Before you can bid

• You'll need a registered account in good standing, a photo ID on your account — every bidder, personal, dealer and rep alike — and a valid credit card saved. Saving your card costs nothing and places no hold — we verify it with your bank, and nothing is charged for bidding unless you win.
• The first time you bid, you accept these Bidding Rules and the Terms — once, for good.
• Every bid is a binding promise to buy. There are no self-service retractions, and backing out of a winning bid can get your account suspended. Sellers can't bid on their own lots — the platform blocks it outright.
• Some lots are dealers-only: only verified dealer accounts can see and bid on those.

How bidding works

• BidNation uses max (proxy) bidding: enter the most you'll pay, and we bid only the increment needed to keep you on top — up to your max. While you're in the lead, your max stays private. Like any auction, a bid that gets beaten shows in the bid history at its full amount.
• The first bid opens the lot at its starting price (or the $5 ladder floor if the seller didn't set one). Your max can be higher — it kicks in the moment someone challenges you.
• Every later bid must top the standing bid by at least one increment: $5 up to $100 · $10 to $250 · $25 to $500 · $50 to $1,000 · $100 to $5,000 · $250 to $20,000 · $500 to $50,000 · $1,000 beyond that.
• If two bidders set the same maximum, the earlier bid wins the tie.
• Leading and nervous? You can raise your own max any time — the price doesn't move, no one is notified, and your new ceiling stays private.

Reserves

• Some lots carry a hidden reserve — the lowest price the seller will accept. The lot badge tells you what matters: No reserve or Reserve met. The reserve amount itself is never revealed.
• Once bidding reaches the reserve, the lot sells to the high bidder, full stop. A seller can also lift their reserve mid-auction — from that moment the lot is no-reserve for good.
• If the auction closes below the reserve, there's no sale yet: the seller can accept the high bid as-is or send the high bidder a counter-offer. Counters run at most 3 rounds, and each one expires after 48 hours without an answer.

The clock & anti-sniping

• Auctions run 3 to 15 days and close at the time shown on the lot.
• Soft close: a competing bid in the final 60 seconds resets the clock to 2 minutes 30 — again and again, until the bidding actually stops. (Raising your own max doesn't reset the clock.)

Winning & the buyer's fee

• When the clock runs out, the highest bid wins. Bids are in CA$; the US$ figures shown to US accounts are daily-rate estimates — you're charged in CA$.
• The winner pays a buyer's fee to BidNation Marketplace Limited: 5% of the final price, with a $10 minimum and a $550 maximum, plus applicable taxes. Verified dealers pay 3.5% on automotive vehicle purchases only; every other category is 5%. Your exact fee is shown before you bid and again at checkout.
• Pay it at checkout right after you win — or don't lift a finger: if it isn't paid shortly after the close, we may charge it to your card on file automatically. Any referral credit on your account is applied first (a small card-processing minimum of about 50¢ always remains payable). The fee is non-refundable once charged.
• The fee is all we collect. You pay the seller directly for the item itself — BidNation never holds the purchase money.

Sellers & withdrawals

• Listing is free — no listing fee, no commission, no cut of your sale price. The two charges a seller can incur are the optional media package and the cancellation fee, both set out below.
• Cancellation fee: withdrawing a listing that's already live costs $50 plus applicable GST/HST, charged to the card on file. The tax is calculated for your province at the time of the charge. This keeps live lots that bidders are watching from being pulled on a whim. Listings still awaiting review or their media shoot come down free — and once a lot has a bid, it can no longer be withdrawn and runs to close.

After the sale

• The moment the fee is in, your private deal room opens: contact details are exchanged and you settle payment and hand-over directly with the seller.
• We expect everyone to deal in good faith. Not paying, misrepresenting an item, or shill bidding can get your account suspended.

Last updated: July 18, 2026.

1. Agreement

By creating an account or using the BidNation platform (the "Platform"), operated by BidNation Marketplace Limited ("BidNation", "we", "us", or "our") from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, you agree to these Terms & Conditions, the Bidding Rules, and the Privacy Policy. The Buying & Selling Policies below are provided for your information.

