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| How do I place
a bid? |
Placing a bid on an item is
actually pretty quick and easy. At the bottom of every auction listing
will be a "bidding" section. There will be three boxes to fill
out, the amount you want to bid, your Username, and your password.
You must bid at least the minimum bid price, which will be shown next to the bid
field. With the Photogon Proxy Bidding system, you can actually bid your
maximum price, and let the Proxy do the bidding for you. To see an example
of how Proxy Bidding works, click
here.
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| How much
should I bid? |
Deciding on your bid amount is an important part of the buying
process at auctions. One benefit of the auction format is that you can see
what other people are willing to pay for an item. The best strategy at the
Photogon Auction is to bid the price you are willing to pay, and let your Proxy
enter bids as necessary. You can find more information and tips on bidding
in the Buyer's FAQ.
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| What is Overtime? |
| Normally, an auction closes at the scheduled time as displayed
within the listing. However, if there are bids entered within the last 5
minutes of the closing time, then the auction will go into overtime. The
auction is extended until there are no further bids for a continuous 5 minutes.
This is similar to an auctioneer continuing to take bids until there is no
further interest. For example, if a bid comes in with 4 minutes left in
the auction, then there will be 1 minute of overtime. Unless more
bids come in. It is possible for an auction to be extended continuously,
although the record so far is 20 minutes.
Overtime helps dissuade "snipers", or last second bidders.
For example, you may have spent considerable time achieving your high bid status
at an auction. Without overtime, someone could time their bid entry to
within a few seconds of the closing, leaving you without enough time to notice
the bid and enter one in response. This is a common practice at online
auctions, and unfair because you would not know that this person is waiting to
pounce on you. At a live physical auction, at least you can see your
competition, and the auctioneer will continue with the auction to give a chance
to respond. This is precisely why Photogon.com employs an overtime system
at our auctions. We have found that 5 minutes is enough time to receive an
outbid email from our system, log in to our site, and place a bid.
So what's the best strategy? If you have the time and enjoy hanging out
at online auctions, then wait until the last few minutes of an auction to bid.
Your competition will have 5 minutes to respond, but maybe they are not
available. On the other hand, if you do not have the time to attend the
closing of an auction, then use the Proxy Bidding method, described next.
Together, these two features save you considerable time online, while still
protecting your chances of winning auctions.
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| The
Proxy Bidding System: |
| The Proxy Bidding System is designed to save you the time of
having to watch every bid at the auction, and is used by all reputable internet
auction systems. Essentially, you bid the Maximum price you are
willing to pay, right off the bat. But your bid is actually kept
confidential, and not posted. Only the Minimum Required amount is bid for
you. Your Proxy then places bids for you as necessary to outbid your
competition. Your Proxy will only bid one increment more than your
competition, and will never bid more than your maximum. If someone bids
more than your top price, you will be notified.
Here's an example:
| Current high bid is: |
$100.00 |
| Bid Increment is: |
$2.50 |
| Next required Bid : |
$102.50 |
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| You bid your max.: |
$160.00 |
| Your Proxy bids: |
$102.50 |
| Joe comes along with: |
$105.00 |
| Your Proxy bids: |
$107.50 |
| Joe bids again: |
$125.00 |
| Your Proxy bids: |
$127.50 |
| John Moneybags bids: |
$175.00 |
| Your Proxy does NOT bid: |
It emails you. |
By bidding your maximum right away, you are sure not to pay too much at the
end of an exciting auction. If the bidding goes higher than your maximum,
no problem, you probably would not have paid that much anyway.
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| What is a Reserve
Price auction? |
| Sellers have the option of setting a hidden Reserve Price that
is above the minimum starting bid. If a reserve price is in effect, then
the seller does not have sell the item unless the high bid meets or exceeds his
reserve. Auctions with a reserve price will be noted in their listing,
describing whether the reserve has been met or not. The actual amount of
the reserve price is not revealed to bidders, until it has been met.
Bidding is the same process whether an auction has a reserve price or not.
If a bid does not meet or exceed the reserve, the seller may still be willing to
sell to you at your price, or something in between. If you are the high
bidder, but the reserve is NOT met, you will receive an email explaining both of
these events.
For example:
Item #9999999999 had a minimum starting bid of $100.00
The seller set a reserve price in his listing of
$200.00.
At the end of the auction, the highest bid is $175.00.
In this case, the seller is not obligated to sell for $175.00,
but may choose to do so anyway.
Another example:
Item #888888888 had a minimum starting bid of $900.00.
