Conditions of Sale

Effective August 2026, Version 2.0. This page is part of every bid you place. Where these conditions and the Terms of Service conflict about the conduct of an auction, these conditions control.

§1. Registration & the auction

Minthouse Markets, Inc. operates premier auctions for graded trading cards: Pokémon, sports, and TCG grails. Every lot is consigned through our specialists, inspected against tamper and counterfeit markers before listing, and sold under the mechanics on this page. We are a marketplace of record: every price realized is published.

• Registration is by an email address, verified by the six-digit code our sign-in provider sends, or by a wallet you prove control of by signature. Watching any lot is free; bidding requires registration, and on deployments where bids are collateralised, USDC on deposit.
• Each lot closes at the time posted on its lot page; sessions run across the auction week, and extended bidding (§3) can move any close later.
• Each lot sells to the highest bidder at or above any reserve when the lot closes. The hammer price plus the auction house fee (§4) is the price you pay.
• The auctioneer may reject bids that appear erroneous or manipulative.

Most lots are no reserve. Select Premier lots carry a confidential reserve, never above the low estimate. Under no circumstances does the system place any bid on behalf of the seller at or above the reserve. A lot that closes below its reserve is passed. A lot that closes with no bids is unsold. The lot page shows the state plainly: Reserve met or Reserve not met.

Descriptions are the house’s opinion, not a statement of fact. Lots sell as is; condition information is guidance only.

Bidder identities are never published; bid histories show anonymized handles. We use your contact details to run your account and settle invoices. Nothing is sold to third parties. Wallet addresses are used for compliance screening, collateral, and settlement. What we collect, why, and where it goes is set out in the privacy notice, which is incorporated into this page.

§2. Bidding, maximum bids & increments

There are two ways to bid, and both are binding.

• Maximum bid. Enter the most you’d like to pay, and we bid on your behalf at the lowest winning price, never above your maximum. Minthouse does not display your standing maximum in bid history, but proxy prices can reveal it or bound it: when a rival bids within one increment of it the proxy answers at your maximum, and when a rival’s own maximum beats it the price lands within one increment of your maximum. Where BidEscrow collateral is enabled, the public on-chain lock is the collateral required for your bid, which at the base tier is the standing maximum plus the published auction house fee, so an observer can infer the maximum from that lock. Above the base tier the lock is a published fraction of it, so the same arithmetic bounds your maximum rather than naming it, unless the observer also knows your tier. A rival who names an exact amount instead takes the lot at the amount they named, which can be any distance above your maximum.
• Exact-amount bid. A single bid at or above the next minimum. You hold the lot at that amount until someone raises.

When two maximums compete, the higher one wins at one increment above the lower, or at the higher maximum exactly when the gap is under one increment. Equal maximums: the earlier one wins.

Bids are binding and cannot be lowered or withdrawn, only raised.

Minimum raises follow this ladder. The ladder in force for a lot is the one frozen into that lot’s auction rules snapshot, so it cannot change under a live lot.

Bidding power and credit tiers

Your eligible balance is what you hold in the escrow contract less anything you have asked to withdraw. It sets your total buying capacity: the most you may have committed across every live bid and unpaid win at once.

Each band runs from its lower figure up to but not including the next, so an eligible balance of exactly $25,000 is in the 3× band. Capacity is rounded down and the collateral required for a bid is rounded up, both in the house's favour by a fraction of a cent, so that the contract can never be short. Your tier is read from your balance at the moment of each bid, withdrawal and close; it is never stored. A balance that falls does not undo a bid you have already placed, but it will refuse a new one.

What this means when you win. Where a bid is placed at 1×, the collateral held for that lot is the whole of your bid plus the auction house fee, so the win settles at the close and nothing further is payable. Above 1× the collateral is the fraction in the last column, and the rest of the invoice is the remainder that §5 gives you 48 hours to clear. The collateral posted for a bid is always the fraction its tier requires of your maximum plus the fee on it, whatever else you are holding: it is computed, not chosen. Whether it covers the invoice depends on where the hammer lands.

§3. Extended bidding

A bid placed inside a lot’s final five minutes moves that lot’s close to five minutes after the bid, anchored to the bid itself rather than added to the old close, and capped at 30 minutes of total extension per lot. Lots close independently and may close out of numerical order.

§4. Auction house fee

The auction house fee, called the buyer’s premium in trade usage, is added to the hammer price of every winning bid. It is tiered and marginal: each rate applies only to the portion of the hammer inside its band, exactly like tax brackets, so the effective rate falls as the hammer rises and the total never jumps at a band boundary.

Portion of hammer price	Rate
First $2,500	7.5%
$2,500 – $10,000	6.5%
$10,000 – $100,000	5.5%
$100,000 – $1,000,000	4.5%
Above $1,000,000	3.9%

Worked examples: a $1,000 hammer pays a $75 fee (7.5% effective, $1,075 all-in); a $50,000 hammer pays $2,875 (5.75% effective, $52,875 all-in); a $500,000 hammer pays $23,625 (4.73% effective, $523,625 all-in). The lot page shows the exact fee at any bid you type, before you place it, and your invoice itemizes it to the cent. Estimates never include the fee.

