system. We won’t share your maximum bid with the seller or other bidders.
You’ll see your ‘current bid’ when you log in and view the lot (often it will be less than your ‘maximum bid’). If someone bids higher than your maximum, we will send you an ‘outbid alert’ via email to let you know, so you can decide whether you'd like to bid more.
If a bid is placed in the final few minutes of the defined time period, the time period will be extended by a number of minutes. A bid placed in the final 10 minutes of the timed auction extends the closing time by 10 minutes.
This is to stop ‘sniping’ – a practice used by bidders on some other websites whereby they rush to place bids in the last few seconds to prevent other bidders being able to respond before the auction closes.
Step-by-step: what to do
So, you've found the perfect item you want to bid on and have set up your account with Plymouth Auction Rooms or the Saleroom.com Now, you need to register for the auction:
Click on the 'Register to Bid' button displayed next to the auction you'd like to participate in.
Once, the auctioneer has approved your registration you'll then be able to begin bidding. In order to bid:
1. Find the lot you want to bid on
2. Type in your maximum bid into the appropriate box and click ‘place bid’
3. Click ‘confirm’ on the page that appears
Don’t forget, just like when you’re in an auction room, bidding online is a contractual commitment to buy.
Get bidding
You can find items such as watches, jewellery, Swarovski, antiques, toys and models available in our upcoming timed auctions, with an increasingly wider range of sales being added each month. If you have any questions about our timed online auctions, please do get in touch with the team by calling 01752 254740 or emailing info@plymouthauctions.co.uk.