2. Eligibility & accounts

You must be the age of majority in your province or state and provide accurate information. Private sellers may be required to verify their identity. You're responsible for activity on your account.

3. Marketplace role

BidNation is a venue that connects buyers and sellers. We are not the buyer or seller, do not take possession of items, and take no cut of the sale price — we collect the buyer's fee and the price of any optional services a seller purchases. Item payment and transfer happen directly between the parties.

BidNation is not a motor vehicle dealer, salesperson, or broker, and is not registered as one in any province, territory, or state. We do not sell, offer to sell, or negotiate the sale of any item; we do not act as agent for buyers or sellers; and we never receive or hold the purchase money for an item. The Platform is an online advertising and bidding venue. Where a listing is posted by a licensed dealer, that dealer — not BidNation — is the seller of record and is responsible for the regulatory obligations that come with being one.

4. Fees

Listing is free to create. Buyers pay the buyer's fee described in the Bidding Rules and shown to your account before you bid. Optional services (media package, CARFAX) are charged as shown at checkout. Cancellation fee: if you withdraw a listing after it has gone live, a $50 cancellation fee plus applicable GST/HST applies and is charged to the card on file. The tax is calculated for your province at the time of the charge and itemised on your receipt; listings still pending review or awaiting their media shoot are withdrawn at no charge, and once a lot has received a bid it can no longer be withdrawn.

5. Prohibited conduct

No fraud, misrepresentation, shill bidding, prohibited or illegal items, or harassment. We may remove listings and suspend accounts that violate these Terms.

6. Disclaimers & liability

Items are sold as-is by sellers. To the extent permitted by law, BidNation is not liable for the condition, legality, or completion of any transaction between users.

BidNation's local representatives ("reps") and dealer sellers are independent parties — not employees or agents of BidNation. Reps who provide listing services (photography, media, vehicle verification, or paperwork assistance) act on their own behalf; to the extent permitted by law, BidNation does not warrant their work and is not responsible for their acts, omissions, advice, timeliness, or the accuracy of anything they produce.

Dealerships and other sellers are solely responsible for their own listings, representations, pricing, item condition, title, liens, warranties, and conduct, and for holding any dealer licence, GST/HST, business, or provincial registration required to sell. BidNation does not verify a seller's tax or registration status, is not the seller, does not take possession of or inspect items, and is not liable for a dealer's or seller's acts or omissions. Any dispute over an item, a listing, payment, or services provided is between the parties involved, and you agree BidNation is not a party to it.

Buying & Selling Policies

Topics buyers and sellers should consider before using the Platform to buy or sell a vehicle or other item.

I. Introduction

These Buying & Selling Policies (the "Policies") describe how transactions work on the Platform and flag legal topics that buyers and sellers should look into before transacting. The Policies: (a) are for information only; (b) describe current BidNation offerings, which can change without notice; (c) create no commitments by, or assurances from, BidNation; and (d) are not legal advice. Your use of the Platform is governed by the Terms & Conditions above. You are responsible for making your own assessment of everything in these Policies, and we encourage you to get professional advice before buying or selling a motor vehicle.

A. The Platform

Through the Platform, sellers list motor vehicles, equipment, and collectibles for sale, and buyers bid on those listings in a real-time online auction. A bid is successful when it is the highest bid at the close of the auction and meets any reserve the seller has set. When an auction closes with a successful bid, we connect the buyer and seller privately so they can complete payment and hand over the item. The contract of sale is formed directly between the buyer and the seller — the buyer purchases from the seller, not from BidNation. BidNation is not a party to the sale, is not the supplier of the item, never takes possession of it, and takes no cut of the sale price — we collect the buyer's fee, plus the price of any optional services (such as the Media Package or a CARFAX report) that a seller chooses to purchase. A bid is a commitment to complete the purchase as described in the Bidding Rules; buyers who fail to pay and parties who deal in bad faith may have their accounts suspended.

