Bidding

Placing your bids on Purple Wave is simple. You will need a customer account to place bids. If you are new to Purple Wave, learn about registration. If you are a returning customer, you can retrieve your account information.

All items, unless stated otherwise, are sold “as is, where is“. Inspection prior to bidding is highly recommended.

1. Enter current and maximum bids

   Bids can be placed anywhere you see the your bid and Your Maximum fields. Enter your current bid in the Your Bid field and enter your maximum bid, if any, in the Your Maximum field. Enter your customer number and password at the bottom of the page and submit the form.

   • Learn more about maximum bids.
   • See the valid bidding increments scale.
   • Bids greater than $10,000 may be subject to additional qualification.
   • A 10% buyer’s premium will be added to all winning bids.

   

2. Confirm bids and auction terms

   If this is the first bid you have placed in the auction, you will be asked to agree to auction specific terms. Once you have agreed to the terms, you will be asked to confirm your bids and submit the form.

   • Learn more about the auction specific terms and conditions.
   • Once your bids are placed they cannot be retracted, please review your bids carefully!

   

3. Bids received

   Your bids are implemented and you will be returned to the page you were bidding from. The item number(s), bid amount(s), bid status and bid notes will be displayed at the top of the page. The bid notes will indicate if you are the lead bidder or not.
   

Bidder tools

Reviewing your bidsTo review your bids, log in to your customer portal and select “Bidding”. All auctions that you have bidding activity in will be displayed. Select an auction to see the individual bids in that auction.

Outbid email alertsIf you are outbid prior to auction close an email alert will be sent.

Auction schedule

Close of biddingAuction bidding starts to close at the time and frequency detailed in the auction’s terms and conditions. Most of our auctions are scheduled to start to close at 10:00 a.m. central, at a frequency of one item per minute. All auctions feature our automatic extension system.

Automatic extensionsIf a bid is placed on an item within the extension time, the bidding time is extended. Most of our auctions use an extension time period of five minutes. Items will remain open until no other bids are placed within the extended time.

Grouped extensionsOccasionally, Purple Wave will group together similar items in an auction. Any extension to an item in the group will cause all items in the group to extend. All items in the group will close at the same time. Learn more about grouped extensions.