Scottish Book Trust Christmas Appeal Auction

The Scottish Book Trust Christmas Appeal Auction will run froAM on 19 November 2025 to 9PM on 3 December 2025. This website is operated by Scottish Book Trust, a registered Scottish charity, SC027669. Throughout the site, the terms “we”, “us” and “our” refer to Scottish Book Trust. Scottish Book Trust offers this website, including all information, tools and Services available from this site to you, the user, conditioned upon your acceptance of all terms, conditions, policies and notices stated here and in the wider Terms of Service.  

Please read these Terms and Conditions carefully before accessing or bidding upon our auction. By accessing or bidding on any lot in the Scottish Book Trust Auction, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you may not access the auction, bid upon or win any lots. If these Terms and Conditions are considered an offer, acceptance is expressly limited to these Terms and Conditions. 

Our store is hosted on Shopify Inc. They provide us with the online e-commerce platform that allows us to sell our products and Services to you. Our auction is powered by Tipo Product Auction on Shopify App Store.  

Section 1 – Bidding 

To bid on any of the lots/illustrations, you will be required to register for an account on the Scottish Book Trust shop. You can do this at any time by following the steps below: 

1. When you click ‘place bid’ on a product, you will be asked to sign in or register for an account for our online shop.  

2. Once completed, you will be taken to a user dashboard. 

3. Use the ‘auction’ link in the top navigation to return to the auction collection, find the product you wish to bid on and select ‘place bid’. 

4. Minimum bid increments on all lots has been set to £5, except for 'The Gruffalo family shares a story at Christmas' – Axel Scheffler, which has a minimum bid increment of £25. This means that when placing a bid, it will only be accepted if it is higher than the leading bid by the required increment or more.  

5. You will receive an email confirming that your bid has been accepted, if that is the case. Please check your spam folder if you think you have not received this. 

6. If someone else bids higher than you, you will receive another email letting you know that your bid is no longer the highest. 

No email, phone, or other forms of bids will be accepted. 

All bids are final. If you place a bid on a lot then you are agreeing to purchase that lot at the price you have bid and all lots must be paid for in full. Care must be taken by the bidder at all times whilst the auction is running as all bids are non-retractable. By agreeing to these Terms & Conditions you agree to pay for any lots that you bid on, and if you fail to so within the required timeframe, you will forfeit your claim to the lot. 

Section 2 – Buying and Winning 

The reserve price for each lot is visible on the item listing. To win the lot, your final bid must be in the lad and higher than the reserve price at 9PM on Wednesday 3rd December. 

Payment is due in sterling and before purchases can be released. If the auction ends and your bid is in the lead (and above the item’s reserve price), you will win that auction. You will then receive an email letting you know you’re the winner and – at the same time – an invoice email that asks you to ‘complete your purchase’.   

Once you have received an invoice for your winning bid, click ‘complete your purchase’ to go to our checkout page. You’ll need to fill in your details and complete the payment before the timeout period (48 hours after the auction closes). If you fail to complete the payment in that time, the person with the next highest bid will then be considered the winner. 

After you’ve completed the payment, you’ll receive an order confirmation email. 

If payment for your winning bid has not been completed and accepted within 48 hours, your bid will be rendered invalid, you forfeit your claim to the lot, and the next highest bidder will become the Winner and Buyer.  

No VAT or additional shipping costs will be charged at checkout. All proceeds from your generous winning bid will go to Scottish Book Trust’s Christmas Appeal in 2025, raising money to gift books to children and families through food banks, community groups and other charities as well as supporting our year-round work. 

Section 3 – Staff, Trustee, Patron and Partner Participation 

Employees, Trustees, Volunteers, Patrons and Partners of Scottish Book Trust staff are permitted to bid on items within the auction. All bids must be made as private individuals and through the official bidding platform. Staff members must abide by the same rules, terms, and deadlines as all other members of the public 

The auction is managed via the Shopify application Tipo Product Auction. The winning bidder is automatically and impartially determined by the application based on the highest bid submitted when the auction timer expires, and waterfall bidding has been enabled to ensure the next highest bidder will be automatically and impartially selected, in the event the winner does not complete their payment withing 48 hours. If three, successive waterfall winners fail to pay within the allotted timeframe, the next highest bidder will be manually selected as the winner. In this event, the use of manual winner selection will be thoroughly documented to ensure the auction has been conducted fairly. 

Staff, Trustees, and Volunteers are strictly prohibited from using any confidential or internal information to gain an advantage in bidding. Any breach of this clause or any act that creates a perception of a conflict of interest or unfair advantage will lead to the immediate revocation of the bid and potential disciplinary action. In the event of any dispute regarding staff bidding, the final decision rests solely with the Scottish Book Trust Senior Management team, and that decision will be final and binding. 

Section 4 – Lot condition 

While we have taken a great deal of care and attention in presenting the items for sale as individual lots in an accurate manner and measuring the items to the nearest centimetre, there may be small differences in viewing the item in-person as opposed to online. These do not constitute grounds for a refund of the item. There are no warranties or guarantees given or implied on any items in this auction neither by the artists or by Scottish Book Trust.  

Section 5 – Copyright 

Each publisher retains the rights to use this image for the full term of copyright in books and promotional materials. Every piece of artwork is copyright of its creator. As such, please be aware that the items and artwork cannot be used or copied by you for any commercial reasons. 

Section 6 – Postage 

Items will be posted by the Scottish Book Trust staff only after receiving full payment. We will endeavour to post artworks before Christmas but are not liable for any delays.  

Section 7 – Data Protection & Privacy Policy 

We are committed to respecting and protecting your personal data. Scottish Book Trust collects and uses your personal data at shop.scottishbooktrust.com in order to process your bids and purchases through the auction. When you visit our shop we collect certain information about your device, your interaction with the website, and information necessary to process your purchases. Please read our Privacy Policy for full details.  

Section 8 – Terms of Service for the Scottish Book Trust Shop 

In accessing the content of or bidding on any lots in this auction, you are agreeing both to these Terms and Conditions and the wider Terms of Service for the Scottish Book Trust shop.