Your information and our advertising. What we collect and what we do with it is set out in the Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Policies. One point belongs here because it is a choice rather than a condition: we may send your email address and phone number to advertising platforms so we can advertise BidNation to you and reach people like you — but only if you switch on "Advertising audiences" in your account settings. It is off by default, it is not a condition of holding an account, listing, or bidding, and you can switch it off at any time. See Privacy Policy sections 6(e) and 11.

II. Buying Policies

A. Buyer process & buyer's fee

To bid, buyers must have an approved account with a valid credit card on file. Saving your card places no hold and costs nothing — we verify it with your bank when you save it, and nothing is charged unless you win. If you win, the buyer's fee is payable at checkout; if it has not been paid shortly after the auction closes in your favour, we may charge it to your card on file automatically. The buyer's fee is 5% of the final price, with a $10 minimum and a $550 maximum (3.5% for verified dealers on automotive vehicle lots), and the exact fee that applies to your account is displayed before you bid. The buyer's fee is payable to BidNation Marketplace Limited and is in addition to the purchase price, which you pay directly to the seller.

B. Currency

Prices and bids on the Platform are in Canadian dollars. If your account is registered in the United States, displayed prices are U.S.-dollar estimates converted at a daily exchange rate for convenience — displayed estimates are not a quote. Amounts you enter (bids, maximums, reserves, and counter-offers) are converted to Canadian dollars at the daily rate at the time you enter them, and the resulting Canadian-dollar amount is the amount you have committed to. The currency in which the buyer pays the seller for the item itself is up to the buyer and seller to agree. Exchange-rate movement between bidding and payment, and any bank or transfer charges, are the parties' responsibility, not BidNation's.

C. Provincial motor vehicle dealer legislation

Buyers have certain rights under provincial and territorial motor vehicle dealer legislation when they buy from a registered motor vehicle dealer. Not every seller on the Platform is a registered dealer. Sellers declare themselves as a private seller or a dealer when they create their account, and listings reflect that account type. We check dealer licence information before approving a dealer account, but we do not guarantee that any seller is, or remains, a registered motor vehicle dealer in any province at the time of your purchase. Before you buy, you are responsible for confirming whether the seller is a registered dealer in the relevant province and what protections, if any, that gives you.

D. Provincial consumer protection legislation

Consumer protection legislation across Canada gives rights to consumers (individuals buying for personal, family, or household purposes) and imposes obligations on suppliers (persons in the business of selling). Depending on who you are and who the seller is, that legislation may or may not apply to your purchase. BidNation is not a supplier of the items listed on the Platform, and we do not guarantee that any seller qualifies as a supplier. You are responsible for determining what rights you have.

E. Importation, shipping, taxes & encumbrances

1. Importing a vehicle. Vehicles crossing the border in either direction are regulated — into Canada under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act and its regulations, and into the United States under U.S. federal importation rules. These rules determine which vehicles can be imported and what the importer must do. The buyer will normally be the importer of record and is responsible for confirming the vehicle is eligible, meeting all safety and compliance requirements, and obtaining any authorizations. BidNation is not the importer of record and is not involved in importation. See the Government of Canada's and your provincial or state government's websites for details.

2. Shipping. Buyers and sellers arrange transport of the item between themselves, including who pays for it. BidNation does not coordinate shipping and is not responsible for damage that occurs in transit. (BidNation's local reps assist with listing services such as media, verification, and paperwork — they are not a shipping or transport service.)

3. Taxes. The buyer and seller are responsible for determining what sales taxes, customs, tariffs, and duties apply to the transaction, and which party pays them.

4. Encumbrances & liens. Buyers are responsible for confirming the seller has the right to sell the item and that it is free of liens, charges, and other third-party interests (for vehicles, a PPSA lien search in the relevant province is the usual tool). Our review of listings before they go live does not verify, and we do not guarantee, that any item is free of encumbrances or that the seller has clear title.

5. Professional advice. We strongly encourage buyers to get professional advice on importation, shipping, taxes, title, and liens before completing a purchase.

