How Can I Bid?

You may place bids by:
(1) Bidding at the auction floor in person. To do this, you must first register as a bidder and obtain a paddle with your bidder number.

(2) If you are unable to attend the auction, you may place an absentee bid. You may do so by posting or faxing a Commission Bid Form back to Mavin. A copy of the Form is enclosed with the printed Auction Catalogue and can also be found at the rear of the Catalogue. You can also print out the Form from the CD-Rom version of the Catalogue or from the Online Catalogue. Please try to send your absentee bids as early as possible. Bids received less than 24 hours before the auction may not be processed. Between similar bids, the one received earlier takes precedence.

(3) If you are an established client with postal and email addresses on file, you may send in your absentee bids by email. If your total bids do not exceed US$500, you may send your absentee bids by email even if you are bidding in Mavin auctions for the first time. In that case, please include your postal address and a contactable telephone number with your email bids.

(4) If you have already sent in a Commission Bid Form and you wish to revise your bids, you may do so by email quoting your name and your bidder number or by fax.

(5) You may also bid on the internet through eBay. The lots are usually online about a month before the auction at eBay Live Auctions, and will appear on the main eBay site 10 days before the start of each auction session. You must be a registered eBay user and apply to be registered to bid for each auction. Registration to bid through eBay can only be made at the eBay website by clicking on the "Sign Up" button at the top of the item listing. Because we manually vet registration requests, you are advised to register at least 24 hours before the start of the session in which you wish to bid. If your registration is not successful, you can still send in absentee bids by fax or mail. In order to ensure that the auction goes smoothly, the auctioneer will take non-eBay absentee bids and floor bids first. On rare occasions, servers may be down or internet services disrupted. This is beyond our control and neither Mavin nor eBay can be responsible if your eBay bids are not transmitted to the auction floor as a result. The buyer's premium for bids made through eBay is 20%. The buyer's premium for absentee bids by post, fax and email remains at 15%

We appreciate that the bids in the Commission Bid Form are maximum bids. Lots will be knocked down to you at the lowest possible price. Thus, if you bid $400 and the second highest bid is $200, the lot will be knocked down to you at $210 and not $400.

Please write clearly as we cannot be responsible for mistakes due to illegible handwriting. It is also a good idea to always include your email address to enable us to contact you in case we have any question or the fax transmission is not clear.

Please always send your bids early, especially if you are doing it by mail. We have had bids arriving by mail after the auction that would otherwise have been successful.

Special Bidding Instructions

You may include special instructions in your bid form. For example:
(1) If there are many lots you wish to bid on but you have a limited budget, you can state the maximum amount you are prepared to spend (before Buyer's Premium) in the auction. For example you may bid Lot 50 US$500, Lot 67 US$240, Lot 99 US$200, Lot 222 US$360, Lot 300 US$400, then state Budget: US$1,000. We will bid on your behalf on the lots you are interested in until your budget is reached.

(2) If you are interested in 1 out of 2 or more lots, you may send in alternative bids by stating clearly on the bid form. For example Lot 100 US$200 OR Lot 232 US$250 OR Lot 235 US$180.

(3) If you only want 1 or more lots from a range of lots but are not particular as to which lots, you may state so on the bid form. For example Any 1 Lot from Lot 100 to Lot 110 US$150 or Any 2 Lots from Lot 50 to Lot 70 US$100.

Bidding Increments

The expected bidding increments for each auction can be found in the Notes to Bidders section of the catalog. Bids not in accordance with bidding increments will almost always be rounded down. For example, a bid of $104 will be rounded down to $100.

Unsold Lots

Unsold lots may be bought at the lower estimate (not the opening price unless this is higher) until the consignor has collected them from Mavin or unless the consignor has given instructions that his unsold lots are not to be sold after the auction. Buyer's Premium and any applicable GST is payable on lots bought after the auction. As a general rule, unsold lots from the Monetary Authority of Singapore will not be available for sale after the auction.

How to Check Bidding Status

When you send in an absentee bid, you will be assigned a bidder number, which is only for that particular auction. You will be informed of your bidder number if you indicate on the Commission Bid Form that you wish to receive it.

You may check the bidding status on any particular lot by going to the Online Catalogue. Lots with bids on them will have below the estimates something like:

  Current Bid: US$100

This means that bidding on the lot is currently at US$100. It does not mean that US$100 is the bidder's maximum bid.

In the case of tied bids, the bidder number will also be shown. If the current bid is the same as your maximum bid but the bidder number is not yours, it means that there is an earlier bid from someone else for the same amount and his bid takes precedence over yours.

Please note that this is a floor auction, not an online auction. While the bidding status is updated regularly, the last update will not contain late bids and you may still have been outbid. So always send your highest bid to avoid disappointment.

ISP and Web Browser Cache

You might not see the latest bidding status if your internet browser or ISP caches or stores webpages. The Bidding status is updated regularly. Please check the date and time at the top of each page to ensure that you are looking at the latest Bidding Status. If you are not, you will have to click "Refresh" until you get the latest page. If this still does not work, you will have to clear your browser cache and/or ask your ISP to clear their cache.

More details, such as bidding increments, can be found in the Notes to Bidders section of the Catalog.

E-mail us to request a copy of the Catalogue.