Bidding

What is a reserve price at auction?

A reserve is the seller's confidential minimum — the item doesn't sell unless bidding reaches it. On Hunters the item page always tells you where you stand ('Reserve met', 'Reserve not yet met', or 'No reserve — sells to the top bid'), sellers can remove a reserve mid-auction but never raise one, and no-reserve lots are badged because they're the ones guaranteed to sell.

How it works while you bid

The reserve amount is never shown — only its status. If the auction ends with bidding below the reserve, the item passes in: no sale, nobody owes anything, and the seller can relist or drop the reserve next time. If bidding meets it, the normal rules take over and the highest maximum wins.

Reserves only ever come down

A seller can remove their reserve at any moment while the auction is live — every bidder and watcher is notified, and the lot instantly becomes a guaranteed sale, which often restarts a stalled bidding war. What a seller can never do is raise a reserve or put one back: the floor under your bids can only disappear, never rise.

In the final hours

Sellers whose bidding sits just under the reserve near the close are prompted with the numbers — how short, how many bidders and watchers — and the one-tap option to remove it and sell tonight. Many do; a bid that's 90% of the reserve at 6pm is usually worth more than a relist next week.