Auction Help Page
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Auction Help Page |
| HELP Topics Complete discussion of the topic. |
FAQ Frequently Asked
Questions Place your curser over the [Answer] or click on the question if you have an older browser. |
| Registration | What is the Bid Increment? [Answer] |
| Selling an Item | What is a Reserve price? [Answer] |
| Bidding on an Item | How do I know I won? [Answer] |
| Buyers Tips | How do I find out more about a posted item? [Answer] |
| Sellers Tips | What is Feedback? [Answer] |
| Who settles auction disputes | How do I Post an item for sale? [Answer] |
| Shipping, handling and insurance | How do I bid? [Answer] |
Have a question that wasn't answered here? Contact us at auction@proteus-systems.com and we'll answer it and add it to this page if warranted.
Registration is free but we do require that all sellers and
buyers be registered. This enables us to keep track of items for sale and who bids on them
and protects both us as the auction managers and you as buyer and/or seller. Registration begins by clicking on the New Registration
link any auction page.
When you register, you will be Emailed a randomly generated password for security
purposes. When you have completed the registration process click on the Change
Registration link on any page to create your own password.
You can also do a change of address on the Change Registration form.
If you forget your Username or Password in the future, simply click on the Forgot
Username/Password link at the bottom of any page. You will be required to submit
the Email address you gave at the time of your initial registration and will be Emailed
your current Username and Password.
Selling (or 'posting' your items for sale
) is quick and easy. You must be a Member of the Northshore Art Auctions and register with us which can be done by clicking the New Registration link on any auction page as described above in the registration section. Posting an item for sale begins by clicking on the Post New Item link on any auction page. Item Picture URL Image url is the current location of the image you want to show in your item description. For example, if you want to show a picture of a bike called bike.jpg and it's on your webpage in the pictures directory, you would enter : www.mywebpage.com/pictures/bike.jpg (or use the method below) Note: Do not use a picture located on someone else's websight as this will cause increased, unauthorized traffic on their server. |
For Internet Explorer users To find out the Image Url of the picture you want to use Right
click on the image you wish to link to on your web page
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| For Netscape users Right click on the image and chose Copy Image Location Paste it into the Image URL box on your Post an Item form |
Title/Item Name Fill in this box with a short descriptive title such as Landscape by George Adams.
Category
Chose the category your item should be in (if you don't see an appropriate category for your item, please e-mail us at auction@proteus-systems.com and ask for that category to be added). We will add it as soon as possible or suggest an appropriate category.Days Until Close Decide how many days you want to offer your item at auction. Our system supports 1-30 days. Most people use seven days. You may automatically repost your item if it doesn't sell.
Description Enter your description into the Description box. Be sure to include such facts as who pays for shipping and how much that is. Also detail the type of payment you will accept, such as personal checks, Visa and MasterCard (and/or other credit cards), will you ship C.O.D., and so forth.
Starting Bid If you enter a low price, you are leaving your auction up to the bidders and you might not get the price you want for your item. However this strategy works well if you want to make sure your item is sold quickly. Entering the lowest price you are willing to sell your item for is your best bet. The drawback to this method is that if the price is high, there might not be much bidding on your item. Another strategy is to set the starting bid low, but set a reserve price (see below) for the lowest price you are willing to sell your item for. This way your item will look attractively priced but you won't be obligated to sell it unless your reserve price is met. This bid will also appear as the 'last' or 'highest' bid until someone places a bid.
Your Reserve Price Your reserve price is the minimum price you want to sell your item for. If the auction closes and your reserve price was not met, you are not obligated to sell the item. For example if you set your reserve price at $80 but the highest bid at closing time is $70, you are not obligated to sell your item at $70.
Bid Increment Bid increment automatically sets the minimum amount of the next bid. For example if someone bids $40 and your bid increment is $2, then the next bidder must bid at least $42. This is used mainly to keep someone from raising the bid by a ridiculous amount like 5 cents and keeps the auction moving at a regular pace.
Buy-it Now Buy-it now is the price you are willing to sell your item for to the first bidder. If you want to sell your item fast and you feel your asking price is good, then this is a good method for you. For example if the average price for items similar to yours is $100 and you are willing to sell yours for $75, that would be your Buy-it now price. With this method, the first bidder on your item has the option of buying your on the spot. However if the first bidder decides to place a lower bid instead, the Buy-it now feature is turned off and the bidding goes on as usual. You may also want to set a Reserve price (see above) so you can at least get the $100 if the feature is turned off.
