The essentials
Our website only uses cookies and similar technologies that it needs to work, to stay secure and to let you register, log in and bid. We don’t use analytics, advertising or social media cookies, and we don’t track you across other websites. That’s why you won’t see a cookie banner here.
The tables below list every cookie and similar item that our website and the companies behind parts of it can set, what each one does and how long it lasts.
What cookies and similar technologies are
Cookies are small text files that a website saves in your browser. Similar technologies include local storage and session storage, which keep small pieces of information in your browser, and techniques that read details of your device, such as a device fingerprint.
The law (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations) treats them all the same way. A website must tell you about them and ask your permission first, unless the law makes an exception, for example where they are strictly necessary to provide the service you’ve asked for, such as keeping the site secure, preventing fraud, logging you in or remembering choices you’ve made. Everything on our website falls within the strictly necessary exception.
Some items only last until you close your browser or tab. Others stay for a set time, or until you clear them.
The cookies and storage we use
Everything listed here is strictly necessary. Some items are set by our website and its bidding software. Others are set by the companies that provide parts of the service: the provider of our online auction and bidding platform, Cloudflare (the spam check on our forms) and Stripe (card payments through our bidding platform).
On every visit
| Name | Set by | What it does | How long | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
server_session_ followed by 8 letters and numbers | Our web server’s security firewall | Helps the firewall tell normal visits apart from attacks and automated abuse | 10 days | Strictly necessary |
When you view auctions, catalogues or lots, or are logged in
| Name | Set by | What it does | How long | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
bp-init | Our website | Notes that the bidding software has started in your browser, so pages show the right buttons and auction information | 1 day | Strictly necessary |
SystemIdentity | Our online bidding platform, on its own web address | The bidding platform’s session cookie. It lets the page show live auction information and whether you’re logged in. The provider of our online auction and bidding platform is responsible for this cookie under its own privacy notice (we can send you a copy on request) | About 15 days | Strictly necessary |
| Bidding platform session ID (local storage) | Our website, for our online bidding platform | Your session with our online bidding platform | Until you log out or clear your browser’s storage | Strictly necessary |
catalog (local storage) | Our website | Set on catalogue pages. Remembers the last auction catalogue page you looked at, so “back to catalogue” takes you to the right place | Until you clear your browser’s storage | Strictly necessary |
bs_read_notice | Our website | Remembers that you’ve seen the notice explaining that a lot page is a preview for an upcoming sale, so it doesn’t keep appearing | 7 days | Strictly necessary |
When you search or filter, send a form, log in or bid
| Name | Set by | What it does | How long | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
PHPSESSID | Our website | Keeps your session, for example the search, filters and page you’ve chosen in a catalogue, and your session while you send a form, log in or bid | Until you close your browser | Strictly necessary |
When you use one of our forms
| Name | Set by | What it does | How long | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
cf.turnstile.u (local storage, inside Cloudflare’s own frame) | Cloudflare Turnstile | Part of the check that you’re a person and not a spam robot. Turnstile only loads once you start filling in a form | Until you clear your browser’s storage | Strictly necessary |
When you register, log in or bid
| Name | Set by | What it does | How long | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
bp-login | Our website | Shows that you’re logged in, so pages offer “My account” instead of “Log in” | 1 day | Strictly necessary |
bp-approved-user | Our website | Shows that your account is approved to bid | 1 day | Strictly necessary |
| Bidding platform login token (local storage) | Our website, for our online bidding platform | Keeps you logged in to our online bidding platform | Until you log out | Strictly necessary |
af_device_id (local storage) | Our website | A random code for your browser, used with the device check below to spot fake or duplicate accounts | Until you clear your browser’s storage | Strictly necessary |
| Device check (nothing is stored in your browser) | Our website | When you register or log in, the site reads technical details of your browser and device, such as screen size, number of processor cores, graphics hardware, connection type, colour settings and how your browser draws images, plays sound and does calculations, to make a device “fingerprint”. We use it only to spot fake or fraudulent accounts. Our privacy policy explains what happens to it | Kept with our fraud-check records | Strictly necessary |
