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Placing Your First Bid
In an Auction Listing you will be able to place bids against other buyers.
Before you are able to place bid you will need an account that is fully verified. Learn more about registering an account here.
How To Tell If A Listing Is An Auction
The types of listings you will see on our website will be either a Catalogue/Fixed Price/Buy It Now Item listing or an Auction listing.
We've made it easy to differentiate the two listing types by making the Auction listing with a bid gavel and the Buy It Now Item listing with a "Add To Cart" green button.
On the item page, an auction will show a "Place Bid" button, while a Buy It Now item will show a green Add To Cart Button.
How To Participate In An Auction
The first thing to understand is that we have two types of auctions.
Click on the link below to learn more about them and how to differentiate them:
Once you find an item you are interested in bidding on look for the box that says “place bid”. Enter your maximum amount you are willing to pay straight away. The way the auction system works, is that the system will enter the minimum possible bid automatically on your behalf.
There are several different scenarios that can occur when you place a bid:
Scenario A: You are the first person to bid on the item The system will accept your bid at the lowest possible amount (the Minimum Bid), and your secret Maximum Bid will be remembered in case someone tries to outbid you.
Scenario B: Your Maximum Bid is greater than the secret Maximum Bid of all other bidders We will enter the previous highest Maximum Bid as a new bid automatically, and your bid will be entered at the next lowest possible bid. You will be the new highest bidder.
Scenario C: Your bid is less than or equal to the Maximum Bid of the current highest bidder We will accept your bid and automatically place a new bid on behalf of the other bidder, however you will need to increase your Maximum Bid to win the item. If two identical bids are placed on an item, the first bidder will be the winner unless their bid is exceeded.
Scenario D: Your bid is below the Reserve Price If you bid below the secret Reserve Price for an item, you need to increase your bid until you meet the Reserve Price.
Scenario E: Your bid is above the Reserve Price If you bid above the secret Reserve Price for an item we will reduce your bid to match the Reserve Price.
If the auction has less than 5 minutes remaining, the auction end time is increased by 60 seconds to give other bidders an opportunity to bid.
For example, consider an auction where the Minimum Bid is $90.00, the bid increment is $1.00, and the secret Maximum Bid of another bidder is $110.00 - and you enter a bid of $100.00. Your bid will be accepted at $100.00, but the system will place a bid immediately for $101.00 on behalf of the previous bidder. This will continue until you exceed the secret Maximum Bid of the other bidder, which is $110.00.
NEW MEMBER BIDDING REQUIREMENTS
New members will be required to add a credit card to their account before they can start bidding. You will be asked to enter a credit card to confirm you are a real bidder. You do not have to pay for any wins using this card, and it is not stored anywhere. It is purely for identification purposes only.
You may see a small $1 charge on your card which will be refunded immediately. This is to check that the card is working and that the details provided are accurate.
BIDDING RESTRICTIONS
To make sure buyers don't bid on, or buy, more than they're comfortable with, we occasionally place limits on a member's buying activity. We may also restrict buying if we believe a member has violated a policy.
To lift the restriction you will need to pay for any wins you have outstanding before placing more bids. If you do not have any items waiting for payment, the restriction will apply to the number of auctions you can bid on at one time. If you have exceed this limit you will need to wait until some of your auctions are finished before you can bid again.
Please use the current bid tab to see how many items you are currently bidding on.
How do our No Reserve Auctions work?
In this type of auctions, buyers bid until the auction ends.
Bidding starts at $1. The item will be sold to the highest bidder.
Are you ready? Take these easy steps and start your bidding journey:
First, head to our no Reserve category.
Find the item you wish to bid on.
Set your maximum bid.
Don't have time to watch the auction closely? Relax. Our system will bid for you up to your max bid.
If you're the highest bidder, you're the winner.
To learn more, read our help article What Is A No Reserve Auction.
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