Frequently asked questions

Browsing requires no account. To bid you need a free account with a credit or debit card on file. Nothing is charged to the card until you win a lot, and you pay only for lots you win.

The auction page shows the pickup street and area, without the house number, and the pickup times. The full address is on your invoice once you have won.

Enter a bid at or above the minimum shown on the lot page. Each bid is a binding offer to buy the whole lot at that price. If you are the highest bidder when the lot closes, the lot is yours.

The most you are willing to pay. The platform bids for you, by the smallest step needed to keep you in the lead, up to your maximum and no further. Nobody sees your maximum. If nobody else bids, you pay the current bid, not your maximum.

Another bidder had already set a maximum higher than your bid, so the platform answered for that bidder. The current bid rises only as far as needed to beat you. If two maximums are equal, the earlier one keeps the lead.

A bid cannot be retracted. While you are the highest bidder you can raise your maximum, or lower your maximum to no less than the current bid.

One after another on closing night, a few seconds apart. A bid in a lot’s final minutes extends that lot’s clock, and keeps extending while bidding continues, so a last-second bid never wins on timing alone.

Yes. Ask the seller in the Questions panel on the lot page; the answer is posted there for every bidder. Everything sells as-is, so ask before you bid rather than after you pick up.

Going Once emails you when a lot you were leading closes. Once the whole sale has closed, you get one invoice for everything you won in that sale, with the pickup address and your pickup time. Bids are listed under My Bids and invoices under Purchases.

The winning bid, plus the buyer’s premium at the percentage stated on the auction page, plus California sales tax on the two together. Each is a separate line on your invoice, and the bid form shows the estimated total before you bid. See How fees work.

When the sale has finished closing, the card on file is charged for your whole invoice and you are emailed a receipt.

Not if you pay within two hours. The email about the declined charge links to your invoice and gives the time, and the same card or a different card can be used. An invoice still unpaid at that time is cancelled, the lots are forfeited and offered to the next bidders, and your account is suspended.

No. Every invoice is paid by card through Going Once, before pickup. Do not pay the seller directly.

California sales tax at the rate for the pickup address, on your winning bid and the buyer’s premium together.

At the address and during the pickup time on your invoice. One visit per sale: lots from more than one pickup category are picked up at the latest of those times. The pickup time is fixed and is not changed to suit a buyer. If you cannot come or send someone, do not bid.

Yes. The person picking up brings your invoice and a photo ID in that person’s own name, and for an invoice over $300 a photo of the card you paid with, showing only the card’s last four digits.

The invoice, and for an invoice over $300 photo identification and the card you paid with. Boxes, wrapping, tools, and help for anything heavy: nobody on site will pack, lift, or take furniture apart for you.

No. Every sale is pickup in person. A mover may pick up for you during your pickup time.

Lots not picked up during the assigned pickup window are forfeited without refund.

Inspect every lot at pickup. The seller runs the sale and hosts the pickup. If a lot is materially different from the description, raise the problem with the seller there, before you take the lot. The seller decides whether to refund the lot in full, with the lot left behind, or in part, with you keeping it. Once you have picked up a lot and your pickup window has ended, the sale is final: lots are not returned or refunded after pickup.