af_approval_ followed by your email address (local storage) | Our website | Remembers whether your account has been approved, so we can tell you once when it is | Until you clear your browser’s storage | Strictly necessary |
af_bidwatch_enabled (local storage) | Our website | Remembers whether you’ve switched on live bid updates in your account | Until you clear your browser’s storage | Strictly necessary |
af_reg_done_ followed by your email address (session storage) | Our website | Stops the page reloading more than once after you register | Until you close the tab | Strictly necessary |
af_bills_session_checked (session storage) | Our website | Notes that we’ve already checked for unpaid invoices during this visit | Until you close the tab | Strictly necessary |
af_logout_ts (session storage) | Our website | Used while you log out | Until you close the tab | Strictly necessary |
When you add a payment card
| Name | Set by | What it does | How long | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe’s cookies | Stripe | When you add a card to your bidding account, the card form comes from Stripe, which sets its own cookies to prevent payment fraud. Stripe lists them in its cookie policy | Set by Stripe | Strictly necessary |
For our staff only
| Name | Set by | What it does | How long | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
wordpress_, wordpress_sec_ and wordpress_logged_in_ cookies, wordpress_test_cookie, rest_nonce | WordPress and our bidding software | Keep our staff and website team logged in while they manage the website. Not set for customers | Until the browser closes, or up to 14 days if “Remember me” is ticked | Strictly necessary |
wp-settings- and wp-settings-time- cookies | WordPress | Remember how a staff member has arranged the website’s admin screens | 1 year | Strictly necessary |
What we don’t use
- No analytics or statistics cookies, such as Google Analytics.
- No advertising cookies or retargeting, and no tracking pixels on our website.
- No social media buttons or embedded feeds. Our Facebook and Google links are ordinary links: nothing loads from Facebook or Google until you click one, and then their own cookie policies apply.
- No embedded maps, and videos only load from YouTube if you click play. The map on our contact page is a picture, and “Open in Google Maps” takes you to Google’s website. If a lot has a video, you’ll see a play button with the message “This video is hosted by YouTube. Clicking play loads it from YouTube, which may set cookies.” Nothing loads from YouTube until you click.
When you view our auctions, catalogues or lots, your browser also connects to our online bidding platform to show live auction information and to its content delivery network (Fastly) to load photos of lots. It connects to Cloudflare when you start filling in a form. Our privacy policy explains what they receive.
Sale alert emails. If you sign up for sale alerts, our emails contain a tiny image and tracked links that tell us whether an email was opened and which links were clicked. We only send these emails, and use this tracking, with your consent. You can turn images off in your email program, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Why there’s no cookie banner
The law lets websites use cookies and similar technologies without asking first when they are strictly necessary to provide the service you’ve asked for. Everything our website uses falls into that group, so we don’t need to ask for your consent. The tracking in our sale alert emails is different: we ask for your consent to it when you sign up. If we ever add anything that isn’t strictly necessary, such as website statistics, we’ll update this policy and ask for your permission first where the law requires it.
How to control cookies
You can see and delete cookies and stored website data in your browser’s settings, and block cookies for all websites or just some. Clearing “cookies and site data” also clears local storage and session storage. These pages explain how:
Some browsers, including Safari and Firefox, block cookies from other websites (such as our online bidding platform’s) by default.
What happens if you block them
You can still read the website. But if you block cookies or website storage:
- registering, logging in and bidding may not work, because our online bidding platform needs its cookies and storage to know it’s you
- our forms may not send, because the spam check needs JavaScript and its own storage. If that happens, ring us on 0113 250 2626 or email info@shelbysauctioneers.net instead
- catalogue searches, filters and “back to catalogue” may forget where you were
Changes and contact
We’ll update this policy if the cookies and similar technologies we use change. For how we use personal information more generally, see our privacy policy. If you have a question, email info@shelbysauctioneers.net or ring 0113 250 2626.
Last updated: 13 October 2026.