Straight answers.

A free account with a confirmed email - click the link we send when you sign up and you're set. Browsing, watching and sharing need nothing at all. The email step is there so every bid is answerable to a real, reachable person; it's one of the ways we keep the bidding honest.

At launch, every sale is cash at pickup - you inspect the item, count the money in person, and shake hands. Card payments held in escrow are coming soon.

A bid is a commitment to buy at that price. When the auction closes with you on top (and any reserve met), a binding sale forms between you and the seller at the hammer price. Set your true maximum - proxy bidding only spends what's needed to keep you on top, and late bids extend the clock so sniping doesn't win.

You'll get a notification and email linking to your order page. It shows the seller's contact details, the pickup window and address area, and exactly what to pay. Confirm handover on that page once you have the item.

If the winning buyer falls through, the seller can offer the item to the second-highest bidder at that bidder's OWN highest bid - and if they decline, to the third-highest. You'll see a '2nd chance' or '3rd chance' badge on your bid history when you're in line, and you're notified if the offer comes. It's completely optional: say no and nothing changes. Accepting forms a binding sale at your bid, same as winning.

You finished second (or third) on that auction. If the winner doesn't complete the purchase, the seller can offer the item to you at your own highest bid - you'll be notified if that happens. The badge disappears once the sale completes or the line closes.

Yes - that's the AI Hunter. After a lost auction there's a one-tap button on the item page and your bid history: it sets up a standing hunt built from that item (similar words, same category, your area) and notifies you the moment something like it is listed. Manage your hunters from your saved searches.

Bids in the final minutes extend the auction clock, so a last-second bid never steals an item - anyone watching gets time to answer. Auctions end when the room goes quiet, like a real auction.

Free, from the Sell button: photos, honest description, a mandatory condition report, starting price and optional reserve. No commission, no listing fee - free accounts run up to 7 items at once. If your words point at a different category than the one you picked (car parts filed under Home & Garden, say), the form asks 'Did you mean Auto & Marine?' - one tap to switch, and ignoring it is fine too. Picking a category also offers an optional subcategory ('what kind?') so your item lands where buyers browse.

Account → My listings (or huntersauctions.com.au/selling). Every lot you've listed is there with where it stands - live, opening later, sold, passed in - plus one-tap edit while edits are still allowed. Your public seller page shows buyers your live lots; My listings is the private view with everything.

No - the sell form saves a draft to your account as you type, photos included. Come back to the Sell page on any device and your unfinished listings are waiting at the top, marked 'Unfinished' - pick one up right where you left off, or discard it. Hit 'Start fresh instead' on a restored form if you'd rather begin again.

Hunters Plus and Business members can connect their own AI assistant from Account → AI connections. Your AI can upload photos, write the listing, check what similar items actually sold for, recommend a starting price and set the schedule - but it can only ever create DRAFTS. Every draft waits on your Sell page until you review it and publish it yourself; your AI can't publish, bid or touch money, and you can revoke its access token at any time. What you publish is yours, same as if you typed it - so check its condition report is honest before you hit the button.

Yes. Tap ✂ Edit on any photo while listing: crop, straighten and rotate are free for everyone. Hunters Plus and Business add the background studio - your own phone cuts the item out and cleans the edge, then you can blur the room, drop in a clean white or studio background, or stage the item on one of 100+ scenes (benches, sheds, decks, flat-lay fabrics) and drag it into place. Glass and other see-through items have their own switch so the new scene shows through them. Already cut the item out on your phone (iPhone Copy Subject, Samsung/Pixel tap-and-hold)? Upload that PNG and the editor uses it as-is. Photos never leave your device while editing. One rule: backgrounds may be edited, the item itself may not - flaws stay visible and the condition report stays honest.

Only until the first bid lands. After that the goods can't change under people's bids - that's a fairness rule, not a technical limit. Until then everything is editable, schedule included: a scheduled lot switched to 'straight away' opens for bidding the moment you save, and the close time can move too. After the first bid you can still remove the reserve or withdraw the item (rules below).

