Frequently asked questions

Auctions are one of the best ways to buy metal below retail. Reputable houses run estate and collection sales all the time, across Canada, the US, and beyond, online and in the room. The deals are there because attention isn't evenly spread. Online sales often run for a week, and the crowd piles onto the headline pieces while plenty of solid bullion gets bid up far less. Almost every past catalog we've checked had lots that sold under retail, and some under spot. The only hard part is the math. Buyer's premium and shipping change what a lot really costs, and a single catalog can hide a hundred of them. That's the part the app does for you, in seconds, across the catalog.

Yes. This is exactly who it's built for. You don't need to know melt math or premiums. Upload a catalog and your lots are graded for you against live spot and typical retail, so you can see what's a real deal and what isn't. Best of all, it gives you a max bid you can trust on each lot. So when the bidding heats up you stick to your number instead of getting emotional and paying too much. That confidence is the whole point.

Yes. There's a full step-by-step guide on the How it works page. It walks you through using the tool in plain language: uploading your catalog, reading the grades, setting the buyer's premium and shipping, and finding your max bid. It also covers Quick Check (value a single coin or bar), the eBay price comparisons, and the saved-catalog library. That guide starts from the point where you already have your catalog file. Getting the file off the auction site is covered separately here in the FAQ: see Where do I get the catalog file? and the step-by-step save-as-PDF instructions. And if anything is still unclear, just send us a question and we'll walk you through it.

It saves you time. Instead of working through a catalog lot by lot, you get every lot priced and graded in seconds, so the low-hanging fruit is obvious fast. Re-upload the latest catalog as the sale nears and you can watch the bids climb and spot which lots are still soft on auction day. You already know the math. This just does it for the whole catalog at once.

It turns watchers into bidders. A lot of metal buyers follow auctions but hold back because they can't tell a good lot from a trap, or don't trust their own math on premium and shipping. BullionBidder gives them a number they trust, so they bid instead of lurking. When they run your catalog, every lot is read and graded, so the good bullion gets found, including the quiet lots that usually draw little attention. And because they trust their numbers, they bid more freely and follow through. That means more active bidding and fewer no-shows. The one thing we need is your catalog read cleanly. If you'd like to make sure your format parses well, get in touch.

No. BullionBidder is a pre-bid analysis tool. It does not connect to any auction house's bidding system. You place your own bids directly with the auction house (online, by phone, or however that auction takes bids). BullionBidder is your prep work: we compute all-in costs, compare to spot and retail, flag the best deals, and pull live eBay listings for similar pieces, so you bid knowing the numbers. The bidding stays in your hands.

Yes. Most auction catalogs are a mix, and that's fine. Upload the whole thing as it comes. The app reads every lot and sorts the ones that aren't bullion (banknotes, base-metal items, coin supplies, jewelry without a stated weight, household goods) into their own buckets, then grades only the bullion that's worth valuing. You don't have to clean up the file or pull anything out first. Those non-bullion lots are free. You're only charged a credit for a lot that's bullion or uncertain, so a mixed estate catalog costs you nothing for the banknotes and the bric-a-brac. A typical catalog is about 30% non-bullion, and you pay for none of it.

Auction houses publish them. We don't provide catalog data, you bring your own. The best file to use, when the house offers it, is a "Printable Lots Listing" or a catalog download. Look for a button or link like "Printable Lot List," "Print Catalog," "Download Catalog," or an Excel/CSV export. These give a clean, simple list of every lot, which the app reads most accurately. Most houses post their catalogs as downloadable PDFs or Excel/CSV exports. If yours only shows the catalog on its website with no printable listing, print the page straight to a PDF and upload that, no extra software needed (Print → Save as PDF is built into Windows, macOS, Linux, and ChromeOS). We have step-by-step instructions that show you exactly how. We accept PDF, Excel (.xlsx / .xls), CSV, and TSV.

