Trust & safety

Who is allowed to trade here

Every account on both sides is a verified business. Here is what verification checks, what each level lets an account do, what you can see about the company across the table, and what ends an account.

Create your free account Next: How lots are verified

Who can trade: Verified businesses; ITADs, recyclers, refurbishers, brokers, MSPs and data centres in the US and Canada
Approval: Within 8 hours; By a person, on business days, after automated checks
Large lots: Level 2; A bank account on file and one completed deal for reserves of $10,000 or more
Account ends after: 3 strikes; Inside 12 months; banned companies cannot re-register

What we check before anyone trades

Verification is the same for buyers and sellers. It is one form, once, and it is the reason the other side of every deal is a real company.

Business details
Legal name, trading name, address, country and state, company type and website. We match them against public records.
The last four digits of the EIN
Enough to confirm the business exists and to block a banned company from registering again; never the full number.
A business licence or resale certificate
Uploaded once and kept on file. A resale certificate is required to buy. Documents are visible to staff only.
Automated checks
Domain age and ownership, the website, the phone region and bot signals, scored the moment you submit. A high score can approve at once; a low one goes to a person.
A person approves
Most applications are approved within 8 hours on business days. The reviewer can ask for one more document; you see the request on your dashboard.
Terms accepted
The terms, the auction terms and the protected payment terms, each versioned, so both sides know which rules a deal runs under.

The four levels

A level is what an account has proven about itself. It is shown on the seller’s trust card and it decides what the account may do.

L0Registered
Who qualifies
Email and phone confirmed.
What they can do
Browse and watch lots. Cannot bid or list.
L1Verified business
Who qualifies
Business details, the last four of the EIN, a business licence or resale certificate, automated checks (domain, website, phone region, bot signals) and the terms accepted. Approved by a person, usually within 8 hours on business days.
What they can do
Register to bid, and list lots with a seller plan.
L2Verified + bank
Who qualifies
A bank account on file through instant verification and one completed protected-payment deal.
What they can do
Bid on auctions with a reserve of $10,000 or more and list under your business name.
L3Inspected seller or Market Maker
Who qualifies
Three or more consigned lots with a count variance of 2% or less, or a Market Maker agreement.
What they can do
Exempt from bidding deposits. A badge on every listing.

What you see about the other side

Sellers are anonymised until you pay; what you see instead is their record. Buyers appear to sellers as a registration count, never names.

Verification level
L1 to L3, and what it took to earn it. L3 sellers were inspected on our bench or hold a market-maker agreement.
Deals completed
Protected-payment deals where the buyer confirmed the count and the funds released. A count of real orders, not a self-reported figure.
Dispute record
Disputes opened against the seller as a share of paid orders, and how they ended. A dash means nothing to count yet.
Time to ship
Median hours from label issued to the carrier’s first scan across the seller’s orders.
Named after payment
Before you pay, the seller is "Verified seller · TX". After you pay, both sides see the legal name and address.

Strikes and bans

Trust is kept by consequences that are written down in advance.

Strikes are issued for payment default, late shipping beyond grace and confirmed misrepresentation; 3 strikes in 12 months ends the account, and banned organisations cannot re-register.

A strike is recorded with the order it came from and the reason, visible to the account that earned it. A seller’s dispute record on the trust card is the public side of the same ledger. Payment default also forfeits the bidding deposit when one was taken.

The house account rule

Memory Traders is a DBA of the company that owns ITAD Authority. That company trades here, and it trades by the same rules.

An ordinary account
ITAD Authority trades from a member account flagged as the house: the same verification, the same fees, the same strikes.
No bids on its own lots
The house cannot bid on house lots, and staff accounts cannot bid or list at all. The database enforces it, not a policy.
No early data
The house sees the price index when you do. Its floor offers are published prices, not private quotes.

Seats and roles inside a company

An account is a company with one or more people on it. Verification belongs to the company; what each person may do belongs to their seat.

Owner
Opened the account. Invites and removes people, changes the plan and the payout account, can withdraw payouts.
Admin
Everything the owner can do inside trading: bid, list, schedule, ship, respond to disputes. Cannot change the payout account.
Staff
Day-to-day work: draft and submit lots, pack and ship, register for auctions and bid up to the company’s limits. Cannot withdraw payouts or change billing.

Every seat is invited by email to the company’s account and accepts the terms in their own name. Actions are logged per person, so a dispute shows who shipped and who confirmed. Details are in the Terms.

Questions people ask

Can a consumer or a hobbyist bid here?

No. Every account is verified against a real business before it can bid or list: business details, the last four digits of the EIN, a business licence or resale certificate, and automated checks that a person then approves. Browsing is open to anyone; trading is not.

How long does verification take?

Automated checks run the moment you submit. A person approves most applications within 8 hours on business days, and applications with a high automated score are approved at once. Signing up from an address at your company domain speeds it up.

Do I need a bank account on file to bid?

Not for most auctions. A verified business with a payment method on file (Level 1) can register and bid. Auctions with a reserve of $10,000 or more need Level 2: a bank account on file and one completed protected-payment deal.

Can the seller see who I am?

Sellers see registrations as a count, never names. After you win and pay, both sides see each other’s legal name and address, because the seller has to ship to you and you have the right to know who you bought from.

What gets an account banned?

Strikes are issued for payment default, late shipping beyond grace and confirmed misrepresentation. 3 strikes in 12 months end the account, and a banned organisation’s EIN, domains and bank fingerprints are blocked from registering again.

Does ITAD Authority get special treatment?

No. ITAD Authority trades from an ordinary member account flagged as the house. It cannot bid on its own lots, gets no early data, and its floor offers are published prices. Staff accounts cannot bid or list at all.