F. Registration & ownership transfer

Buyers are responsible for registering their vehicle with the applicable provincial or state registry and obtaining permits and plates. To register, you may need a bill of sale meeting local requirements, a transfer-of-ownership application, and a safety or inspection certificate. Sellers may be legally required to provide some of these documents — coordinate this in the deal room.

III. Selling Policies

A. Selling process

To list, submit your item's details through the Platform — photos are required for every listing, and vehicles also require a running video and proof of ownership. We review every listing and approve or decline it before it goes live. Listing is free: there is no listing fee, no commission, and no percentage taken from your sale price. Two charges can apply to a seller: the optional Media Package (a local BidNation rep shoots professional photos and video, CA$150 plus tax), charged when you add it; and the cancellation fee set out below if you withdraw a listing that has already gone live.

You may set a hidden reserve; a lot with no reserve sells to the highest bidder. Bids placed in the final minute extend the auction clock. If the auction closes below your reserve, you are not obligated to sell, and you may send the high bidder a counter-offer through the Platform. When an auction closes with a successful bid, we connect you and the buyer privately; the buyer pays you directly, and the contract of sale is between the two of you.

You can withdraw a listing yourself up until its first bid. Withdrawing a listing that has already gone live incurs a $50 cancellation fee plus applicable GST/HST, charged to the card on file (you will be asked to add a card if you do not have one saved); a listing still awaiting review or its media shoot is withdrawn free of charge. Once a bid has been placed, the auction runs to close and the listing can no longer be withdrawn.

B. Applicable legislation

1. Motor vehicle dealer legislation. Provincial law generally prohibits selling motor vehicles as a business without registering as a motor vehicle dealer, subject to exceptions (such as selling a vehicle you primarily used personally). Your listings carry the seller type you declared when you created your account. We check dealer licence information before approving a dealer account, but verifying a licence number is not a determination that any particular sale complies with the law. You are responsible for determining whether your sale requires dealer registration or is otherwise regulated.

1a. Dealer accounts. By registering a dealer account you represent and warrant that: (a) you hold a valid motor vehicle dealer licence or registration in the province or territory where you carry on business — for example, OMVIC in Ontario, AMVIC in Alberta, the VSA in British Columbia, or the FCAA in Saskatchewan — and that the licence number you gave us is true and yours; (b) you will keep that licence current and sell through the Platform only where and as it permits; (c) your listings will comply with the advertising rules that apply to licensed dealers in your province, including all-in price advertising where required; and (d) you will tell us promptly if your licence is suspended, revoked, or lapses. We may decline, suspend, or close a dealer account whose licence we cannot verify or that we reasonably believe is out of compliance. Our verification of a licence number is not an endorsement of the dealer and does not transfer any licensing obligation to BidNation — responsibility for licensing and regulatory compliance stays with the dealer at all times.

2. Consumer protection laws. If you are in the business of selling, you may be a supplier under provincial consumer protection legislation and must comply with the obligations it imposes. BidNation is not a supplier of the items you list. If you fail to comply with consumer protection law, the consequences — which can include cancellation rights, fines, or worse — are yours alone.

3. Export laws. If your item is leaving Canada (or the United States), you may need authorizations from the exporting country's government, and the item may need to meet the destination's standards. Contact the relevant governments for details.

C. Shipping & taxes

As above: transport and its costs are between you and the buyer, and the parties are responsible for determining and paying applicable taxes, customs, and duties. We encourage sellers to get professional advice on export, shipping, and tax questions.

D. Registration & ownership transfer

You may be legally required to give the buyer certain information and documents — typically a bill of sale meeting local requirements, a transfer-of-ownership application, and where required a safety or inspection certificate. The buyer is responsible for registering the vehicle and obtaining permits and plates.

Last updated: July 2026.

1. Who we are

This policy explains how BidNation Marketplace Limited ("BidNation", "we", "us"), operated from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, handles personal information on the BidNation platform — including the marketplace and our early-access signup pages. Questions? Reach us through Help & Support.

2. What we collect

Account details — name, username, email, phone, street address, city, province or state, postal or ZIP code, your password, and an optional profile photo.

