You are not restricted to placing a bid at the minimum bid amount, but can instead increase your bid and place a maximum (proxy) bid in the system. By setting a maximum bid, the system will automatically bid on your behalf to maintain your position as the highest bidder, up to your maximum bid amount. If you are outbid, you will be notified via email so you can opt to increase your bid if you so choose.

If two or more users place identical bids, the bid that was placed first takes precedence.

Virtually every lot is sold subject to a reserve price (the minimum price that the auctioneer is authorised to sell for). When you submit a maximum bid, the actual bid placed by the system will depend on whether the reserve price has been met, as defined below.

If your maximum bid is below the reserve price

• The system will place an immediate bid at your maximum bid amount.

If your maximum bid is at or above the reserve price

• The system will automatically increase your bid to be at the reserve, and will only bid again on your behalf if you are subsequently outbid by another bidder (up to your maximum bid amount).
• If another bidder has already placed the same maximum bid or higher, they will be the highest bidder and the system will notify you via email so you can place another bid.

NB: Your maximum bid is kept completely confidential – it's presence or amount are not disclosed to the auctioneer, vendor or any other bidder.

The online auction will close as per the advertised 'Auction End Date'. However, if a bid is placed within the final 60 seconds of the auction's scheduled end time, the auction will be extended by an additional 60 seconds – known as the 'bidding extension window'.

If a bid is placed in the 'bidding extension window', the clock will immediately reset to 60 seconds again, and the auction will only finish when an entire 60 second bidding extension window passes without any further bids being placed, i.e. 60 seconds of 'bidding silence'.

NB: Do not leave placing your bid to the last few seconds as you risk your bid not being received by the server in time, and you could lose the lot to another bidder.