Terms Of Auction
By making bids on this website you are agreeing to the terms and conditions listed below.
10% BUYERS PREMIUM AS OF AUGUST 2020:
As of AUGUST 2020 a 10% buyers premium will be added to all purchases. PayPal payments will have a 13% buyers premium.
REGISTRATION & IDENTIFICATION:
At the time of registration, we collect information about you to verify who you are before you can bid. All bidders must be of legal age (18) to bid and if you choose to bid once registered we may contact you by phone to verify your account. We do not require a credit card from bidders, just a confirmed phone number, name and address.
PAYING FOR YOUR PURCHASES:
There is NO COST to register for an auction. When an auction closes, if you are the winner you should get a email for each lot letting you know you won however email is unreliable so you can also check this in your INVOICE HISTORY page. We accept Cash, Debit, Visa, MC, Interac email money transfer and PayPal. We do not accept cheques or take money orders/drafts or wire transfers of any kind.
LATE PAYMENTS / ABANDONED ITEMS
You are responsible to pay for all items won by auction within 6 days of the auction close. Please ensure your auctions are paid for by 3pm Saturday (THE FIRST SAT. AFTER YOUR AUCTION CLOSES AT THE LATEST) even if you can not come in to pick up your items you do need to make arrangements to pay for them as our consignors like to get paid for the items the following week If NO payment is received within 5 days overdue we will consider the items abandoned and your account would be suspended and the item would go back up for auction or offered to the previous back bidder (You will still owe the lost revenue and late fees if you wish to reactivate your account in the future. To reactivate your account you need to pays lost commissions the late fees and HST. If you are late paying for your invoice a 10.00 PER LOT late fee will also be applies so please make your payment by interac email money transfer or paypal if you can not pick up your items within the allotted 7 days.
TAXES:
Yes, we must charge taxes. Your invoice has our HST number on it as well. Any company that has gross sales over 30000.00 per year MUST charge 13% HST in ontario on most items. On the rare case we auction items that are tax exempt (such as bullion gold or silver) your invoice will still show the tax and we will manually adjust it at the counter for you. Invoices are printed in advance of picking up your auctions and we do not have a way to process tax exempt / status cards with our system at this time. We do however place our HST number on ALL invoices so if you do have tax exempt status you can claim this back from the government if you wish.
REVIEWING YOUR BIDS:
During an auction you can check the status of your bids at anytime. The website will EMAIL you when you are outbid or the item you are watching is ending but again emails are unreliable so you should watch the auction close or place a larger PROXY bid. Note that no publicly shown bids can be withdrawn for any reason so be careful placing bids.
BID MISTAKES:
You are responsible for any bid error that exposes a persons proxy. Once a NEW price is set on an auction listing we will not RETRACT or LOWER the public bid amount shown. This would be unfair to the owner (consignor) of the item. If you place a bid by mistake we can remove the balance of your proxy if you make a mistake but you will hold the winning bid when we remove the proxy so be careful not to enter 170.00 instead of 17.00 as it may be a costly mistake if someone runs you up!
BIDDING NOTIFICATIONS:
You will be notified by e-mail during the auction if you have been outbid. Please note that outbid notifications may not reach your email inbox in time within the last few hours of the sale.
WINNING NOTIFICATION & INVOICING:
All winning bidders will receive an e-mail shortly after the auction closing for each lot but it is best to log into your account and review the INVOICE page where you can find a complete invoice of all your lots on one page. It takes the system a few hours after the auction close to prepare all the invoices so check back the next day (Monday) to confirm what you won.
PICKUPS & REMOVALS:
Please check our pickup hours on the contact us page. You have UNTIL the first SATURDAY after the auction closes (by 3pm Saturday) to pay for your items. If you require more time to pickup your items you can make a payment by interac or paypal online and we will hold it up to 60 days Storage fees are added each week. Stored items here for more then 60 days we will consider abandoned and either resell, donate or dispose of them and invoice you any costs involved if any are incurred, we will not email or chase after you to pick up your paid for items so please DO NOT forget to come get them.
PICK UP OF HEAVY or BULKY items
Please bring help with you when picking up large or heavy items, our staff can not always assist you with large or heavy items. It is best to bring an extra able bodied person with you for furniture and heavy items. We do have wheel dollies here that you can borrow if needed, just ask.