First, check the auction site for an easier option. Many houses have a "Printable Lots Listing," "Download Catalog," or Excel/CSV export button. If you find one, use that instead, it's cleaner and faster than printing. The steps below are for when the catalog only lives on the website with no such button. When that's the case, you can save it as a PDF yourself in a few minutes. The goal is to fit as many lots as possible on each page, in a simple list, so the app can read it cleanly. The app reads the lot descriptions first, the text is what matters most, so make sure the words come through clearly. A clean list view (rows of lots) is the best format. When a lot's text is incomplete (for example a coin's weight or fineness isn't written out), the app may also read that lot's photo to fill the gap. How much that helps depends on two things: how complete the descriptions are, and how sharp the photos are. A clear, close-up photo can be read, a tiny or blurry thumbnail usually cannot, and if it can't be read the app just leaves the lot for review rather than guessing. It reads the photo only to extract the coin's specs, it does not copy, republish, or store the image. First, set up the page: 1. Open the catalog in your web browser. 2. If the site offers a list view (rows of lots) instead of large photo tiles, choose it. Rows read best for the text. If the photos also come through clearly they can help on lots where the text is thin, but the rows are what matter most. 3. Look for a "Show" or "Per page" setting and pick the largest number (for example 100 or 200 per page). Then save it as a PDF. On Windows (Chrome or Edge): 1. Press Ctrl and P together to open Print. 2. For "Printer" or "Destination," choose "Save as PDF." 3. Open "More settings." Set "Scale" to a smaller number like 50 so more lots fit per page. 4. Click Save and pick a folder you'll remember. On a Mac (Safari or Chrome): 1. Press Command and P together to open Print. 2. Set "Scale" to about 50% so more lots fit per page. 3. Click the "PDF" button at the bottom left and choose "Save as PDF." 4. Pick a folder you'll remember. If the catalog is several pages long, save each page as its own PDF file. Then you have two choices. Upload the files one at a time (keeping more than one catalog at a time needs Pro or Pro Plus). Or combine them into a single PDF first with a free tool like PDFgear and upload that one file. We are not affiliated with PDFgear in any way. It's just one free option that works.

Your display currency (the spot-bar picker) is what you read everything in. The catalog currency (the "Catalog $" control above the lot table, set per upload) is what the auction house charges in. We convert each bid at the live exchange rate so the deal math is right, and you can fix the catalog currency if our automatic reader guessed wrong.

No. The all-in cost is your bid plus the buyer's premium plus shipping. It does not include sales tax (GST, HST, QST, VAT, or state tax), and it does not include any customs or import duties if you're buying across a border. Those depend on where you live and where the auction house ships from. Some lots may even be tax-exempt (investment-grade bullion often is). Check the auction terms and your local rules, and ask the auction house if you need clarification. Treat the all-in number as the pre-tax cost.

Yes. Open Evaluation settings and every lot re-grades live as you change them. You can set the buyer's premium rate, and add one alternative rate (some houses charge a different rate for credit-card payment). For shipping, choose per-lot (charged once for each lot you win) or combined (one charge per order, split across your lots). You can also set a max-bid target, like 95% of retail, and the app calculates the exact max bid for every lot with the premium and shipping built in.

Auction houses that publish catalogs as a PDF, Excel/CSV export, or printable web page, whether the house is global, regional, or online-only. The app reads a wide range of formats. If it doesn't read yours yet, tell us and we add support fast.

Right now the app reads catalogs whose lot descriptions are written in English or French. The country doesn't matter, and the currency doesn't matter, only the language of the descriptions. A catalog priced in any currency (USD, CAD, EUR, GBP, and others) works fine as long as the descriptions read in English or French. The catalog currency is handled separately, and you can set it on the dashboard. A catalog written mostly in a language we don't support yet won't be read correctly, so its lots won't be graded. We're working on adding more languages. If you'd like one supported, please send a feature request and tell us which language. It helps us prioritize.

