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Looking at an auction

You do not need an account to look. Open an auction from the home page to see its lots, search them, and open any lot for a larger picture, or a 3D model where one exists.

The auction house sets whether the live room can be watched without signing in.

Registering to bid

To bid you need an account, and you register separately for each auction: you accept that auction's terms and give your details.

The auction house reviews your registration. When it is approved you get a paddle number (the number the auctioneer calls out) and sometimes a bidding limit. Until then the page says your registration is pending. You can check its status on the auction page and under your registrations.

Watching the auction

The auction room shows the lot on the block, the current bid, the next bid and the high bidder (by paddle number), and a video picture when the auctioneer is broadcasting.

The video can be a few seconds behind. What the page shows as text, the lot, the price, fair warning and the result, is the official record and is always right; the picture may not be. Trust the text.

Bidding

The bid button shows the next amount. Pressing it offers exactly that amount. Only one bid can win each price: if someone else was a moment faster, you are told and shown the new price. You cannot outbid yourself.

Before the hammer falls the auctioneer gives fair warning. A bid at that moment cancels the warning. After the hammer the lot is sold or passed and no further bids are taken.

Many lots have a reserve, the lowest price the seller will accept. It is never shown to bidders. If your bidding limit would be exceeded, the bid is refused and you are told.

Absentee bids

If you cannot be there, open a lot before the auction reaches it and leave an absentee bid: the most you are willing to pay. The system then bids for you, one step at a time, only as high as needed. If you are the only absentee bidder it bids just the opening price, not your maximum.

Your maximum is secret: nobody else, including the auction house staff, can see it. If two absentee bids are equal, the earlier one wins. Once the lot opens your bid is binding and can no longer be changed or withdrawn. If the lot is withdrawn, the bid is cancelled.

After the auction

When the auction closes, the auction page shows your result: the lots you won and the prices. It also shows a final audit record number and code that the auction house can print on your invoice and later check.

Payment and delivery are arranged by the auction house; Ceant does not take payment.

Your data and the audit record

Every bid and every action in an auction is written to a tamper-evident record, so a dispute can be settled from facts. Your bids are recorded against your paddle, not your name.

For online bids the record also keeps your network address and browser details. These can be erased on request through the auction house; erasing them does not break the record. Your name and contact details stay with your account, not in the record.

For auction staff

Only an Auction Admin can edit an auction. Auctioneers run the live auction (opening lots, fair warning, the hammer) and clerks enter floor and phone bids; both are given by the Auction Admin on the Staff tab. Open Run in the menu to find your auctions.

Automation and AI assistants can read an auction and help prepare it, but they can never open a lot, give fair warning or drop the hammer: those stay with the people in the room.

Accessibility

Ceant can be used with a keyboard and with screen readers; price changes in the room are announced, and dialogs trap focus until closed. Known gaps: the live video has no captions (the same information is on the page as text), and the German and Irish translations have not yet been reviewed by native speakers. The site has not had a formal accessibility audit.

If something does not work for you, tell the auction house and we will fix it.