FIRST AND FOREMOST, YOUR BID IS A CONTRACT, JUST LIKE ON EBAY. PLEASE DO READ THE RULES AND REGS CAREFULLY BEFORE BIDDING, AND CONTACT ME IF ANY QUESTIONS
SHILLING: The practice of shilling, developed in commercial auction-houses over the years to artificially increase bid prices, is an unfair thing indeed. For those wary of putting their proxy bids down on my table, please note that, by design, I have neither access to your password nor to your upper proxy bid limit which may be entered on a specimen. I have no knowledge of the top bids on the table, at the time of auction closing or afterwards. This protects both of us, and I hope inspires more confidence in the process!
LOGGING IN and REGISTRATION: You must log in to bid. You cannot bid without a registered username; nor can you bid until the auction actually starts, at which time the BID box will appear on the details page of each auction item (be sure to hit refresh on your browser, if you were already on a details page before the clock started). To get a login name, simply register some basic information, including your full name and email address (required), by clicking on the link that says "register". You can choose your own login name (please choose something other than your real name for your login). Once logged in, you can bid on items at leisure. Each time you log into the website, you will be asked to re-enter your login name. NOTE THAT THE BID BOX WILL NOT APPEAR UNTIL YOU HAVE LOGGED IN. Your password and login will ensure that you have a unique auction user profile, and I do not have access to the passwords so don't lose them!
NO MINORS (under 18), please...for liability reasons.
BIDDING and CLOSING:
MINIMUM BIDS AND INCREMENT BIDS: The minimum bid for the first bidder is the starting bid of $10 unless indicated otherwise (i.e. for the first bid only, the "current bid"=starting bid"), and from there you can bid incrementally by one or more "bid increments" as you desire. The bid increments will be just $5, for convenience, unless otherwise stated in the auction details.
CLOSING: The items will close at their appointed times, UNLESS a bid is placed within ten minutes of the closing. In that case, the auction will extend (jump forward) by ten minutes and live bidding will continue until a ten minute time gap occurs between bids. In other words, DO NOT LOG OUT ASSUMING YOU HAVE WON AT CLOSING TIME, WITHOUT HITTING REEFRESH TO SEE IF ANOTHER BIDDER MADE A LASTMINUTE ENTRY AND RESET THE TIMER TO TEN MINUTES!
NOTE: EACH ITEM closes individually and each item will feature its own independent countdown clock. Please be sure to look at the time on the clock which may differ from your own time zone!
Please contact me for payment if you are a new customer. Unclaimed auction wins will be released to the next bidder down after 2-3 weeks.
IN CASE OF AUCTION ERRORS: EMAIL ME IMMEDIATELY. The auction has worked for me in the past and we think we have it debugged, but just in case...
In the event of auction failure, the following may occur: If the problem is temporary and does not affect the closing of the auction, the auction may continue as before or with a slight delay (i.e. an extended closing time, if need be). If the problem affects closing in a serious manner, the auction will be shut down and bidding will resume once the problem has been fixed (most likely to resume at the same time the following day, or the following Monday if the failure occurs on a Friday). I hope these guidelines do not have to come into play, but if an error occurs at least we can set a clear precedent for a "fix"
PROXY BIDDING!
Proxy bidding is a way to bid on an item without actually being present, or at least without paying constant attention. Simply enter the highest price you are willing to bid for a particular specimen, and the auction software will automatically bid incrementally on your behalf against other bidders up to that maximum price. The computer will outbid other auction participants so long as they bid under your proxy amount. If a new bidder exceeds your proxy bid amount, please note that you would lose the item unless you enter a higher manual bid or proxy.
SEE EXAMPLE BELOW or email questions to Rob Lavinsky, rob@irocks.com
Some advantages of proxy bidding:
• You need not be present to bid!
• If the auction closes at an inconvenient time, the computer can bid on your behalf!
• If you want to bid on multiple items, this reduces the need to watch all of them constantly, so you can concentrate on the priorities
• For international customers, this eliminates the need to personally battle $5 at a time with somebody who is getting up in the morning halfway across the world, while you are tired at the end of a long day! (assuming you entered a respectable proxy bid, that is)
EXAMPLE
A) Auction current bid is $20.00
B) User 1 comes along and doesn't want to play the bid-war game, or cannot attend the end of the auction, and so he/she PROXY-BIDS for $100. The current bid is updated to $25 (i.e. raised by one increment) and User 1 will win the specimen for $25-100 depending on competing bids, so long as nobody else bids higher than $100.
C) User 2 comes and bids for $30. Because $30 is less than $100 , there is a bid added for user 2 for $30 and a PROXY-BID added for user 1 for $35, and therefore the auction current bid is updated to $35 under the username of user 1.
D) User 3 comes and bids for $105, user 3 is now the high bidder. User 3 possibly tested the limits of the existing proxy by getting up to $100 in increments so he knew all he had to bid to win was $105, but nevertheless finally found the number to win!
NOTE THAT IN THE EVENT OF A TIE, THE PRIOR PROXY BID WINS. PARADOXICALLY, THIS WOULD BE THE SECOND BID SHOWN AT THE LAST PRICE, BECAUSE THE FIRST BIDDER'S PROXY WOULD BE RESPONDING TO THE TIE BID OF THE NEW BIDDER.
NOTE) IF TWO PROXY BIDS COMPETE, THE HIGHER ONE WINS EVEN IF BY A NON-INCREMENTAL AMOUNT. In other words, if you are bidding and enter a proxy bid which is COINCIDENTALLY within a $5 increment increase of the previous bidder's highest proxy bid allowed, you can win by less than $5. This rarely occurs, by coincidence. If your bid is the one overturned, you will get an overbid notice as normal and have a chance to bid again.