The seller set a reserve price in his listing of
$1,200.00.
At the end of the auction, the highest bid is
$1,225.00.
In this case, the seller is obligated to sell for $1,225.00 to
the highest bidder.
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| Will I be notified
of my bid status? |
| If you are outbid by another bidder, you will receive an email
informing you of this. If you are the high bidder at the end of the
auction, you will receive an email with the good news. The email is sent
immediately after either of the above events, but it is hard to predict how long
it will take to traverse cyberspace and hit your in-box. So, if you are
keen on acquiring a particular item, sign in to the Photogon near the end of the
auction and watch the bidding. You can quickly check the status of your
bids in My Page.
The Photogon Auction has a small built in feature to safeguard against
"snipers". Snipers are bidders that wait until the last
minutes of an auction, and place bids just above the high bid. The "Overtime"
feature of the Photogon Auction works by continuing a particular auction until
five (5) minutes after the last bid is placed.
For example:
Auction #1234567 is due to close at 8:00 PM, and Joe Sniper outbids you at 7:59
PM. Even if you were actively watching this, you may not have enough time
to submit a new bid. With Overtime, however, the auction is extended until
8:04 PM, unless you or someone else bids again. If your bid is recorded at
8:03 PM, the auction will be extended until 8:08 PM.
The reason auctions are exciting is the bidding process. Most bidders
wait until the last few hours of an auction to get serious, so pay attention to
your interests near the closing time of an auction. Better yet, bid
your maximum price right away and let your Proxy watch your interests - this
works even into Overtime.
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| How do I list
an item for auction? |
Go the link titled "Start
an auction". The Form is self explanatory, but you may want to
read the Sellers FAQ as well. Once you have
filled out the form, you will be shown a Preview of your listing. If the
preview looks good, then go ahead and finish the process, or make changes and
preview again. Your auction will start immediately, and run for the number
of days that you specify.
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| What price should I start
the auction at? |
You must enter a minimum bid amount to start the auction.
You should give some thought to this amount before listing. Most sellers
like to start the bidding a little lower than what they hope to get for the
item. Keep in mind that you are required to sell the item for the highest
bid, with the only exception of a Reserve Price - details in
the next question and answer.
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| Should I set
a Reserve Price? |
| You may set a hidden Reserve Price higher than the minimum bid.
This means that you are not required to sell the item unless the high bid meets
or exceeds your reserve price amount. Your reserve price is not revealed
to bidders - only that you have set a reserve, and whether it has been met.
If the the high bid does meet or exceed your reserve, then you are obligated to
sell for the high bid. Deciding whether to set a reserve price takes
a little thought.. You want to protect your investment by not letting it
sell for too much below market value, but you also want bidders to participate.
Some bidders do not like reserve price auctions, and will not bid on them.
Most bidders will be annoyed if the reserve price is considerably above the
minimum starting bid. So if you do set a reserve price, it should be only
a little higher than the minimum starting bid. Also, consider revealing
your reserve price in your description, either right away, or later in the
auction, by adding to your description. Revealing your reserve price often
sparks more interest because bidders can tell if they are close or not.
Our advice:
If you have a bottom line price that you absolutely
will not sell below, then enter your bottom line price as the minimum bid amount
to start, and do not set a reserve price. This way, bidders know you're
not wasting their time.
If you're not sure what you can expect to get for an
item, then set a reserve price at what you think it might be worth.
If you really want to move an item and generate some
excitement, then start the auction at a low price, and do not set a reserve
price - a little risky, but most often gets market value or more, and always
gets a lot of bidders interested.
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| What should be the
Duration? |
| You can choose from three (3) to fourteen (14) days for the
duration of your auction. Select a short duration if your item is of very
common interest, or you absolutely must sell quick. Select a longer
duration if your item is more exotic, much more than $2500 new, or not well
known.
Seven (7) days is the most common auction duration, and that is what we
recommend for most items. This gives buyers a solid week to see your
listing, research your item, place bids, and watch the action. It is a
good idea to cover at least one week's cycle, so that bidders that only sign in
on Sundays for example, can bid on your item. You should also consider
what day the auction will be ending. Sundays and Mondays seem to be good
days for an auction to end, whereas national holidays are not.
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| Got a question we missed? |
| If you would like clarification on any of the above answers, or
have a question that we have missed, please contact
us, and we would be happy to email promptly. If you have a specific
auction you are asking about, please include at least the title of the auction
or the item number in your email.
Have a suggestion? Please contact
us. We would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions you
might have.
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