Fixed-price Buy Now listings carry no fee; the listed price is the full price. No seller commission is taken on one either, so the consignor is owed that same figure in full: the seller’s side of a fixed-price listing is §7. Buy It Now on an auction lot is different: it is a winning bid. The Buy It Now price is the hammer, and the auction house fee is added to it like any other winning bid. Buy It Now is available until bidding reaches 75% of the Buy It Now price, and never during extended bidding.

Where the bid escrow is enabled, two further conditions apply on top of those. Buying a lot outright ends the auction on the spot, and the house does not end an auction against collateral it cannot see, so Buy It Now is open only to the standing leader, and only while the Buy It Now price plus the auction house fee on it is already locked against that lot, standing at least an hour clear of the lock’s expiry, with no other escrow operation on the lot in flight. The lock this condition requires is the collateral posted for the bid (§2), so the way to reach Buy It Now is to lead with a maximum at or above the Buy It Now price. At the base tier, where the collateral for a bid is the whole of it, that is the standing maximum plus the fee. Whether a leveraged bidder can reach Buy It Now on a fraction of that collateral is not settled, and the house will state the rule here before credit tiers go live rather than leave it to be inferred. A bidder who is not leading takes the lot by bidding for it, and a Buy It Now attempt from anyone else is refused with nothing sold.

§5. Payment & settlement

What a winning bid costs is the invoice total: the hammer plus the auction house fee. When it is payable depends on how much of it your escrow collateral already covers at the moment the lot closes. Where the collateral held for the lot covers the invoice in full, the sale settles at close and nothing further is payable: there is no window to miss and no default to incur. Where it covers only part of it, which is a leveraged bid, the remainder is payable within 48 hours of the close. The deadline is fixed when the lot closes, and the house cannot shorten it or bring it forward. If the escrow contract is paused during an incident, the clock stops with it. A pause blocks the payment that would clear your remainder, so while it lasts the contract simply holds your collateral in escrow until you pay: you are not defaulted for a window you were barred from paying in, no fee is taken, and the lot is not passed. Paused time is added back to your window, so you get the full 48 hours to pay once payment is possible again. Paying the remainder releases the lot as it would on any other day. A fixed-price purchase is paid at checkout instead: checking out holds the listing for 10 minutes, and a lapsed hold voids its invoice and reopens the listing.

A win settles at close only where the collateral held for the lot covers the invoice in full. Where the collateral for a bid was posted at the base tier that is always so, because the collateral is then the whole of your maximum plus the fee on it. Collateral is posted at the tier in force when you bid and is never topped up afterwards, so a balance that later falls into a lower tier does not raise it. Above it the collateral posted is the fraction your tier requires of your maximum plus the fee on it, so a win will usually leave a remainder, including where your balance could have covered the whole invoice. An eligible balance of $60,000 sits in the 3.5× band: a $40,000 maximum that hammers at $40,000 invoices $42,325, posts $12,092.86 of collateral, and leaves $30,232.14 payable within 48 hours. Where the hammer lands well below your maximum the posted collateral can still cover the invoice, and then the win settles at close like any other. Credit tiers, and the collateral each requires, are set out in §2. Paying the remainder is a single act: it clears the whole remainder at once, applies your free escrow balance first, settles the invoice and releases the lot. There is no partial payment and no instalment.

Invoices are denominated in US dollars and settle in USDC at 1:1, so the dollar figure on the invoice is the amount you pay. Fiat onramp options are available at checkout, for orders of $100 to $10,000. Above that cap the desk can discuss OTC options; Minthouse never takes custody of or converts your funds. Onramping is provided by Peer Pay, a third-party service. Minthouse does not profit from onramps, holds no customer funds at any point in an onramp, and is not a money transmitter or money services business.

Under V8, a win that settles at close cannot default: there is nothing left to pay. Where a leveraged win leaves a remainder and the 48 hour window passes without it being cleared, the obligation can be finalised as a default. The house then takes a default fee of up to 25% of the invoice total, capped at the collateral you posted for that lot, from that collateral and from nothing else, exactly once. At the highest credit tier the cap binds first: a maximum bid at 5× leaves a fee of 20% of the invoice total, which is the whole of the posted collateral. Any collateral beyond the fee is released to your free balance immediately, the sale is reversed, and you are permanently ineligible for that lot. No finding of default reaches your free escrow balance or any other lot's collateral. That cap is a V8 property: under the prior regime below, the fee is charged on the invoice total and the house may pursue any shortfall. While a default stands the house may pause bidding on your account until it is resolved with the desk.

Where the lot has an eligible runner-up, a default opens a second-chance offer to that bidder at their own last bid, with their own invoice total and their own 48 hours to take it. No penalty ever falls on the runner-up: letting a second-chance offer expire costs nothing and carries no default. A runner-up may decline at any time from the close onward, which is final and releases their collateral on the spot; until it is declined, taken or released, their collateral for that lot stays held. Who won and who came second are determined by the house from the bid book and attested at close; the 48 hour windows, the fee cap and the single final outcome per lot are enforced by the escrow contract.

