Browsing and sorting a sale

Every sale's page lists its lots in a grid, with a bar above it for narrowing things down.

Changing the order

The Sort menu re-orders the lots the moment you pick an option:

• Lot number — the order the lots were catalogued in.
• Ending soonest — the lots you can still bid on, the one closing next first. Lots that have already closed move to the end, so the first page is always what's still in play.
• Price: high to low and Price: low to high — by the price shown on each lot: the current bid, or the starting bid if nobody has bid yet.
• Most bids — the busiest lots first.

Each sale opens in the order the auction house chose for it. Once you pick a different one, it sticks for that sale while you browse: open a lot, come back, and your order is still there. Clear puts everything back the way the sale opened.

Moving from lot to lot

You don't have to go back to the list to see the next item. Every lot page has Previous and Next buttons at the top — and again at the bottom, naming the lots they lead to — plus a count such as "12 of 48".

They follow the list you were looking at: the same order, and the same search or category if you'd narrowed it down. So if you searched for "welder" and sorted by price, Next takes you to the next welder down in price. With Ending soonest, they walk the sale by closing time: Next from a lot that has just closed is the next one to close.

On a computer, the ← and → arrow keys do the same thing — except while you're typing in a box (a bid, an email) or have a pop-up open, such as the bid confirmation.

Back to the list returns you to the catalogue page that lot is on, with your search and order still in place. (A lot that has already closed while you browse Ending soonest takes you back to the first page instead, where the lots still open are.)

Searching and filtering

• Search this auction finds lots by words in the title or description, or by lot number. Type and press Apply.
• Category narrows the grid to one kind of item. Choosing a category includes everything under it — "Industrial" also shows lathes and welders filed beneath it.

Search, category and sort work together, and they stay in place as you move between pages of results.