Metzee is a live auction marketplace. A seller goes on camera with the things they are selling, picks each one up, tells you what it is and what is wrong with it, and people watching bid against each other. When the bidding stops, it is sold.
That is the whole idea. The rest of this page is what follows from it.
It is a room, not a catalogue
A listing is a photograph and a paragraph, waiting. A show is a person, for a while, and then it is over.
The difference matters most for things that are not uniform. A photograph of a bowl tells you its colour and roughly its size. It does not tell you how the glaze pooled, whether the rim is thin, or how it sits in a hand. Live, you ask, and somebody turns it over and shows you.
What people sell
More than you would guess. Sneakers, trading cards, coins, sarees, handicrafts, comics, cricket memorabilia, electronics, food, jewellery — thirty-odd categories, run by sellers across India from shops, studios and kitchen tables.
Have a look at what is on right now.
How a sale actually works
- You watch, free, without an account.
- To bid you need an account, which is a phone number and a code.
- You bid. Other people bid. On most items a late bid pushes the clock out, so the auction ends when the bidding ends; on sudden-death items the clock never moves and zero is zero.
- If you win, you pay — thirty minutes if you are watching, twelve hours if it ended while you were away.
- The money is held by us until the item reaches you.
That last point is the one worth reading twice. We hold the money rather than passing it straight to the seller, which is what makes buying from a shop with no reviews a reasonable thing to do.
In your language
Metzee is in eleven Indian languages and English — Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Not just the homepage: the error messages, the delivery terms, the emails. Why that was a condition rather than a feature.
Questions people ask
Is Metzee free to use?
For buyers, yes. You pay the winning bid plus delivery, both shown before you commit. Sellers pay a commission on what they sell.
Do I need an app?
No. Metzee runs in a web browser on a phone or a laptop — that is the whole product, not a cut-down version of it. There is no app to download yet, for Android or iPhone.
Is it safe to buy from a seller I do not know?
That is the problem the held money solves. We explain exactly how here, including what it does not cover.
What if the item never arrives?
Raise it from the order and a person answers within 48 hours. The money has not reached the seller yet.
Can I sell on Metzee?
Yes. Here is what that involves and what it costs.
Where is Metzee based?
India. The company pages are under About.
Find a show, or read how a live show works before you join one.