Before you register
How to tell a real liquidation auction from a bad one
Seven checks that separate a liquidation auction worth bidding at from one that is not, and what each answer actually tells you before you register.
Most advice about liquidation auctions is written by people trying to sell you a pallet. This is written by an auction house, which makes it self-interested in a different direction, so read it as a checklist rather than as a verdict and apply it to us as readily as to anyone else.
Every check below is answerable before you register, from a public page. If a question cannot be answered from a public page, that is the answer.
Is the condition standard written down anywhere
Not "we grade everything", but the actual standard. What each grade means, what is tested, what a grade does not promise.
An auction that grades honestly can publish its standard, because the standard is what it does. One that cannot is describing goods to whatever the market will accept that week. Ours is at how we grade, and the useful test is whether the definitions are specific enough to be falsifiable: "good condition" is a mood, "open box, no signs of use, complete" is a claim someone can hold you to.
Does the price hold to checkout
Ask what sits on top of the hammer, and whether the arithmetic is published. A buyer premium, a handling charge and tax are all normal. What is not normal is finding out their size after you have won.
Ours is a 15% buyer premium, handling of $1.50 per lot or $10 for a pallet lot, plus tax for your delivery province, and the formula is published with a calculator that works out any bid: fees.
When the item misses its description
There are only two honest answers, and both are fine: there is a claim window, or there is not. What should worry you is a page that avoids the question, or one that says "all sales final" at the top and describes a returns process at the bottom.
Is collection explained before you bid
Where, on what days, by appointment or a queue, and what happens if you cannot make it. A deadline with a real consequence is a sign of an operation that runs on schedule; no stated deadline usually means the deadline is whenever the warehouse loses patience. Pickup and shipping
Is shipping quoted, or promised
"We ship anywhere" is not a shipping policy. What you want to know is when the cost is calculated, what it is calculated from, and whether you approve it before anything moves.
Real photographs, or catalogue images
A catalogue photograph borrowed from the manufacturer tells you what the model looks like new. It tells you nothing about the one in the box. Look for evidence that somebody opened this unit.
Does the operation say who it is
A street address, a business name, a phone number with a stated purpose. Not because a name guarantees good behaviour, but because an operation that wants to be findable behaves differently from one that does not.
None of these seven require trusting anybody. They are all checkable in about ten minutes, on any auction, including this one. How buying works · Buyer FAQ