At the bottom of the page you will find the bidding section. At the top you will see the current high bid and the minimum amount you can bid. This amount is the high bid plus the bid increment set by the seller. You can place a bid for this amount or any higher amount.
| The following are some basic tips to
aid you in your buying experience. 1. You should always fully read the entire auction listing so that you understand what is being sold, the return policy, and shipping costs associated with the item(s). 2. You should always check the seller's feedback. 3. If you have questions that cannot be answered by reading the auction's description, please Contact Us and we will forward your question(s) to the seller. You should do this prior to bidding on the auctioned item(s) if you're not sure about an item. 4. You should as a general rule always leave feedback, so that other buyers may know what type of experience you had buying from the seller. 5. You should always stay in good contact with a seller and never hesitate to ask questions. If you do not receive the answers to the questions that you ask you should not buy from the seller. 6. You should always keep all records of proof of purchase, receipts, or any other form that shows that you paid for an item or service. 7. You should never divulge your credit card number or bank account number to a seller unless you are 100% sure that you can trust who you are dealing with. |
| The following are some basic tips to
aid you in your selling experience. 1. You should always be as descriptive as possible when describing your auction item(s). This will greatly reduce the time of maintaining your listing. 2. You should consider adding links to other sources, contact information, pictures, or html to greatly enhance your listing. This will help to increase seller response rates. 3. You should as a general rule always leave feedback, so that other sellers may know what type of experience you had dealing with a particular buyer. 4. You should always give your buyers several options to pay for your listed items. 5. You should always stay in good contact with a buyer after a sale and never hesitate to ask questions. If you receive no response from a buyer, you might consider sending a second email, but it is advised that you wait at least 2-3 days before doing so. 6. You should always keep all records of proof of shipment, receipts, or any other form that shows that you paid for shipping an item. 7. It is highly advised that you always ship via a shipping carrier that provides tracking information. You should email this number to the buyer upon receiving their payment. However, it is the buyer's choice to have the won auction item(s) shipped by whomever they wish and are responsible for the costs associated with it. |
FAQ Section
Bid increment automatically sets the minimum amount of the next bid. For example if someone bids $40 and the bid increment is $2, then the next bidder must bid at least $42. This is used mainly to keep someone from raising the bid by a ridiculous amount like 5 cents and keeps the auction moving at a regular pace.
A reserve price is the minimum price the seller wants to get for their item. If the auction closes and the reserve price was not met, they are not obligated to sell the item. For example if they set the reserve price at $80 but the highest bid at closing time is $70, they are not obligated to sell the item at $70. The reserve price is not listed until it is met so no one will know the price until a bidder meets or exceeds it.
If you have specific questions about a particular item, you can contact us and we will forward your question(s) to
the seller. For the privacy of our members, no personal information or email addresses are given out until the completion of an auction.Feedback is a system whereby members (registered buyers/sellers) can rate and make comments about members they have dealt with. We recommend that you use this system as it helps other members. Any member can lookup another member's feedback, however a feedback can only be left on another member if you have held or won an auction with that member. We strongly suggest that negative or even neutral feedback be kept at a minimum and used only in cases where there have been definite problems since you are in effect dealing with another member's reputation and their ability to buy or sell items on this auction. Anyone abusing this system such as by leaving too many negative feedbacks where they are not warranted will have their membership suspended.
Sellers may charge reasonable shipping and handling fees to cover the costs for
mailing, packaging, and handling the items they are selling. Shipping and handling fees
may not be listed as a percentage of the final sale price.
Sellers who want to be sure they are in compliance with this policy may charge actual
shipping costs plus actual packaging materials cost (or less).
In addition to the final listing price, sellers are permitted to charge:
Actual Shipping cost: This is the actual cost (i.e. postage) for shipping the item.
Handling Fee: Actual packaging materials costs may be charged. A handling fee in
addition to actual shipping cost may be charged if it is not excessive.
Insurance:Sellers offering insurance may only charge the actual fee for insurance.
No additional amount may be added, such as “self-insurance”. Sellers who do not
use a licensed 3rd party insurance company may not require buyers to purchase insurance.
This is a violation of state law.
Tax: Only actual applicable federal, state, country, city, VAT, and equivalent taxes may
be charged.
Insurance:
Insurance is an option left up to the buyer's discretion. However,
since we are dealing with fine art as opposed to basic 'Ebay' type products, we strongly
recommend that you insure the shipment of the item(s) you purchase. Even though the best
care is taken to make sure that your artwork is shipped in manner befitting it's value,
although rare, accidents do occur and the sellers cannot be held responsible for uninsured
or under-insured items that coiuld be damaged during shipping.
You can use the links below for more information on determining shipping and insurance rates.
UPS http://wwwapps.ups.com/calTimeCost?loc=en_US
USPS http://www.usps.com/consumers/domestic.htm
FEDEX http://www.fedex.com/ratefinder/home?cc=US&language=en&link=1&lid=//Ship//Ground+Rates+Corp