If we don't recognize the format, you'll see a clear message instead of results, and the catalog uses no credits. Use the link there to tell us the auction house and auction date (and the lot numbers, if only some lots looked off). We'll pull the catalog ourselves and add support, usually within a few days. You don't need to send your file, and once a format is added it stays supported.

We make it right. Send us a note through the contact form with the auction house, the auction date, and any lot numbers or details, and we'll fix the parse and credit back anything charged in error. This is a new app, and even after thorough testing some edge cases will slip through. When one hits you, it's on us to correct it, not on you to eat it.

BullionBidder is built for precious-metal lots: silver, gold, platinum, and palladium. We pull the metal type, gross weight, and purity from coins, bars, rounds, and bullion jewelry. Non-metal items (paper currency, stamps, watches, militaria, and the like) still appear in a separate "not bullion" section so you see the whole catalog, but they get no price or deal grade. If you bid mostly in those categories, you'll want a different tool for them.

When a piece has set stones (a diamond ring, a sapphire pendant) and the catalog gives a weight, we show the metal value of the piece as a floor and treat the stones as a bonus on top. We never grade a stone-set piece as a deal. Here's why: the weight a catalog lists is the whole piece, metal plus stones plus the setting. Melting that full weight as gold or silver would overstate the metal and make a piece look like a steal when it isn't. So you see the metal floor for reference, and the gemstone value is yours to judge. A plain band or chain with no stones is treated as solid metal and valued normally.

We compare the all-in price (your bid + buyer's premium + shipping) against two things: the live spot price of the metal, and a typical dealer-retail price for that product. A lot has to beat both to grade well.

Spot is the live market price for one ounce of pure metal. Melt is that rate applied to a specific lot: its pure metal content times spot. If a lot is exactly one ounce of pure metal, its melt equals spot. Most lots aren't. A 1oz .999 coin holds a touch under an ounce of pure silver. A sterling piece is only 92.5% silver. A 10oz bar is ten times spot. Melt is just spot scaled to the real metal in that lot.

Two products with the same metal content don't sell for the same price. A recognized coin like an American Eagle or a Maple Leaf carries a higher premium than a generic round, because buyers pay extra for the trusted mint and the demand. Our software recognizes the product and applies the premium that type typically sells for over melt, so an Eagle reads higher than an unbranded round. It's an estimate based on what online dealers usually charge. On any lot you can click to look up active eBay listings and compare our number to what sellers are asking.

No. The grade measures METAL value only. That means the silver, gold, platinum, or palladium content, against spot and typical dealer-retail bullion pricing. It ignores collector and numismatic premiums. Some lots are worth far more to a collector than their melt value. A key date, a low mintage, a high grade, a rare variety, or special packaging can carry a premium the melt math never sees. So a lot that grades OVER or PASS on metal alone can still be a great collectible buy. And a lot that grades well on metal can be a poor numismatic value. Use the grade for the bullion side. Bring your own knowledge for the collector side.

Yes, and it's a great way to trust the tool before you bid real money. The one thing the catalog needs is the closing bids, so grab the final version after the sale ends, not the preview copy. The app reads the auction date and pulls that day's historical spot prices, so you see what each lot was worth that day and which ones sold cheap. If the file has no date the app can read, just set it yourself with the auction-date picker above the table (you can also override a date it read wrong). Check the grades against what actually happened, and calibrate your own bidding instinct at the same time.

Necessity is the mother of invention. We were bidding on bullion ourselves, doing the math by hand, lot by lot, and it was slow and easy to get wrong in the heat of a live sale. We tried the popular AI chatbots. They got us partway, but none could read a whole catalog or hold the true all-in cost (bid plus buyer's premium plus shipping) steady across hundreds of lots. So we built the tool we actually needed. Since then we have won real lots at spot and below dealer retail. One of them, a Ghostbusters silver bar we broke down with every number on the table, shows exactly how the math played out on a real win, and we have just as often walked away from lots that looked like deals but weren't once the fees were added in. That is the whole point: know your real maximum bid before the sale, so it is a lot harder to overpay in the heat of it.

