Auction terms

Who can take part

Anyone can watch an auction. Bidding needs a free Mineola Market member login, and a member must be signed in for their bid to count. Sellers must be members too — an auction is always attached to a person the site can reach.

What the seller promises

• The item is described honestly, including damage, and the photo is of the actual item.
• The item is in hand and can be collected or handed over when the auction ends.
• It sells to the highest bidder at the closing price. The starting price is the lowest they would take, so one bidder still means a sale.
• They will answer the winner within three days and arrange payment and pickup.
• They will keep to three auctions on any one day, so one seller cannot fill the calendar and shut everybody else out.

What the bidder promises

• A bid is binding. There is no “I changed my mind” and no retracting a bid.
• The winning bidder pays the closing price to the seller, directly, and collects the item.
• If the winner does not pay or collect, the seller may offer it to the next bidder and the account can lose bidding rights.

The site takes no money

Mineola Market does not take payment, hold funds, run escrow or charge a commission on an auction. The price is agreed and paid between buyer and seller exactly like any other listing. If someone asks you to pay “the site”, it is not us — tell support.

How the clock works

An auction is booked into one hour, Monday to Saturday, 9 AM to 9 PM. Bidding closes at :55 of that hour, not on the hour. If a bid arrives in the last five minutes the close moves out to five minutes after that bid, so a single late bid cannot win by a second — but it never runs past :59, which is what keeps the next auction starting on time.

Withdrawing an auction

A seller can cancel their own booking before it starts, as long as nobody has bid — the hour simply goes back on the schedule. Once a bid is in, only support can pull it, and only for a real problem (the item is gone, the listing was wrong, a prohibited item). An auction that never gets approved by the time its hour arrives is released automatically.

What cannot be auctioned

Anything illegal, anything you do not own or cannot legally transfer, firearms and ammunition, alcohol or tobacco, live animals, recalled goods, and counterfeit items. If you are unsure whether something belongs here, ask support before you book the hour.

If something goes wrong

Talk to the other side first — every auction that sells opens a private message thread for exactly that. If that fails, contact support@mineolamarket.com with the auction number. We can cancel a listing, remove an account from auctions, or hand you the records of what was bid, but we cannot refund money we never held.