Catawiki

Catawiki sits between a marketplace and a specialist saleroom: sellers submit objects, in-house experts decide what is accepted and into which sale it goes, and roughly 75,000 lots are offered every week. The curation is the product — it is what separates this from a general classifieds site.

What you can buy

• Jewellery and watches.
• Coins and stamps — a large and long-established section.
• Art, interiors and design.
• Wine and spirits.
• Comics, trading cards, toys and models.
• Cars and motorcycles, archaeology, books and history, cameras and music.

How the bidding works

Auctions run on a weekly cycle, with lots closing on a timer. There is also a live-streamed strand, Catawiki Live, covering categories such as wine and watches with a running video sale you can watch and bid in. Winning bidders deal with the platform for payment; the seller ships the object.

What to check before you bid

Expert vetting is a filter on authenticity and description, not a valuation or a guarantee of a bargain — estimates here still reflect what sellers hope for. Because objects ship from private sellers across Europe, shipping cost and customs on a cross-border lot are worth adding up before the last minutes of the auction. For high-value categories, read the expert's note rather than the headline title: the note is where reservations about condition or attribution live.