Pitterby’s
Conditions of Business
These conditions govern every sale Pitterby’s conducts. Registering, bidding, or buying means you accept them. Please read them before you place a bid — a bid is a binding offer.
1. The house and its role
Pitterby’s acts as agent for the seller of each lot unless a lot is expressly offered as our own property. A contract of sale is formed between the buyer and the seller when the lot closes with the winning bid at or above any reserve.
2. Registration
Registration is by email address. We do not use passwords: you receive a single-use sign-in link, valid for one hour. You are responsible for the security of the mailbox you register with, and for every bid placed from your account.
Each registered bidder is assigned a paddle number. In the saleroom and in the bidding record you appear only as that number. We do not publish bidder names or email addresses.
Bidding requires a Pitter Paddle, issued on payment of a one-time registration fee of $1. Registration is processed by Whop and keeps your bank account (ACH) on file with them for the purpose of settling any lot you win. Pitterby’s does not receive or store your bank details. The fee is not refundable and is not credited against any purchase.
3. Estimates, condition, and description
Estimates are our opinion of likely selling range. They are not a prediction, a valuation, or a guarantee, and they exclude the buyer’s premium. Every lot is sold as-is, in the condition it is in at the time of sale.
Catalogue descriptions, condition reports and photographs are statements of opinion offered in good faith to help you decide. They are not warranties. Where a lot incorporates third-party trademarks or imagery, those rights remain with their owners and no endorsement is implied.
4. Bidding
Bidding opens at the starting bid and advances by the increment published on the lot. A bid must be at or above the next increment to be accepted.
You may instead leave a maximum. The book will then bid on your behalf one increment at a time, never above your ceiling, and will stop as soon as it holds the lot. Your maximum is confidential: it is never shown to other bidders, to the seller, or in the public bid record.
A bid is irrevocable. Once placed it cannot be withdrawn, reduced, or cancelled, and a maximum can only be raised.
5. The close
Each lot has a published closing time. Any bid accepted within the final two minutes extends the lot by two minutes from that bid. A lot closes only once two minutes pass with no further bidding, so a late bid never denies the room a reply.
6. Reserves
A lot may carry a reserve — a confidential minimum below which it will not sell. Where a reserve applies it never exceeds the low estimate. If the highest bid at the close is below the reserve, the lot goes unsold and no contract of sale arises.
7. Buyer’s premium and settlement
The buyer pays the hammer price plus a buyer’s premium of 26% of the hammer price, unless a different rate is stated on the lot. The premium is shown on your invoice before you pay.
By registering you authorise us to bill the hammer price plus buyer’s premium for any lot you win to the bank account you placed on file at registration, by ACH debit, once the lot closes. Alternative payment methods may be offered at auction checkout; where you choose one, the invoice is payable within seven days of the close. All payments are processed by Whop; Pitterby’s does not receive or store your bank or card details. Title passes on receipt of payment in full.
8. Non-payment
If an invoice is unpaid after seven days we may cancel the sale, offer the lot to the underbidder, re-offer it in a later sale, and decline your registration for future sales.
9. Collection and shipping
Shipping arrangements are stated on each lot. Risk passes to the buyer on payment. Unless a lot says otherwise, shipping and any applicable duties are at the buyer’s cost.
10. Withdrawal
We may withdraw a lot at any time before it closes, and may refuse or cancel a bid, or void a sale, where we believe there has been an error, a technical failure, or conduct intended to manipulate the outcome of a sale.
11. Liability
Nothing in these conditions limits liability for fraud or for anything that cannot lawfully be limited. Subject to that, our liability arising from any lot is limited to the hammer price and premium actually paid for it.
12. Changes
We may amend these conditions. The version published at the moment a lot closes governs that sale.
13. Contact
Write to [email protected].