Listing an auction and bidding on one are two different flows with two different sets of steps. Here's exactly what each side actually does, from setting a reserve to winning a lot.
Create a listing and choose Auction as the listing type in step one of the wizard.
Set a starting price per unit, weight, and an optional minimum reserve, the auto-set default matches your starting price, so bidding only sells the lot once it clears a number you're actually willing to accept.
Set a bid increment, the minimum amount each new bid must exceed the last by, keeping the auction moving in meaningful steps rather than one-cent increments.
Your lot goes through GPS verification before going live, confirming the material, quantity, and location are genuinely what's described.
Complete identity and business verification (KYC) before you're able to place a bid, a one-time step, not repeated per auction.
Browse live auctions and check the listing details, plus a live calculator reference price if you want a second data point before bidding.
Place a bid at or above the current price plus the seller's set increment. Bidding itself is free, no fee to place a bid or to lose one.
If you're the highest bidder when the auction closes, and the reserve (if any) has been met, you win the lot and move to confirming the deal.
These two settings do genuinely different jobs, and mixing them up is a common first-time mistake. The reserve protects the seller's floor, it's the minimum price bidding must reach for the lot to actually sell, and if it isn't met, no deal happens, no matter how much interest the listing got. The bid increment controls the pace of bidding itself, the minimum jump between one bid and the next, unrelated to whether the reserve gets cleared.
A practical approach many sellers use: set the starting price low enough to draw genuine interest and competitive bidding, but set the reserve at the actual minimum you'd accept, letting the auction dynamic do the work of finding a price above that floor rather than trying to guess the right single number upfront the way a fixed-price listing requires.
Winning isn't the end of the process, it's the start of the deal itself. Buyer and seller confirm the transaction through the platform, a deposit is charged and held rather than passed straight to the seller, and pickup or delivery gets arranged directly through ScrapTrade. The seller is paid once that pickup or delivery is actually confirmed, not automatically the moment the auction ends. See how ScrapTrade's escrow works for the full deposit-to-release sequence.
A verified seller lists a lot, material, grade, weight, location, with a starting price, and verified buyers place competing bids in real time until the auction closes. The highest bid wins, provided any reserve the seller set has been met.
Yes, browsing and bidding are free for registered, verified buyers. There's no fee to place a bid or to be outbid, cost only enters the picture once you actually win a lot and the deal proceeds.
A reserve is the minimum price you're willing to accept, if bidding doesn't reach it, the lot doesn't sell. It's optional and auto-set to match your starting price by default, but you can adjust it, useful if you want bidding to start low to attract interest while still protecting a floor.
The minimum amount each new bid has to exceed the current one by, set by the seller when listing. It keeps an auction from crawling forward in trivial amounts and gives bidders a clear sense of what a meaningful next bid actually looks like.
You and the seller confirm the deal through the platform, a deposit is charged (5% by default) and held, and pickup or delivery is arranged directly through ScrapTrade. Funds are released to the seller only once that pickup or delivery is confirmed.
The listing and bidding mechanics are built around a lot going live only after GPS verification, and the standard flow runs through to a close with the highest qualifying bid winning. For the seller-side cancellation and deposit specifics, see the official process walkthrough.
Because it's set by multiple verified buyers competing in real time, not one buyer's private assessment of what your material is worth. You can also cross-check any auction against a live, location-adjusted calculator price before bidding or listing, so neither side is relying purely on the auction dynamics alone.
The lot simply doesn't sell through that auction. Nothing is charged to anyone, no deposit, no fee, and the seller can relist, adjust the reserve or starting price, or choose a different listing type entirely for the next attempt.
Auction fits material where you're genuinely unsure of its ceiling and want competitive bidding to find it, or a market where demand is currently volatile enough that a single fixed number risks leaving money on the table. Fixed Price fits material with a well-understood, stable value where speed and certainty matter more than squeezing out a marginally higher price.
Bids update live on the listing, so you can see the current price and how bidding is progressing, not just a notification after the fact that you've lost the lead. That transparency is part of what makes the closing price reflect genuine demand rather than sealed, blind offers.
Set a starting price, an optional reserve, and let verified buyers compete.
Browse Live Auctions