Yes, any time while the auction is live - it's one tap plus your password or quick PIN, and every bidder and watcher is told the item now sells to the top bid. It often reignites bidding. A reserve can only ever go down or away: there's no raising it once bidding has started, and no putting it back.

Before the auction closes, yes - with one important exception: in the final 24 hours, once the item has bids or watchers, withdrawal locks. That's when bidders have invested the most, and last-minute pulls are what kills trust in auction sites. If something genuinely stops the sale in that window (the item broke, it was stolen), contact support. Withdrawing a contested item requires your password or quick PIN, and bidders and watchers are notified.

Give them 72 hours from the sale. After that, the order page offers two buttons: give them one final 24-hour extension (they're told it's last call), or record that the sale didn't happen. Recording it cancels the sale, notes a no-show on the buyer's account, and unlocks your second-chance options - offering the item to the next-highest bidders at their own bids - plus one-tap relisting.

Some sellers ask the winner to lock the sale in with a deposit - a fixed amount or a percentage, paid by PayID straight to the seller within 24 or 48 hours of the auction ending. The balance is paid at handover, after you've inspected the item. If the winner never collects, the deposit stays with the seller (that's the point of it) - unless the item turns out not to match its condition report, in which case the deposit comes back. Deposits are shown on the item page before you bid, and missed deposits are recorded against buyer accounts. Hunters never holds the money.

The seller paid (or used a plan credit) for extra visibility: the top row of the category page and the homepage Featured strip. A boost never affects the auction itself - bidding, pricing and closing rules are identical for every item, and boosted cards are always labelled so you know why you're seeing them.

Yes - bulk upload is a Business feature. From Sell → Bulk upload, download the Excel template (dropdown pickers plus a how-to sheet), fill in up to 50 items, save it as CSV and upload it. Every field the sell form has is a column - the required basics, plus optional reserve, Power Bid price, scheduled start, pickup window and notes, deposits, inspections, PayID and structured details like brand, model and dimensions - so a spreadsheet row can carry everything a hand-filled listing can. Rows whose wording points at a different category get a heads-up in the results ('Reads like Auto & Marine') - the listing still goes live, and you fix the category via Edit item if the nudge is right. Every row goes through the same screening as a hand-filled listing, and you get a per-row result - one bad row never sinks the batch. Leave the end date blank and everything closes the following Sunday at 7pm, which makes a whole estate or clearance run as one event. Photos can't ride along in a CSV: each listing goes live photo-less and you add photos via Edit item - do it before you promote the batch, because items without photos rarely get bids.

Hunters launches on Thursday 10 September 2026 at 9am (Sydney time). Until then every lot you list goes on the site straight away - people can find it, watch it and share it - and bidding on all of them opens together on launch morning, with your chosen run length kept from then. We recommend runs of 10 days or more while the site is new: more people need time to discover it.

An opt-in guessing game, switched on in your account. Every lot gets a purple Guess chip: call the hammer price once, and when the lot sells you score for being close - under the hammer scores nothing, at or above scores more the closer you are, multiplied by how many days out you called it (up to 14), a little extra for dearer items, your daily streak (up to +50%) and x2 on boosted lots. Unsold lots are void. It's points and a monthly leaderboard only - nothing to buy, nothing to win, and a guess is never a bid and can't win you the item. Bid normally as well if you want the thing.

Items members give away for nothing on the Freebies page. No bidding - the first signed-in member to claim one gets it. You arrange pickup in the order chat, and once you confirm collection the item lands in your wallet and you review each other, just like a sale.

Hit 'Give something away' on the Freebies page, or 'Give away' next to any item in your wallet. Photos, an honest condition report and your pickup area - same honesty rules as selling, and the prohibited items list still applies. You can have up to 10 freebies up at once, and they don't use your auction listing slots.