Yes. There's a free tier today, with no credit card required. The core analyzer (upload, read, evaluate, manual overrides) is free to use. Free gives you 400 credits a month, about 1 to 2 typical catalogs. That is the right fit for a starting or small stacker running an auction or two a month. One credit covers one bullion-or-uncertain lot. Non-bullion lots are free. Quick Check is free too. Pro and Pro Plus raise your monthly credit balance and add features if you run more catalogs.

Two ways, both transparent. First, paid subscriptions for people who want more capacity. We meter usage in credits. 1 credit covers one bullion-or-uncertain lot. Non-bullion lots are free. Free gives you 400 credits a month. That is about 1 to 2 typical catalogs, enough to evaluate the tool. Pro ($14.99 CAD/mo) raises that to 2,000 credits a month. Pro Plus ($29 CAD/mo) gives you 5,000, plus early access to new features. For commercial volume, Enterprise plans are negotiated by use case. Second, when you look up where to buy a lot, we show live prices from bullion dealers and listings from eBay. If you click through and buy, we may earn a small affiliate commission from that dealer or from eBay. You pay the same price either way, and we do not sell any product ourselves. We disclose the affiliate relationship every time you open a lookup. Neither funding model gates the basic analyzer.

A bullion-or-uncertain lot, meaning a lot where there's any chance it's bullion. Banknotes, supplies, base metal items, and mint sets are free (no credit used). A typical catalog is about 30% non-bullion, so a 400-lot catalog usually draws around 280 credits from your monthly balance.

Processing stops at your monthly balance and tells you which lots weren't done. Your credits reset on your renewal date each month (your account page shows the exact date). You can also upgrade your tier any time.

Online sales often run for days, with bids shifting right up to the close. So you re-upload the latest catalog as the auction winds down to see what's still a good buy. Each time, the app recognizes the lots it has seen before and skips the paid step, so re-checking them costs nothing. You only spend credits on lots that are genuinely new, or that the auction house has changed. This free re-processing lasts 30 days from when you first ran that catalog. After 30 days the cache expires, so running it again uses credits like a fresh upload. The same is true if you delete a catalog from your library and add it back. The free re-check is tied to the lots and your account, not the saved entry, so re-adding it within 30 days won't charge you again.

No. A higher bid on a lot you've already run is free to re-check. The app doesn't charge again for a price change, so re-upload the latest catalog as the auction nears its close and watch which lots are still a good buy. A credit is only used when a lot is genuinely new, or when the auction house adds lots or rewrites a listing so it no longer matches what was read before. That part is on the house, not on you, but a changed listing does count as a new lot. Everything stays free for 30 days from your first upload of that catalog.

Yes. Monthly plans are cancel-anytime. You stop the next billing cycle. Annual plans save you about 17%. Cancel auto-renewal anytime, and your current term runs to its end. No refunds on the current term. The Free tier is the trial, so you can evaluate before you pay.

Volume, plus a few extras. Pro gives you 2,000 credits a month, about 7 to 8 typical catalogs. Pro Plus gives you 5,000 credits a month, about 16 to 20 catalogs. Both Pro and Pro Plus add features Free doesn't have (see the next question). Pro Plus also gets early access to new features as they ship. Pick Pro if you analyze a few catalogs a week. Pick Pro Plus if you work through catalogs daily or run a small dealer operation.

A few things built for people who use the tool seriously. A printable bid sheet: do your work in the table, then pick exactly which lots to print, grouped by metal or by category, each with your max bid (the most you can bid so your all-in cost stays under melt and under your retail target, buyer's premium and shipping included). Print it or save it as a PDF and take it to the live auction. You also keep a library of all your catalogs, not just your latest one, and unlimited bid logging (Free is capped at 5 active). Pro Plus adds early access to new features as they ship. We add to this list over time.

