Terms of service
Last updated: 7 September 2026
These terms cover your use of Bidding Star, an online silent auction platform operated by Verus Major ("we", "us"). By creating an account or bidding in an auction, you agree to them.
Two kinds of people use Bidding Star, and the terms differ:
- An organization creates an auction and collects the proceeds.
- A bidder browses an auction and bids on items.
1. What Bidding Star is, and what it is not
Bidding Star is software that lets an organization run a silent auction and collect payment for the items won.
We are not a party to the sale. When you win an item, the agreement to buy it is between you and the organization running the auction. That organization is the merchant of record. It is responsible for describing the item honestly, handing it over, providing a receipt, and handling any refund. We provide the software the auction runs on and nothing more.
We do not own, inspect, store, ship or guarantee any item listed on Bidding Star. We do not verify an organization's charitable status beyond asking it to tell us, and a listing here is not an endorsement or a statement that a donation is tax-deductible.
2. Your account
You need an account to bid or to run an auction. Keep your password to yourself, give us accurate information, and tell us at support@biddingstar.com if you think someone else is using your account.
You must be 18 or older to bid or to run an auction.
You are responsible for what happens under your account.
3. If you run an auction
You must have the authority to act for your organization and to sell what you list.
You must be able to deliver. List only items you actually have, describe them accurately, and hand them over to the winner. If an item is a service or a voucher, say plainly what it includes and when it expires.
You set the rules of your own auction — start and end dates, starting bids, whether bidders can cover fees — within what the software allows. Once bidding has started on an item you should not change its terms.
You collect the money and you own the obligation. Payments go to your organization. Refunds, disputes, chargebacks and any tax on the proceeds are yours. See Refunds.
You are responsible for your bidders' data. Names, email addresses and bid history are visible to you so you can run the auction and hand over items. Use them for that. Do not sell them, and do not add people to unrelated mailing lists without asking.
You must not run a raffle, lottery or game of chance through Bidding Star; list anything illegal, stolen, counterfeit, alcoholic, weapon-related, or otherwise prohibited by your card processor; or use the platform to raise money for something other than the organization named on the auction.
4. If you bid
A bid is a commitment. If you are the high bidder when the item closes, you have agreed to buy it at that price. Bid accordingly.
You cannot retract a bid through the software. If you made a genuine mistake — a typo, a bid on the wrong item — contact the organization running the auction as soon as you can. It is their call.
Pay promptly. You will be told what you owe and given a way to pay it. If you do not, the organization may offer the item to the next bidder and may decline your bids in future.
You must not bid on your own organization's items to inflate a price, use more than one account to bid against yourself, or otherwise interfere with bidding.
5. Fees
Running an auction on the free tier costs nothing.
When a bidder pays by card, we take 3.0% of that payment as a platform fee, deducted at the time of payment. Your card processor charges its own fee separately and bills you directly.
There is no fee on a payment recorded as offline — cash, cheque or bank transfer.
We may change our fees. If we do, we will tell organizations with active auctions at least 30 days in advance, and the change will not apply to an auction already underway.
6. Payment processing
Card payments are processed by Stripe. To accept them, your organization creates a Stripe account and agrees to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement. Stripe's terms govern that account, including verification, payouts and disputes.
We never see or store card numbers. Card details go directly to Stripe.
Stripe may require information from your organization — an EIN, a bank account, identity details for a responsible person — and may hold or restrict funds under its own rules. We cannot override those decisions.
7. Your content
You keep ownership of everything you upload — item photos, descriptions, your organization's name and logo.
By uploading it, you give us permission to store it and display it as part of running your auction, and to show it to the people you share the auction link with. That permission ends when you delete the content or close your account, except where we have to keep records under section 11.
You confirm that you have the right to use what you upload, including any photo of an item someone donated.
We may remove content that breaks these terms or that a card network or processor requires us to remove.
8. Availability
We work hard to keep Bidding Star running, particularly in the closing hours of an auction when it matters most. We do not promise it will never be unavailable.
We are not liable for bids not placed, or revenue not raised, because of an outage, a device, a network, or an email that landed in a spam folder.
9. Suspension and termination
You can close your account at any time. If you have an auction with unpaid obligations, settle those first.
We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, that a payment processor or card network requires us to act on, or that is being used to defraud people. Where we reasonably can, we will tell you why.
Closing an account does not erase payment records we are required to keep.
10. Liability
Bidding Star is provided as is. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
We are not liable for anything arising out of the sale itself — an item that never arrived, an item not as described, a dispute between a bidder and an organization. That is between the two of you.
To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability to you for any claim relating to Bidding Star is limited to the platform fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or $100.00, whichever is greater. We are not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential damages, or for lost fundraising revenue.
Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
11. Records
We keep records of transactions, including who paid what and when, for as long as tax, accounting and card-network rules require — generally at least seven years. See Privacy.
12. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. If a change is material we will email account holders and update the date at the top. Continuing to use Bidding Star after a change means you accept it.
13. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Disputes go to the state and federal courts located there.
14. Contact
Verus Major 1814 Pasadena Dr Austin, Texas 78757 support@biddingstar.com