Verification documents — a government photo ID for personal accounts and rep applicants, who also send a resume. Dealers don't send a photo ID: a dealer account is verified on its business details — the dealer licence number, GST/HST number and business number given at signup — which our team checks with the provincial regulator.

Payment information — a credit card is required to bid; it is handled by our payment provider, which verifies it when you save it and charges the buyer's fee if you win. We don't store full card numbers ourselves.

Listing content — photos (watermarked before display), video, descriptions, item location, condition disclosures, and for vehicles the VIN, specs, and proof of ownership.

Activity — bids and your private maximum bid, watchlist, saved searches, recently viewed lots, questions, comments, reviews, referrals, messages with our review team, messages you exchange with the other party in the deal room, and any disputes or reports you submit.

Early-access signups — if you signed up on our advertising landing page before launch: the name, email, optional phone, buy/sell interest, region, consent, and ad campaign you gave us then. The landing pages no longer collect signups — they link straight into the marketplace.

Technical — we use your browser's local storage for preferences and session features. Your browser also makes a few third-party requests: it fetches a daily exchange rate from a currency-rate service, loads our fonts from a font delivery network, and runs the Meta Pixel, which sets cookies and reports your visit — and certain in-app actions, such as creating an account, adding a payment method, or booking a photo shoot — to Meta. We don't collect precise device location; "near you" search uses the city you choose.

3. How we use it

To run the auctions and your account; verify identity; place and charge the buyer's-fee hold; prevent fraud and shill bidding; connect buyers and sellers after an auction; book Media Package shoots with your local rep when you request one; send notifications and the emails you've consented to; handle support and disputes; and meet our legal obligations.

One thing is deliberately not on that list: we don't hand your email address or phone number to advertising platforms as part of running your account. That only happens if you switch on Advertising audiences in your account settings — see section 6(e). It's off unless you turn it on, and nothing above depends on it. The Meta Pixel is a separate thing, and it does run by default — it reports visits and actions, never your email or phone.

4. Identity documents

Your government photo ID — whatever your account type — is used only to confirm your identity, and we delete it once your account is approved — it is not kept on file afterwards. Dealer licence details are kept while the dealer account is active, because they're what keeps the account verified, and rep resumes are kept for the application and any engagement that follows. All verification documents are held in private storage, visible only to our review team, and are never shown publicly, listed, or shared with other users.

5. What's public — and what never is

Public: your listings (photos, video, description, general location), your questions, comments, and reviews, and your profile photo, which appears next to your comments.

Other members only ever see your username — dealers are shown by business name. Your real name is not displayed to other members anywhere on the marketplace. The narrow exceptions are: our admin team, the private deal room after a sale (and only if you choose to reveal your details), your own receipts, and the rep coordinating a shoot you booked.

Never public: your maximum bid, the reserve price unless it's met, your email address, and your phone number — which we also store encrypted, not in readable form. Bid history is anonymised: it shows an opaque per-lot label, never your account or handle. Comments are moderated before posting, and email addresses and phone numbers are automatically stripped from public comments. Deal-room messages are private to you and the other party, though our trust & safety team can review them if either of you opens a dispute or files a report.

Never public still means never public — none of this is ever posted on the site. The one thing that can leave us is covered in 6(e): if you switch on Advertising audiences, your email address and phone number go to Meta (and Google, if we start there) in scrambled form. That's a disclosure to those two companies, not a publication, and it only happens if you turn it on.

6. Sharing

We don't sell your personal information. We share it only:

(a) Between buyer and seller after a sale. Once the buyer's fee is paid, a private deal room opens. Your contact details are shown to the other party only if you choose to reveal them — each of you decides separately, and neither reveal is automatic.

(b) With your local BidNation rep when you book a Media Package shoot — your contact details and the shoot location, so they can arrange it.

(c) With the service providers who run the platform: Supabase (database, sign-in, and file storage), Stripe (payments and sales-tax calculation), and Resend (email delivery). Your browser also loads fonts from Google Fonts, a software library from a public code network, and a daily currency rate from a public exchange-rate service — each of which necessarily receives your IP address.