CONDITIONS OF ITEMS SOLD & OUR ONLINE CATALOG:
All items are sold as is, where is, with all faults shown in the photos and/or disclosed in the listing details. Our best efforts are made to represent all items accurately in descriptions and photographs; however, all items are ultimately sold on an ‘as is, where is’ basis, with all faults and things do get missed. We strongly encourage all bidders to ask questions and not assume anything when it comes to auction lots. No responsibility is assumed by us (The auction). Any items listed as WORKING, NEW IN BOX or GUARANTEED you do have 24 hours to contact us if you get home and find your items do not work, all other items are asis. We do NOT Guarantee any item that is not listed as new in box, working or Guaranteed and any of those items only have a 24 hour window from time they are paid to let us know if something is wrong. If a flaw that was not shown in the photos or disclosed in the listing information and the flaw devalues the item or the item was misrepresented by the consignor we will accept a return on the item for evaluation within 24 hours and after review we will determine in the item is a valid return or not and proceed with a refund or a return of the item you the bidder. We act as a mediator between the sellers and the buyers.
CLAIMS:
No claims regarding goods purchased will be allowed. Bidders are reminded that all goods are sold on an ‘as is, where is’ basis, with all faults. Once the auction has ended the item is yours and falls under your own insurance. We will not be responsible for broken or damaged items after the auction close. Items in our storage (You paid for the items and are picking them up at a later date) the items become your property and we do our best to keep items safe from damage but damage can happen at times as it gets very full in our storage area. We always feel horrible when we damage someone items so we try very hard not to ever let this happen. If your item is damaged in storage we will apologize and probably waive some or all of the storage fees but the property you are having us store if yours (paid in full) and your home insurance must cover it, same with fire or theft once you pay for your item it’s yours (we never own it) so it goes from the consignors Ownership and responsibility to cover it to your insurance and responsibility ( our insurance does not cover other people’s property including fire, theft or damage ).
PERSONAL & PROPERTY RISKS:
We will not be liable for damage or injury to individuals or their property.
ADDITIONS & DELETIONS:
We reserve the right to remove and/or add lots and/or items to the sale at any point during the auction.
BUYERS:
The BUYER expressly agrees to indemnify the SwapShop & midlandauctions.ca, the Seller and their assigns harmless from and against all claims, losses, expenses, damage or liability, directly or indirectly caused by or resulting from an act, including the negligent acts or omissions of the SwapShop, midlandauctions.ca, or anyone acting in his/her behalf in connection with or arising out of auction. All bidders/buyers must be of legal age (18+years).
RESERVE:
Never are general items sold with Reserve. We do allow reasonable reserved starting prices (never hidden) on higher value items (vehicles for example). Most items start at 5.00 with no reserve. In the case of Canadian currency if the face value is higher then 5.00 the auction will start at face value. For example a 50.00 face value coin or bank note that is worth 50.00 at the bank will start at 50.00 and not 5.00. A car or any item with a starting reserve price if not sold the consignor will owe us a percentage of the reserved price (usually 10%) for trying to sell the item for them (this helps the reserved price to stay as reasonable as possible).
AUCTION RECORDS:
In the unlikely event of a dispute, you agree to accept as true the information that we have in our records.
STRATEGY:
We recommend that ALL BIDDERS put in their maximum bid when placing a bid online. This does not mean you will have to pay the amount you bid; you only pay one bid more than the next highest bid, and only up to your maximum bid. The software system will play out the bids as you would at a live auction and only uses the funds required to beat out the under-bidder at the prescribed bid increment. Waiting till the last minute to place your bid can end poorly for you as computers, web servers and the internet experience slow page loads at random times. If you cant get in to place your last minute bid you will loose out.
CATALOG ERRORS & OMISSIONS:
If a description does not match a picture in a lot, the description takes precedence. All items are sold on an ‘as is, where is’ basis, with all faults.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
You expressly understand and agree that the swapshop and the operators and owners of midlandauctions.ca shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses (even if the swapshop and the operators and owners of midlandauctions.ca has been advised of the possibility of such damages), resulting from: (i) the use or the inability to use the service; (ii) the cost of procurement of substitute goods and services resulting from any goods, data, information or services purchased or obtained or messages received or transactions entered into through or from the service; (iii) unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data; (iv) statements or conduct of any third party on the service; or (v) any other matter relating to the service.
