Your first auction, start to finish

The first time is the only complicated time, and it is not complicated, only unfamiliar. One full auction week, walked end to end, so your first Wednesday feels like your fifth.

Before the week: register once

Register on HiBid with a card. Registration is free and one-time: after this week, you skip straight to browsing. The card matters because your invoice is paid before you arrive, which is precisely why the appointment is a load-out rather than a checkout line. Why: how paying works

Any day: browse with confidence

A fresh catalogue goes live every week, thousands of lots across tools, electronics, home, furniture, appliances, automotive, and more. On any lot, read three things in order:

1. The grade badge, computed, never chosen: New/Overstock sealed and unopened, A opened with no damage and no signs of use, B cosmetic damage or visible use, C heavy use or something that affects use, D does not work.
2. The condition card, image two: how far we tested and what the inspector found.
3. The all-in price, your true total at the current bid, hammer plus 15% premium plus $1.50 handling plus tax, on screen before you ever commit. A $20 hammer in Ontario is $27.69, and you knew it first.

Thirty seconds per lot and you are reading like a professional. The full 30-second method

Bidding: set a ceiling, then relax

Find something you want. Decide the most you would genuinely pay, against the all-in number, and set it as your max bid on HiBid. Its proxy bidding then bids for you, one increment at a time, only as high as needed, and never past your ceiling.

That is the whole strategy. You cannot hover, refresh or duel anyone at the buzzer, because the auction soft-closes: last-second bids extend the lot until bidding stops. Sniping is worthless here. An honest maximum is unbeatable. Set it and go live your week. The soft close, explained

Opening bids start low, and many lots open at just $5, so a sensible first week can be a twenty-dollar education.

Wednesday, 7:00 PM Eastern: the close

Lots begin closing Wednesday evening. Watch if it is fun, most people do, their first week, but your max bid is working whether you watch or not. Win, and your invoice is created at close, itemized to the cent from the published formula. Payment is due in full within forty-eight (48) hours of auction close.

The three collection days: collect or ship

Pickup, free, in Etobicoke: book an appointment on any of the three collection days, arrive, check in, and your order is already pulled and staged. The appointment is a load-out, not a checkout line. The one rule with teeth is the deadline, so book the slot the moment you win. All items must be picked up, or shipping requested, by Saturday at 3:00 PM following the auction. If an item is not collected and no shipping has been requested by then, we will notify you by email and text message, and you will have seven (7) more days to collect it or request shipping. A storage fee of $5.00 per lot per day applies from the Saturday deadline, and you authorize us to charge it to your card on file. An item still not collected or requested seven (7) days after that notice is deemed abandoned, and you authorize us to resell it on your behalf. Your original purchase is not cancelled or refunded. From the resale proceeds we deduct the storage fees, an abandonment fee equal to the greater of $25.00 or twenty-five percent (25%) of your original lot price, and the costs of resale; any remaining balance is held for you and paid on written request. Two abandoned purchases result in permanent suspension of bidding privileges.

Shipping, Canada-wide and to the USA: we pack your order and price it for what it actually weighs and measures. After the auction, request shipping and you will receive a quote. Nothing dispatches until you approve it, and shipping is paid before release. You approve it before anything ships. Note for planning: shipping is quoted after packing, not at bid time, so on bulky items factor it before setting your ceiling. Pickup and shipping, in full

The claim window, if something is wrong

New / Overstock, Grade A and Grade B items carry a claim window for major functional defects of twenty-four (24) hours from pickup or confirmed delivery, seven (7) days for accounts verified as resellers, and fourteen (14) days only under a signed reseller addendum. Grade C and Grade D items are final sale as to condition. Regardless of grade, an item that is the wrong item or materially misdescribed is always reviewable. C and D are priced for exactly what the card told you they are. This is what the inspection was for: when we describe an item, we can stand behind the description.

Your first week, compressed

Register on HiBid with a card. Read badge, card, all-in. Set an honest max on a few small lots. Let Wednesday happen. Book pickup immediately, or ship. Total time invested: about an hour. Total mystery remaining: none.

Welcome to the habit.

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