How AuctionHub works
AuctionHub is an online auction marketplace for private sellers and buyers. A seller lists an item and chooses how it is sold: a classic rising-bid auction with automatic bidding, a Dutch auction whose price falls until someone accepts it, or a fixed price, optionally with a Buy Now price and offers. Buyers bid, buy or negotiate; when a sale is made, the two parties agree payment and delivery in a private deal room and rate each other afterwards.
The purpose of the site
Good things change hands privately all the time: a watch nobody wears, a camera lens from a hobby that moved on, a bicycle, a vinyl collection. AuctionHub gives these sales a fair and transparent process. Auctions find the real market price instead of a guess; a hidden reserve protects the seller from selling too cheaply; automatic bidding and the soft close protect the buyer from having to sit at the screen; public ratings let strangers trust each other enough to deal.
The platform is deliberately only the venue. It is not a shop, a dealer or an auction house: it does not own, store, inspect or ship the items, it takes no part in negotiations and it does not collect payments. Every sale is a direct agreement between a seller and a buyer, which keeps the process simple, and keeps the platform neutral. The Terms and Conditions spell this out.
Four ways to sell, one place to buy
Rising-bid auction
The seller sets a start price, an optional hidden reserve and a duration (7 days by default, or an exact end time). Buyers enter the most they would pay; the platform then bids for them automatically, only as much as needed to stay ahead of the next bidder, in increments that grow with the price. Unless the seller switched it off, a bid in the last 120 seconds extends the auction (soft close), so the item goes to the bidder who really wants it, not to the fastest click. How bidding works in detail
Dutch auction
The price starts high and drops by a fixed amount at a fixed interval, down to a floor the seller chose. The first buyer to accept the current price wins at that price. With several identical units, the first acceptance fixes the price and the remaining units sell at it, one or more per buyer. It is a quick way to sell when the seller does not know what the market will pay.
Fixed price and Buy Now
A fixed-price listing sells at the asking price to the first buyer, for one or several units. A Buy Now price can also be added to an auction: anyone may end it early by paying that price, until the first bid is placed.
Offers and counteroffers
Sellers may open a listing to offers. A buyer proposes a price; the seller accepts, declines or counters, and the seller can set thresholds that accept or decline offers automatically. Sellers can also take the initiative: on a listing that accepts offers, send a price to someone watching it (on an auction, only before the first bid), or offer the item to the highest bidder after an auction ended below its reserve.
From sale to delivery
- The sale. An auction ends with the reserve met, a buyer uses Buy Now, accepts a Dutch price, or an offer is accepted. Both sides are notified at once.
- The deal room. A private conversation opens between the buyer and the seller: no direct messaging exists anywhere else on the platform, so nobody is contacted by strangers. Either side proposes payment and delivery terms (method, shipping cost, address, notes), the other accepts or declines and proposes again, and the item is paid for and sent as agreed.
- Ratings. Each party rates the other once, positive or negative with a short comment. Ratings are public and permanent, and so are cancellation records.
- If the deal falls through. When a sale is still not completed 3 days later, the seller may cancel it, record the cancellation on the buyer's profile and offer the item to the next-highest bidder at that bidder's own maximum.
Finding what you want
Listings are organised in a category tree with subcategories, searchable by text and filtered by sale type, "ending soon", "accepts offers" and price. Any member can follow a category or subcategory and get a personal feed of just those listings, keep a watchlist, and receive notifications about bids, offers, deals and messages. Times are shown in your own time zone wherever you are.
Trust, safety and accounts
Accounts are tied to a confirmed e-mail address, and an administrator verifies an account before it can sell, bid, buy or make offers. Contact details are shown only to a counterpart in a deal, and only if the member allows it. Bids and accepted offers are binding; rules such as the soft-close window, bid-retraction limits and offer expiry are published on these pages and applied by the platform the same way for everyone.
What it costs
Buying costs nothing and there is no commission on sales. Sellers pick a plan that sets how many listings they can create per month: Free (5 a month), Basic (15 a month) or Pro (unlimited); a 12-month plan costs 10 monthly fees. Paid plans are paid off-platform against a reference and switched on by an administrator.
Read next: the full list of features, the getting-started guide, pricing, or the FAQ.