INDEMNITY
You agree to indemnify and hold swapshop and the operators and owners of midlandauctions.ca harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your breach of this Agreement or the documents it incorporates by reference, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.
LEGAL COMPLIANCE
You shall comply with all applicable domestic and international laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations regarding your use of our service and your bidding on, listing, purchase, solicitation of offers to purchase, and sale of items.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Swapshop and the operators and owners of midlandauctions.ca are governed by the laws of Ontario Canada without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You and swapshop and the operators and owners of midlandauctions.ca agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located within the midland Ontario area. The failure of swapshop and the operators and owners of midlandauctions.ca to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of this agreement is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of this agreement remain in full force and effect. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of the Service or this agreement must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred. All items are sold asis in as found condition. Items marked as new or working do hold a 24 hour hold on the funds so the buyer can insure the items are working and complete. All other items have zero guaranty of condition.
CONSIGNMENT REFUSAL
We reserve the right to refuse to sell any item, based on past sales and current knowledge and feedback from our bidder base we do at times refuse or re-lot consignors items. We try to aim for a minimum sale price per lot. This gets more strict on single or small batch consignments and during busy times where we would want to BUMP a lower value lot item in place of a higher value or more popular lot item.
WE WILL STORE YOUR ITEMS FOR UP TO 60 DAYS IF NEEDED
You have till Friday after the auction closes (All auctions close on SUNDAY nights) then your small items get moved to our storage area and will accumulate weekly storage fees (You do need to pay for your items however within 5 days of auction close). If for some reason can not pick them up we will store smaller items for up to 60 days. After 60 days your items will be considered abandoned.
COST TO STORE YOUR ITEMS
Each additional week will be invoice $2.00 per lot per week up to 60 days, at that time the storge amount will be invoice to your account and your items will be discarded or resold. Please keep in mind we have a SMALL location with very little storage area, we really want items picked up the week of the auction (at most every two weeks) storage is really just for people who live a far distance, emergencies or weather may be an issue for some.
ANGRY, RUDE, DISRUPTIVE or UNPLEASANT PERSONS ARE NOT WELCOME
I hate that we have to say this. It seams a VERY SMALL amount of people can make life miserable as we all know. We are friendly people, we like to maintain a happy and enjoyable environment here. If you feel the need to yell at us, make rude comments, make a scene, yell at other customers, etc… please do it somewhere else. If you do it here you will not be welcome back. We reserve the right to terminate any persons registered account and remove/ban the person from future bidding without reason.
For Example….
- Some people do not like our late fees (but its no secret we charge 10.00 a lot so simply do not be late paying. It is not our fault if you can not make it in to pick up your items so being mad at us for something we should be upset with you for is unreasonable) simple solution to this would be to PAY YOUR BILL ON TIME! then this is NEVER and issue. By not paying your bill on time you cause a LOT more work for us, you cause the consignor to not be paid out on time for his/her sold items and we have to shuffle your stuff all around and take time to contact you to let you know your account is late. If you feel is ok then please do not bid on the site! We do NOT want to EVER have to charge anyone a late fee! This is high so that it MOTIVATES you to make sure your bill is paid. After being 4 days late the consignor can take the items back, offer the item to the runner up bidder or relist the item. Your account at this time would be suspended and you will owe 10.00 per lot plus the lost commissions. Your account will not be activated again until these are paid. and… Should we not be the ones upset with you when you cause us extra work cause you do not wish to follow the rules? Why are people mad at us when they are at fault?? Who really is being taken advantage of or being wronged? Why do these people feel some sort of entitlement to break the rules?
- If you won a big heavy item Bring someone to help you carry it out. We are NOT ALLOWED to help load your car or handle your heavy items. Our insurance does not allow for this. Please DO NOT ask other customers to assist you either. We will be very blunt about this and will ask you to return with enough able bodied persons to help you load the items.
Terms are subject to change from time to time to clarify and better the overall bidder community. If you have any questions or concerns over our terms and policies please feel free to contact us and we would be happy to explain reasons for said terms and are open to suggestions to better the overall experience for everyone.
By registering and bidding you are acknowledging agreement with the terms above.
Please do not register for an account here or attempt to bid on this website or have someone bid for you unless you agree to all of these terms. By registering an account here you are agreeing to these terms.