Terms of Service
Auctioneer & Seller Terms
Last updated August 6, 2026 · Bidding? Read the Bidder Terms
These terms govern running a sale on Going Once — creating an auction, cataloging it, publishing it, and getting paid. They apply to the account that owns a sale (the “auctioneer”) and to everyone the auctioneer brings onto it: sale admins, collaborators, consigners, and viewers. By starting a sale, joining one, or signing a consigner agreement, you agree to them.
Anything you do as a bidder is governed by the Bidder Terms.
1. Your sale and your team
Any registered account can start a sale and becomes its owner. Owners can invite others in defined roles: sale admins run the sale alongside you, collaborators catalog lots, consigners are the clients whose goods you are selling (they review the catalog and sign the sale’s agreement), and viewers get read-only access. You are responsible for what your team does on your sale. A share link or join code admits anyone who has it as a collaborator — treat it like a key, and rotate it if it leaks.
2. Your right to sell
You must own each lot or hold the documented right to sell it. When you sell on behalf of a client, add them to the sale as a consigner — the sale cannot publish until every consigner has signed its agreement. Do not list counterfeit, stolen, or recalled goods, hazardous materials, items that are unlawful to sell, or items whose transfer requires a license, such as firearms.
3. Catalog honestly
Photograph the actual item and disclose known defects — bidders buy as-is on the strength of your photos and descriptions, and inaccurate listings are your responsibility. A lot needs photos, a title, and a description to be listed; unfinished lots are hidden when the sale publishes, and are listed automatically once you complete them, up until that lot’s closing time.
4. Fees
A sale’s fee schedule is fixed when the sale is created and does not change afterward, whatever happens to platform defaults. It has four parts: a flat per-sale listing fee, due at publish; a platform fee, taken as a percentage of each sold lot’s hammer price; the buyer’s premium percentage, which is added to winning bidders’ invoices on top of the hammer price; and the commission percentage used to compute your consigners’ payouts. The percentages that apply are shown when you create the sale.
5. Proceeds and payouts
Winning bidders are charged by the platform through Stripe — hammer price plus buyer’s premium, collected as one invoice per bidder once the sale finishes closing. After the sale settles, proceeds are paid to the payee named in the sale’s Payment details, less the platform’s fees. The payout report computes each consigner’s share as hammer minus commission minus platform fee; unless a consigner is the sale’s designated payee, remitting what your consigners are owed is your responsibility.
6. Publishing and the sale lifecycle
Publishing with a future start time arms the sale: your team and consigners can review it, but it is not public or biddable until it goes live at the start time. Once live, lots close on their stagger, last-minute bids extend closings automatically, and the close process creates orders for the winners. Withdrawing lots or changing close times mid-sale should be rare — bidders have already committed money on the posted schedule.
7. Never bid on your own sale
Neither you, your team, your consigners, nor anyone acting for any of you may bid in your sale or otherwise work to inflate prices. Shill bidding is grounds for voiding results, cancelling the sale, withholding proceeds, and deactivating every account involved.
8. Pickup is your responsibility
You set the pickup location and time windows, and you must staff the handoff as posted: verify order confirmations, release goods only against paid invoices, and keep the premises reasonably safe for buyers collecting their items. How you handle no-shows is up to you, provided it matches the terms posted on your sale.
9. Catalog content
You keep ownership of your photos and descriptions, and you grant the platform a non-exclusive license to use them to run and market the sale — on the site, in category and homepage placements, and in emails to subscribers.
10. The platform’s role
We may unlist lots, refuse or cancel a sale, refund a buyer whose order cannot be fulfilled, and deactivate accounts that break these terms. Money operations — charging bidders, refunds, and reassigning orders — run through the platform.
11. Responsibility
You indemnify the platform against claims arising from your sale — including title disputes, misdescribed goods, and injuries at pickup. Our total liability to you for any claim is capped at the fees we collected from your sale.
12. Governing law and changes
These terms are governed by California law, and any dispute belongs in the state or federal courts of Los Angeles County, California. We may update these terms from time to time; changes take effect when posted here and apply to sales created afterward.
Questions about these terms? Email hell@goingonce.co.