Everything you need to know
before you go live.

Gavel is a live auction platform. You open a room in your browser, add lots, and either share the link to your own audience or list publicly on Gavel. Buyers bid in real time with a countdown, Buy It Now, and live chat next to every lot.

No. Hosts use a browser. Bidders use a browser. We will never make your buyers download an app to bid.

About four minutes. Open the host panel, give the room a title, add a few lots with photos and starting bids, share the 5-letter code with your group, and click Go Live.

No. You can list publicly so buyers find you through search, category pages, and the Gavel calendar. Most sellers do both: share to their own audience and let Gavel surface them too.

Anything with a fluctuating price works. Sneakers, watches, trading cards, livestock, art, jewelry, vintage clothing, machinery, vehicles, even services. If you can photograph it and post a starting price, you can auction it.

Starter rooms cap at 5 lots. Pro and House plans are unlimited. We have tested rooms with hundreds of lots in a single sitting.

Yes. Private rooms are accessible by the 5-letter code or a share link. Only people you send the link to can find the room. It will not appear in public discovery.

Yes. Public rooms appear on Gavel's category pages, calendar, and search. Followers can opt in to be notified when you go live. This is included in Pro.

Yes. You can embed a YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, or restream link inside the room so buyers see your stream and the live bid feed in the same view.

You can edit a lot before it opens. Once a lot is open and has bids, only the description and photos are editable, not the starting price or increment schedule. This protects bidders from feeling tricked.

Yes. Any bid placed inside the final 10 seconds extends the timer to 10 seconds remaining. This is on by default and configurable per lot.

Yes. The host panel has a Break state. The room stays live, chat stays open, bidders see a break screen with a return-time countdown.

On hammer, the winning bidder receives a Stripe-powered invoice. You set deposit, shipping, and refund policy per room. Funds land in your connected Stripe account, minus the platform fee.

ZAR (Rand) is the default. USD, EUR, and GBP rooms are also supported and selected when you create a room.

For auto-invoice on hammer, yes. Starter sellers can run rooms without Stripe and collect payment manually. Pro and House require a connected payments account so invoices fire on hammer.

You can require a card on file before bidding, set a deposit, and mark no-shows. No-show bidders can be flagged and blocked from any of your future rooms with one click.

They register a name and a verified phone number on first bid. No password, no app. We optionally hold a card pre-authorisation on Pro rooms to deter timewasters.

Refunds run through Stripe. You initiate a refund from the lot history. We do not double-charge the platform fee on refunded sales.

By default the seller pays the platform fee out of the hammer. You can switch a room to charge a buyer's premium so the fee is added on top of the hammer price for the buyer.

Three layers. Bidders are tied to a verified phone number. You can set a max bids per buyer per lot. Every bid is logged with timestamps for audit. Suspicious patterns are flagged automatically on Pro and House.

Yes. Bans are per host, cross-room. Once a buyer is on your banned list they cannot enter any room you host.

Your lots, room data, and chat are private to your room. We do not share buyer phone numbers or contact details with anyone other than the winning seller of a lot.

You declare authenticity in each lot. For specific categories like watches, designer resale, and trading cards, we are rolling out optional third-party authentication partners. Email us if your category needs this now.

Sellers complete Stripe Connect onboarding which includes identity verification. House plan sellers receive additional KYC and compliance help if they sell regulated categories.

Nothing. Zero platform fees during private beta. We will give 90 days notice before paid plans go live, and beta sellers keep a discounted hammer rate forever on rooms they host.

Starter is R0 and capped at 5 lots per room. Pro is 2.5% of hammer with everything unlocked. House is custom, for licensed houses and high-volume sellers.

No listing fees, no per-bid fees, no monthly minimums. Stripe charges its standard payment-processing fee on top of the platform fee, the same as any online checkout.

No. Cancel any time. After cancellation, your rooms remain accessible read-only for 90 days so buyers can still grab invoices and shipping details.

Yes. Some Pro and House features (Stripe auto-invoicing, public discovery, custom subdomains, white-label) are on the roadmap or partially live. We will tell you exactly what is shipped today if you ask.

Yes. Every room has a Download CSV button that includes lots, hammer prices, bidders, and chat. Pro and House sellers also get JSON exports and a webhook stream.

Public API and webhooks are part of the House plan. Pro sellers can request a beta API key by emailing us. Starter sellers do not have API access.

Globally, with bid traffic routed to the nearest region. Real-time bid latency for most buyers is under 200 milliseconds. We will publish a status page before public launch.

Email hello@gavel.co.za for general questions and sales@gavel.co.za for House plans. Pro sellers get priority response. House plans include a dedicated CSM.