The fine print, minus the fine print
Plain-English terms for using Hunters Auctions. A fuller legal version will accompany public launch; these principles won't change. Last updated 29 August 2026.
Hunters Auctions is a peer-to-peer auction marketplace. Every item is listed and sold by its owner. We provide the auction room - listings, bidding, and payment coordination - but we are not the seller, we are not a party to any sale, and we never own or hold the items.
Listing is free, we take no seller commission, and buyers pay no premium. Free accounts may run up to 7 active items at a time. Optional Plus and Business subscriptions offer higher limits and extra features, and optional boosts buy a lot extra visibility (never a bidding advantage) - those are the only things on Hunters that cost money, and the auction itself never does.
A boost is paid visibility only - it never affects bidding, pricing or who wins, and boosted items are always labelled. Plan boost credits currently run for 7 days per boost as an introductory offer for a limited time; the standard length is 3 days, and we may end the introductory length at any time. The boost length is not a locked-in feature of any plan or membership: founding-member status locks your subscription price, never the boost length. Boost Passes are non-transferable, tied to your account, and expire on the date shown when issued.
Plus and Business are optional subscriptions billed in advance, monthly or yearly, through our payment processor Stripe - your card number goes to Stripe directly and never touches our servers. Prices are in Australian dollars and include GST. You can cancel any time from Manage billing on the Plus page: your benefits run to the end of the period you've paid for, and nothing renews after that. Founding-member pricing locks your yearly rate for as long as your subscription stays active; the founder badge is permanent either way. If a renewal payment fails we'll tell you and Stripe will retry; benefits pause a few days later if it can't collect. These terms sit alongside your rights under Australian Consumer Law, which are never excluded.
The Hunters game is an optional, free guessing game: players call a lot's hammer price once per lot and earn points for accuracy, weighted by how early they guessed. A guess is not a bid, never affects an auction's price or outcome, and cannot win the item. Points have no monetary value, cannot be bought, sold or redeemed, and confer no entitlement; there are no entry fees and no prizes unless a specific promotion says otherwise under its own terms. Guesses are hidden until the lot closes and are then shown in aggregate on the lot page. House accounts, staff and a lot's own seller cannot play on that lot. We may adjust scoring, void guesses affected by error or abuse, or end the game at any time.
Bidding requires a confirmed email address on your account - it keeps every bid answerable to a reachable person. A bid is a commitment to buy at that price. When an auction closes with a winning bid at or above any reserve, a binding agreement forms directly between the buyer and the seller at the hammer price - Hunters is not a party to it. The buyer must complete the purchase; the seller must honour the sale. Failures to complete are recorded against the account responsible and repeated failures lead to suspension.
A listing can be edited only until the first bid lands - the goods never change under people's bids. A reserve can be removed at any time while the auction is live (bidders and watchers are told; it cannot be raised or reinstated once bidding has started). An item can be withdrawn before the auction closes, EXCEPT in the final 24 hours once it has bids or watchers - at that point the auction runs to its end, and only our support team can cancel it for genuine cause. Reserve removal and contested withdrawals require your password, or the quick numeric PIN you can set in your profile (setting or changing the PIN itself always requires the password).
If a winning buyer is unpaid and unresponsive, the seller may (after a 72-hour patience window, with the option of granting one 24-hour extension) record the sale as fallen through. That cancels the sale and records a no-show against the buyer. The seller may then offer the item to the second-highest bidder at that bidder's own highest bid, and if declined or unanswered within 48 hours, to the third-highest. A second-chance offer is exactly that - an offer; the bidder is free to decline. Accepting one forms a binding sale on the same terms as winning the auction, at the accepted price.
Members may offer items free of charge on the Freebies page. There is no bidding: the first signed-in member to claim a freebie gets it, and claiming forms a commitment to collect the item as arranged with the giver. All listing rules apply unchanged to freebies - the truthful condition report, the prohibited items list, and automatic screening. Nothing may be charged for a freebie at pickup, on or off the platform. If a claimer fails to collect, the giver may (after the same 72-hour patience window as a sale) record the pickup as fallen through, which records a no-show against the claimer and returns the item to the Freebies page; a claimer may instead withdraw their claim any time before pickup without penalty. While a claim is open, other members may join a queue (up to 5) behind the claimer; if the claim falls through, the item passes automatically to the next person in line, whose claim carries the same commitment to collect. When the claimer confirms collection, the giver has 48 hours to confirm or raise a problem; the handover then finalises (immediately on the giver's confirmation, or automatically when the window lapses), the item's registry record transfers to the claimer, and both parties may review each other. Hunters charges no fees on freebies.
Every listing must include a truthful condition report. Misdescribed items may be returned and the sale reversed. Photo backgrounds may be edited - cropped, blurred, or replaced with a plain or scene backdrop - but the item itself must not be altered, retouched, or presented in a way that hides flaws; anything noted in the condition report must remain visible in the photos. Prohibited items may not be listed: weapons and ammunition, drugs, tobacco and vapes, adult material, live animals and livestock, real estate, dangerous goods (asbestos, fireworks), counterfeits, recalled products, and anything illegal to sell. Listings are screened automatically and can be reported by anyone; breaches are removed.
At present every sale is settled in cash on pickup, directly between buyer and seller in person - count it before the item leaves. Card payments held in escrow are coming: when enabled, they'll be processed by our payment partner and held until the buyer confirms handover, and Hunters will never hold your money.
Sellers may require the winning bidder to pay a deposit (a fixed amount or percentage, shown on the listing before you bid) directly to the seller by PayID within the stated deadline. The balance is paid at handover. If the winner fails to pay the deposit on time, the seller may cancel the sale and relist; missed deposits are recorded against the buyer's account. If the winner pays the deposit but does not complete the purchase, the deposit is forfeited to the seller - except where the item materially fails to match its condition report at inspection, in which case the seller must return the deposit. Deposits move directly between buyer and seller; Hunters never receives or holds them.
Items sold on Hunters can carry a registry record - photos, condition reports, and an ownership history that moves from seller to buyer when a sale completes. This registry and its transfer technology are provided by GAD Systems (gad.systems), and registry records are stored and processed on GAD Systems infrastructure. If you choose to, you can transfer a registry item beyond Hunters into a GAD wallet. The registry exists to make second-hand goods safer to buy and sell - provenance, not surveillance; see the Privacy page for exactly what is shared.
Plus and Business members may connect their own AI assistant (via Account → AI connections) to prepare listing drafts and wallet items on their behalf. A connected AI can only ever create drafts: nothing it prepares goes live, and no bid or payment is made, until you review the draft and publish it yourself. Anything you publish from an AI-prepared draft is your listing in full - the truthful condition report, the prohibited items list and every other listing rule apply exactly as if you had written it. Access tokens are yours to protect and can be revoked at any time; we may suspend AI access that abuses the platform.
For escrow orders, either party can raise a dispute before funds are released and we will review the evidence, including the listing's condition report. Cash transactions completed in person are final between the parties. Our dispute decisions are recorded and auditable.
You must be 18 or older and provide accurate details. You are responsible for activity on your account. Certain irreversible actions (removing a reserve, withdrawing a contested item) require your password or quick PIN again - that protection exists for you; keep both to yourself. We may suspend accounts that break these terms or the law.