How bidding works

Enter the highest amount you are willing to pay. We bid in increments on your behalf to keep you in the lead, but only up to your limit. Your maximum is never shown to other bidders or to the seller. You do not have to watch the clock. If nobody bids past your maximum, you win at the lower amount rather than the figure you entered.

The amount a bid goes up by is known as a bid increment. Every bid has to be at least one increment above the current bid. Increments are smaller when the price is low and larger in higher brackets, so a $200 animal moves in $5 and a $30,000 bull moves in $250. Every listing shows the minimum bid under the bid box.

Placing a bid opens a confirmation showing the maximum you entered. Nothing is placed until you confirm. You can cancel and change the amount. Bids cannot be retracted once they are placed, so the confirmation is your chance to check the figure.

A bid is a binding contract. If you win, you have bought the animal. Bids cannot be retracted because you changed your mind. Every bidder needs a card on file before they can bid, so the bids you are competing with are real.

Sniping is bidding in the final seconds, so that other bidders have no time to respond. A bid placed in the last two minutes extends the auction by two minutes. That repeats until two minutes pass with no new bid. Everyone gets a fair chance to answer, and the animal sells for what someone was willing to pay rather than to whoever bid last. An auction's end time is not fixed. Check the listing for the time it is working to now.

A Buy It Now price lets you buy the animal immediately, at a price the seller has set, instead of waiting for the auction to end. It is the seller's option, so not every auction has one. When an auction does, the price is shown beside the current bid, and it is always above the starting bid.

Paying it ends the auction immediately and the animal is yours. There is no bidding to follow and no second amount to pay.

Once anyone bids, the Buy It Now button is removed for the rest of the auction. The price itself still stands. If the bidding reaches it, the auction ends there and the animal sells at that price.

Enter an amount at or above the Buy It Now price and you buy the animal outright at that price. No bid is placed and the auction ends. This works for as long as the auction is running, whether or not the button is still showing, and the confirmation tells you before anything happens.

A reserve price is the lowest price the seller is willing to accept. It sits above the starting bid, so bidding can open below the price that will actually buy the animal. A reserve is what lets a seller open low. Without one, a breeder with a $10,000 bull has to start at $10,000, and listings that open at their full price rarely attract an early bid.

You will see that a listing has a reserve. You will not see the amount, and you will not see whether the bidding has reached it. A live indicator would give the amount away within one increment, and it invites people to bid at the indicator rather than at what the animal is worth to them. Enter the most you are willing to pay. If that clears the reserve, you win.

The auction ends with no sale and no winner. Nothing is charged. Every hold is released, including the highest bidder's.

When an auction ends below its reserve, the highest bidder gets the first chance at the animal and can offer the seller a price. The seller can accept it, counter once, or pass. Each of you has 48 hours to respond. If nobody responds in time, the window closes.

A listing with a set price shows an asking price rather than a clock, and stays up until it sells. You can buy at the asking price, or offer less. Without offers, a buyer who would pay close to the asking price has to walk away, and the seller never hears from them. Offers cannot be made on an auction, where the bidding decides the price.

An offer is binding. If the seller accepts, you have bought the animal. Your offer has to be below the asking price. At or above it you are simply buying the animal.

This is the same hold a bid places, on the same terms. It covers our closing fee, never the price of the animal. If the seller declines, or the offer runs out of time, we release the hold.

A counteroffer is the seller naming a price between your offer and the asking price. You can accept it or decline it. Each of you has 48 hours to respond. If nobody responds in time the offer expires, and the animal stays for sale.

You can make up to 3 offers on one listing. After a seller declines one, your next offer has to be higher than the one they turned down. You can buy at the asking price at any point, including after your last offer.

A listing can have offers from several buyers at once. You are never shown anybody else's, and they are never shown yours. If the seller accepts someone else's offer, or the animal is bought at the asking price, every open offer closes and its hold is released.

A hold is not a charge. Your bank sets the money aside and it shows as pending, the way a hotel or a fuel pump does. It covers our closing fee, never the price of the animal, and starts at $250.

We place it the first time you bid on a listing. Raising your bid does not place another one, and it does not change the amount held.

When the auction ends, we release the holds of everyone who did not win. Banks usually clear a released hold within a few days.

The hold is charged as our closing fee. The fee comes out of the sale price rather than on top of it, so the winning bid is the full price you pay for the animal, split between us and the seller. It is capped at $2,500 however high the bidding goes.

We never hold the price of the animal. Once the fee is paid you and the seller arrange payment, collection and transport between you.

We notify the winning bidder and the seller as soon as the auction closes, by email and in the app. Everybody else's hold is released.

The hold already on your card is charged as our fee. There is nothing to go and pay, and no second amount: the winning bid is your total for the animal.

Once the fee has settled, a conversation opens between the two of you and nobody else. It is where you agree payment, collection and timing, and it is the only place we ask you to keep that conversation.

Documents the seller marked as available to the buyer after the sale become readable once the sale completes. Registration papers, health records and test results you could only see listed before are yours to open.

We never take the price of the animal, before or after the sale. You and the seller settle it privately, and arrange collection or transport between you.