(d) With Meta (Facebook). The Meta Pixel runs across the whole platform — the marketplace as well as our landing pages. It sets cookies and reports your visits, plus certain actions such as creating an account, saving a payment method, or booking a photo shoot, so we can measure and target our advertising. You can limit this through your browser's cookie settings and Meta's own ad preferences.

(e) With Meta — and Google, if we start advertising there — to build advertising audiences, but only if you switch it on. There's a setting in your account called Advertising audiences. It's off unless you turn it on. If you turn it on, we send your email address and phone number to the platform so it can match you to your account there — that lets us advertise to people who are already members, and lets the platform look for new people similar to our members. We scramble both before they go, so neither company receives readable contact details; that isn't the same as being anonymous, because matching the scrambled values back to you is the whole point of it. This is separate from the Meta Pixel in (d), which runs by default and never sends your email or phone. Turn the setting off and we stop sending your details and ask the platform to drop you — see section 11 for what that can and can't undo. We haven't started advertising on Google at all yet; it's named here so you know before it happens, not after.

(f) When the law requires it or safety demands it.

7. Marketing emails

We send marketing email only with your express consent. Every commercial email — saved-search alerts and followed-seller alerts — carries our mailing address and a one-click unsubscribe link, and you can withdraw consent at any time. Transactional messages — you won a lot, your buyer's fee, deal-room updates, support replies — are part of running your account and aren't covered by that opt-out, so you'll keep getting those while your account is open.

8. Where your data lives

BidNation is operated from Regina, Saskatchewan. Some of the service providers named in section 6 — including our database and file storage, payment processing, and email delivery — store or process personal information outside Canada, including in the United States. While it is there, it is subject to the laws of that country, and may be accessible to its courts and law-enforcement or national-security authorities under those laws. By using the platform you consent to this transfer. If you'd like to know more about where a particular provider holds data, ask us through Help & Support.

Advertising audiences sits outside that consent. Your email address and phone number only go to Meta or Google — American companies, under the same laws — if you switch that setting on yourself. Switch it off and we stop sending them.

9. How long we keep it

As long as your account is active or as needed for the purposes above. Government photo IDs are deleted after verification; dealer licence details and rep resumes are kept while the account or engagement is active. Transaction records are kept as long as tax and other laws require. Early-access signups are kept until launch invitations go out, or until you ask us to delete yours.

10. Safeguards

We protect personal information with encryption in transit, access controls, and private storage for sensitive documents. No system is perfectly secure, so we keep what we collect to a minimum and delete what we no longer need. If a breach of our safeguards ever creates a real risk of significant harm, we'll notify the affected users and report it to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, as the law requires.

11. Your rights

You can ask us to access the personal information we hold about you, correct anything that's wrong, delete your account and its data, or withdraw consent — including consent to marketing email — at any time, through Help & Support. We'll respond within 30 days.

Turning off Advertising audiences takes effect straight away on our side — we stop including you, and we ask Meta (and Google, if we're there by then) to remove you from the list we sent. Two honest limits: ads that already ran can't be un-run, and if your details helped the platform model an audience of people similar to our members, that modelling already happened. What we can do is stop sending you, get you taken off the list, and confirm it — ask through Help & Support if you want that confirmation in writing.

Some records we must keep even after you close your account: completed transactions, tax records, and anything we're required to retain to meet a legal obligation or resolve a dispute. Withdrawing consent to something essential to running your account — like processing your payments — may mean we can no longer provide the service.

If you're not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

12. Age

The platform is for people who have reached the age of majority in their province or state. We don't knowingly collect information from minors.

13. Changes to this policy

We'll post updates here and flag material changes on the platform. Continued use after an update means the new version applies.

14. Contact

BidNation Marketplace Limited · Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada (online only) — call or text (306) 520-5722, or reach us via Help & Support. Address privacy requests to the same channels, marked for the attention of our privacy contact.

Last updated: July 2026.