Until BidEscrow V8 is deployed: the previous regime

Where an auction win is not backed by the V8 escrow, the older terms govern it and are reproduced here because they still bind: the invoice is payable within 10 days of the invoice date, an invoice unpaid at its due date is late, and an invoice still unpaid five days after that is defaulted, reversing the sale, passing the lot, and charging a default fee of the greater of $250 or, applied marginally to the invoice total, 5% of the first $10,000, 7.5% to $250,000, and 10% above. That fee is charged on the invoice total rather than capped at posted collateral, and it is a debt the house may pursue beyond any collateral it holds, which is the material difference from the V8 regime above. While a default fee is open the house may pause bidding on your account until it is resolved with the desk. This paragraph is removed when V8 is live everywhere this document governs.

• The invoiced dollar amount governs. Overpayments are refunded in kind; underpayments are returned and the invoice reissued.
• A payment made on chain is complete at the depth the house requires, and that depth is never shallower than the block depth the house’s own chain index treats as final, whatever its confirmation minimum is set to. Title to the lot transfers on confirmed payment, not before.

Shipping is arranged with the desk after settlement and quoted separately. International shipments clear at the buyer’s expense; duties are the buyer’s responsibility.

A buyer who has paid may keep the card in Minthouse custody instead of taking delivery of it. The house records the change of custody and the fulfilment of that sale ends in a vaulted state, which is constructive delivery: the buyer protection window in §6 runs from the date custody is recorded, and the consignor’s settlement clock in §7 runs from the same date. Nothing is shipped, the card can be called home later, and it can be listed again from the vault without being posted anywhere first.

§6. Authenticity claims

The heading line of a lot is the set, the card, the grade, and the certification number. If you come to doubt it, raise it with the desk in writing, or open a dispute, within 7 days of delivery, the buyer protection window. Where you keep the purchase in the vault instead of taking delivery (§5), the same window runs from the date the house records that custody. A dispute opened inside the window holds settlement while the desk decides; after the window closes the desk can still be written to, but proceeds may already have been paid out.

• The slab must return intact and unaltered.
• Where the desk upholds the claim it rescinds the sale and refunds the hammer price plus the auction house fee. That is the sole remedy.
• The refund goes to the buyer of record on the invoice.

Grades themselves are the grading house’s opinion; we sell the certified card, not a promise of regrade. Every holder is inspected against tamper and counterfeit markers before listing and again before shipment.

§7. Consignor terms

Seller commission is 0%, and the house earns on the auction house fee instead.

• Lots are offered in Weekly and Premier sales. A confidential reserve, never above the low estimate, may be set.
• A consignment is listed only after the house has physically received the card and verified it against what was submitted. Nothing is offered for sale before that.
• Settlement lands in USDC once the buyer’s payment has cleared, the card has been delivered or kept in the vault under §5, and the 7 day buyer protection window has run with no dispute open. An open dispute holds proceeds until it is resolved. Settlement is exclusively in crypto.
• Unsold lots return at the consignor’s expense.
• Every consignor warrants sole ownership and good, marketable title free of liens, claims and encumbrances, under Terms of Service §8.

There are two ways to consign, and in both of them the number the lot goes out at is the number the consignor agreed. The desk lists at that figure or asks the consignor to agree another; it may neither raise it nor lower it, and terms freeze at the first bid, so the acceptance is the last moment a difference can be caught.

• A fixed-price listing that the desk lists at any figure other than the one agreed is refused rather than listed, and the same rule governs a reserve in either direction: lowering a consignor’s floor is not a favour, and raising it commits them to holding a card they agreed to sell.
• A consignor may withdraw their own fixed-price listing while it is open and no purchase is in progress against it. An auction consignment is withdrawn through the desk instead, because the bidders on it are owed a word.
• A fixed-price listing is booked with a 90 day shelf life, after which the desk renews it or returns the card. Nothing closes it automatically: a fixed price has no close, so the extension clock in §3 never applies to one.
• A buyer of a fixed-price lot pays at checkout inside the hold in §5, and the consignor’s settlement then follows the same clock as any other sale.

Consignments begin at sell with us. Bidding and invoice questions go to the specialist desk. Notices to the house, including the notices named in the Terms of Service, go to notices@minthouse.io or to Minthouse Markets, Inc., New York. Press and partnerships reach the same mailbox.

§8. This deployment

The mechanics on this page are the mechanics in the build: the increment ladder, the sealed-maximum resolution, the extension clock, and the reserve logic run exactly as written here. Payment rails are connected, so settling an invoice through Peer Pay moves real funds.

The on-chain bid escrow is not enabled on this deployment: bids are not chain-collateralised, and no bid-escrow deposit is ever asked of you on minthouse.io. The cash-out escrow described in Terms of Service §7a is separate mainnet infrastructure and always moves real funds.