Yes, use our contact form and select 'Partnership / business inquiry'. We're actively looking for stacker-community partners and content creators.

Credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, all secured through Stripe. We're evaluating PayPal as a next addition.

Prices are in CAD before tax. Canadian customers see GST/HST/QST as applicable. EU and UK customers see VAT. Other jurisdictions see local sales tax where required. International customers see their local currency at Stripe checkout. US customers typically pay around $11 USD/mo Pro or $21 USD/mo Pro Plus at current rates.

Each catalog you upload is read with AI and runs an eBay listings lookup. Both cost money per call and share daily quotas. A free account lets us rate-limit per user instead of per anonymous IP, which protects those quotas from abuse and keeps the tool free. We never send marketing email, only your sign-in code when you log in.

The eBay listings lookup calls eBay's API, which is metered and shares a daily quota with everyone using the app. A free account lets the app rate-limit per user instead of per anonymous IP, so one person (or a bot) can't drain the quota for everybody. That is what keeps the lookup free and available. Creating the account takes a moment, asks only for an email, and we never send marketing email.

Your original file (PDF, Excel, or CSV) stays in your browser. The original file is never stored. For PDFs, only the plain text is sent over briefly to finish reading it, then it's thrown away. For some lots whose text is incomplete, the app also looks at that lot's image to fill the gap: it sends the image to read whatever the text was missing (such as weight or fineness), then it's gone. We never copy, republish, or store the image. Spreadsheets stay entirely on your device. What we do keep is the catalog data you choose to save to your library: the metal, weight, and grade we worked out for each lot, the lot descriptions so you can see what each lot was, plus any corrections you made. That's the catalog data, not the original file. Free keeps your latest catalog, paid keeps more, and it stays until you delete it. We also keep your tracked bids, and a results cache stored under your own account that expires on its own after 30 days. Everything is encrypted, you can delete any of it any time, and deleting your account erases all of it. Nothing sold, nothing shared.

Nothing to download or install. BullionBidder runs entirely in your web browser, so you just open the site and use it. There's no program to put on your computer and no app to get from the App Store or Play Store. When you open a catalog, the file is read right there in your browser. The original file is never uploaded to us and never copied onto your device by the app. It stays where it already was. Your saved catalogs, tracked bids, and corrections live in your account in the cloud, not as files on your computer, so you see the same library on any device you sign in from. A few small things do live in your browser, the way they do for most websites, and none of them is a file you have to manage. The session data that remembers you're signed in. Your preferences (currency, language, light or dark theme, fee settings, and any manual lot corrections). And a catalog you've worked on but not yet saved to your library, which the browser holds so you don't lose it if you refresh, saving it puts it safely in the cloud. That's the essential storage, and it's always on because the site needs it to work. Beyond that, nothing runs unless you allow it. Analytics and advertising cookies are off by default and load only if you accept them in the consent banner, where declining is as easy as accepting. Clearing your browser data removes all of it, so save anything you want to keep first. You can clear it from your browser settings any time. (Full detail is in our Privacy Policy.)

No native app. BullionBidder is a web app, so there's nothing to install from the App Store or Play Store. It runs in any modern mobile browser (Safari on iOS, Chrome or Firefox on Android). Pin it to your home screen for a one-tap launcher that opens full-screen like a real app. On iOS: open the site in Safari → tap Share → "Add to Home Screen". On Android: open in Chrome → menu → "Install app" or "Add to Home Screen". You get the same features as on desktop (upload, evaluate, manual override, eBay listings lookup) on your phone.

Use our contact form. Pick the topic (feedback, bug, feature request, partnership, privacy/data rights, or other) and write your message. We read every submission and reply within 1-2 business days. You can also email info@bullionbidder.com directly. For Quebec Law 25 privacy-rights requests, email our privacy contact at info@ordimedix.com with 'Privacy' in the subject line.