# The Opening Stint

> An online auction marketplace for curated lots.

## About

The Opening Stint is an online auction marketplace powered by the Babylon platform. Buyers can browse and bid on curated lots. Timed and live auction formats are supported. Fixed-price and make-offer listings are also available. Sellers can consign items and track their lots through the seller dashboard.

## Key pages

- [Home](https://openingstint.com/)
- [Auctions](https://openingstint.com/auctions): Browse live and upcoming auctions, plus fixed-price and buy-now listings
  - [The Premium Catalogue](https://openingstint.com/auctions/premium)
  - [The Entry List](https://openingstint.com/auctions/entry-list)
  - [The Paddock](https://openingstint.com/auctions/paddock)
- [Sell](https://openingstint.com/sell): Consign items for auction
- [About](https://openingstint.com/about): About The Opening Stint
- [FAQ](https://openingstint.com/faq): Frequently asked questions about buying and selling
- [Contact](https://openingstint.com/contact): Get in touch
- [Notes / Editorial](https://openingstint.com/notes): Articles and editorial from The Opening Stint

## How to use this site

- **Browsing**: No account required to view lots and auction catalogues.
- **Bidding**: Create a free account to place bids. Some auctions may require identity verification (KYC) before bidding is permitted.
- **Buying now**: Fixed-price lots can be purchased directly where available.
- **Selling**: Contact the team via the Sell page to consign items.

## Accounts

- Registration: https://openingstint.com/register
- Login: https://openingstint.com/login
- My account: https://openingstint.com/account (requires login)

## Platform capabilities

- Timed and proxy bidding auctions
- Fixed-price and buy-now listings
- Identity verification (KYC) for high-value bidding
- Seller custody / vault storage
- Buyer–seller messaging
- Online valuation requests
- Editorial / notes section

## Recent notes

- [The market, read honestly](https://openingstint.com/notes/the-market-read-honestly) — Motorsport lots don't price the way people assume. The gap between how the market really works and how it gets described in the room is where money quietly moves the wrong way. Four things are worth knowing plainly, because the people setting the headline number rarely say them.
- [Two cars, one chassis number](https://openingstint.com/notes/two-cars-one-chassis-number) — Stay in this game long enough and you hit the problem nobody can tidy up: two cars, each with a straight face and a claim to the same chassis number.
- [What an FIA passport actually tells you](https://openingstint.com/notes/what-an-fia-passport-actually-tells-you) — Most of the competition cars we list come with one document doing most of the heavy lifting: the FIA Historic Technical Passport.
- [On trophies, and which trophy is which.](https://openingstint.com/notes/on-trophies-and-which-trophy-is-which) — A Grand Prix victory in the 1960s could produce as many as five distinct trophies for the same win. 
- [On the matter of repainted helmets.](https://openingstint.com/notes/on-the-matter-of-repainted-helmets) — Most helmets that come through the authentication room have been more than one helmet in their lifetime. 

## Machine-readable data

- Sitemap (XML): https://openingstint.com/sitemap.xml
- Structured data: JSON-LD (Schema.org) is embedded on all public pages

## Crawling guidance

- Public catalogue, lot detail, and editorial pages are freely crawlable.
- Account, checkout, admin, and API routes should not be crawled.
- See https://openingstint.com/robots.txt for the full crawl policy.