Yes - join the line. While a claim is still waiting on pickup, the freebie page offers numbered spots behind the claimer (up to 5). If the claim falls through - the claimer bows out or no-shows - the item goes to the front of the line automatically: you get a notification and the pickup order opens in your name. A queue spot is the same commitment as a claim, so only join if you can genuinely collect it.

Open the order and tap 'Give up my claim' before pickup - no penalty, and the item goes straight back on the Freebies page. Just don't ghost: if the giver reports a no-show after 72 hours, it's recorded on your account.

No. A freebie is free, full stop - nothing may be charged at pickup, on or off the platform. If someone asks for money for a freebie, don't pay, and report it from the item page.

Don't confirm handover. For card orders, open a dispute from the order page before funds release. For cash pickups, inspect before you hand over money - that's the point of paying in person.

When either side opens a dispute, funds stay held. We compare the complaint against the listing's mandatory condition report and photos, ask both sides for their account (and evidence like photos), and resolve within 5 business days: release to the seller, refund the buyer, or a split both sides accept. The condition report is the contract - sellers who described flaws honestly are protected by it.

Use 'Report this item' on the listing. Reports and our automatic screening land in the same review queue; prohibited items are removed and repeat offenders are suspended.

No - that's the most common scam, and it's the one thing to never do. Pay only the way the order shows: PayID direct to the seller (their registered account name is displayed for you to check against your banking app), or cash when you collect. There is no reason to bank-transfer, wire, send crypto or use PayPal/gift cards to someone you haven't met, and anyone pushing you to do so is a red flag - stop and report them. To protect you, questions and order messages can't include off-platform payment details or off-app contacts (a phone number for arranging pickup is fine). Keeping it on Hunters is what lets us step in if something goes wrong.

No. At signup, in your profile, and on every listing you can choose to show only your general area - 'Newcastle area' instead of your exact suburb. Distance search works exactly the same either way, and the buyer of a completed order still gets real pickup details.

Points come only from completed deals: buying an item earns 10, selling earns 5, and leaving a review after a deal adds 2. Points add up to a rank on your profile - Scout, Tracker, Hunter, Seasoned Hunter, Master Hunter, then Legendary Hunter. The Trusted Hunter badge is separate and earned, never bought: 5 or more completed deals, a 4.5+ star average, no open disputes and no missed pickups. Cancelled or refunded deals never count, and trading in circles with the same person stops earning after a few deals a month.

Finishing positions. Gold = auctions won where the sale actually completed (a cancelled win is no win - and a no-show loses it). Silver and bronze = finished 2nd or 3rd by your own highest bid. They show on profiles, and the weekly and monthly leaders appear on the public Podium page (linked in the footer).

Items sold on Hunters can carry a registry record - photos, condition report, and ownership history that moves from seller to buyer when the sale completes. It's provenance for second-hand goods, powered by GAD Systems technology, and you can transfer a registry item beyond Hunters into a GAD wallet. Selling something already in your wallet is one tap: the sell page offers your wallet items, and picking one fills the form with its photos, description and value. Details of exactly what's shared are on the Privacy page.

Because those actions are irreversible and affect other people's bids. A session isn't enough - anyone holding your unlocked phone shouldn't be able to kill your $2,000 auction. If typing your password on a phone is a pain, set a quick 4–8 digit PIN in your profile: it confirms auction actions, while identity changes (name, email, the PIN itself) always take the full password so a PIN can never take over an account.

Yes - deactivate your account from Profile & settings. You're signed out everywhere and the emails stop, but nothing is lost: your items, order history and reviews stay safe, and signing back in wakes everything up exactly as you left it. Lots without bids are withdrawn when you deactivate; anything with bids or an unfinished handover has to resolve first.

Yes - if you want your personal information gone rather than kept for your return, ask via support any time and your account and personal information are deleted. Order records we're legally required to keep are retained in de-identified form, and registry history stays with items you've sold (that's the buyer's provenance), with your identity reduced to what the record needs. If you might come back, deactivating instead keeps everything safe for you.

Ask a question with the form at the bottom of this page and we'll reply by email within 2 business days. Include the item or order link if there is one.