Glossary of Auction Terms
AF As Found. A catch-all term for items with significant wear.
Appraisal A quick value assessment of an item, inclusive of age, maker, condition, and current market desirability. See also valuations.
Attributed (to) A term used to assign a possible creator or artist to a piece based on elements of the piece, but lacks a signature or marks to confirm it.
Auctioneer An auctioneer is a professional whose role involves appraising, describing and listing property for auction, organising advertising and catalogues for auctions, consulting with vendors and setting reserve prices, conducting auctions, and closing sales to the highest bidders. Auctioneers maintain a code of ethics, such as described by the Auctioneers and Valuers Association of Australia (AVAA).
Barcode A unique identifier used in-house to identify an item, accompanied by a stock code and excerpt of the description of the item.
Bid The value amount a buyer would like to pay for an auction item.
Bidder An individual or organisation who intends to or has placed a bid, or similar offer, on a lot offered at auction. To become a bidder at The Auction barn, register here.
Buyer’s Premium A Buyer’s Premium is a service fee added to the winning bid price by The Auction Barn.
Commission A percentage of the final price of a lot, which is paid to The Auction Barn as the agent of that transaction, taken from the vendor earnings on each lot. Not to be confused with buyer’s premium, which is a cost incurred by a buyer, a commission is paid by a vendor.
Condition Report Available on request, a short statement relating to the state and condition of a lot based on the personal observations of one of our expert staff. See also valuations and appraisals.
Consign/Consignment Used to refer to the action of placing your items with The Auction Barn (to Consign); and a term to refer to the items you have placed with us (a Consignment).
Estimate An approximate value we expect an item to achieve, based upon recent sales values and current market conditions.
Fair Market Value A term used by appraisers in relation to the likely sale price of an object if offered by a willing seller to a willing buyer. A sale at auction is considered a test of fair market value because it is advertised and open to all bidders.
Lot An item, or items, that are offered for sale in a single unit in an auction. Each lot has a designated Lot Number for placing it in order in an auction.
Max Bid A value which is bid, representing the most a bidder is willing to pay for a lot, and is used to automatically outbid competing bidders who bid lower than your designated value. For more information, see our Buyer’s Guide.
Passed In When an item receives no bids or is under reserve, the item is ‘passed in’ and is either: negotiated for sale with the highest bidder and the vendor, relisted for sale in another auction, or is returned to the vendor.
Plugged/Powered Plugged in & Powered Up refers to our testing regimen on some electronic items. This is not a gurantee of the items extended ability to perform, as we cannot diagnose all issues, but reflects that at the time of testing that the item appeared to work.
Provenance A term related to the history and chain of ownership of the item being appraised. Research on provenance is part of the appraisal process and can have a significant impact on the assigned value.
Reserve A minimum value at which an item must sell at, applied by The Auction Barn or by the Vendor themselves.
Showroom Our premises in which we display our weekly General and Antiques sales. Split into multiple sections for display, our Showrooms have 8 Sections and 2 Specialised Sections, A & B.
Stock Code An individual code assigned to each lot for use in The Auction Barn system.
Valuation A paid service offered by The Auction Barn where we provide a written document outlining the details of an item and a up-to-date estimate of the sale value of an item according to recent sales value and our expertise.
Vendor An individual or organisation offering something for sale through our auctions; a seller.