Agent is a utility designed to assist you in locating items that you specifically seek. Set up an Agent and submit a Search Request based on Category, Title, End Date, and/or price; you will receive an email if anyone lists an item fitting your criteria. You can modify or delete your active Agents from the Agent link in My Account.
Automatic (Proxy) Bidding [Top]
When you bid on an Auction, you can use our Automatic Bidding process. The Minimum Bid displayed on the bidding page is the least amount you can bid. However, you can also enter a higher bid that reflects the maximum you're willing to pay for the item. If you choose to make it a Proxy Bid, this amount is kept confidential from other Bidders. Our Automatic Bidding software then enters the lowest possible Winning Bid for you. If another Buyer bids (in real time or by Proxy), your bid will be automatically raised until you are Winning or until you have reached your maximum.
You will receive an email whenever any bid you make is losing due to another Bidder. The email will have a link back to the listing, or you can find your bid by accessing your Bidding Activity. You can then Increase your bid by clicking on either the Bid No. or the Description, and enter your new Maximum Bid amount when the Bidding page displays.
Example: Opening Price is $36.00, Bid Increment $4.00.
Click "Bid Now"
| On the Bid Entry page, enter Max Bid: | $60.00 |
| Click Submit. The next page confirms your bid. | |
| Your Current Bid is: | $36.00 |
| Click Submit. The system processes your bid. | |
| You are winning at: | $36.00 |
You will also receive a Bid Confirmation via email.
If another Bidder comes along, the process may look like this:
| On the Bid Entry page, enter Max Bid: | $52.00 |
| Click Submit. The next page confirms your bid. | |
| The Current Bid is: | $40.00 |
| Click Submit. The system processes the bid. | |
| Second Bidder is losing at: | $52.00 |
| You are winning at: | $56.00 |
This Bidder's bid was maxed out because your first bid ($60.00) is higher. You are therefore now Winning at one increment above their Max Bid: $56.00.
Bids are given precedence based on sort order of Price and then Time placed.
Bid Cancellation/Retraction [Top]
Bid retractions or cancellations are permitted only under extraordinary circumstances. Once your bid is placed, you have an obligation to complete the transaction if you win. Keep your username and password confidential, so that other users cannot access your account. If you believe you have an extraordinary situation (for example, you typed an extra digit and bid 1000 instead of 100), please contact customer support.
The Bid Increment is the amount by which you must outbid the current Winning Bid. If you place a Maximum Bid above this amount, it must be a multiple of the Bid Increment greater than the Minimum Bid. For example, consider an item that has a current price of $100.00 and a Bid Increment of $25.00. If you place a Maximum Bid of $140.00, your current Winning Bid will be lowered to $125.00, the next lowest Bid Increment, and $125.00 will also display as your Maximum Bid.
The Bid History shows the list of Bidders and their activity on the listed item. It gives you the User or Member ID, Bid Amount, Bid Date (PDT), as well as the status of each Bidder ("Winning" or "Losing"). This page is updated immediately after each new bid making it the place to find most recent Bid Activity (the Listing page itself will be updated within several minutes).
Example:
Mint Sports Photo
Winning Bid for this item: $45.00
Opening Bid: $13.00
BID NOW (command button)
| Member | Bid Amount | Qty(Won) | Bid Date (PDT) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| User1 | $45.00 | 1(1) | 1/27/2000 8:36 AM | Winning |
| User2 | $43.00 | 1(0) | 1/26/2000 12:22 PM | Losing |
| User3 | $39.00 | 1(0) | 1/26/2000 6:35 AM | Losing |
| User4 | $27.00 | 1(0) | 1/26/2000 7:07 AM | Losing |
| User5 | $19.00 | 1(0) | 1/26/2000 6:45 AM | Losing |
| User6 | $13.00 | 1(0) | 1/26/2000 1:48 AM | Losing |
You can review your open and recent bids by going to My Account. Under "Bidding Activity", you will find Open and Most Recent Bids (Won or Lost). If you want to find more bids, click on the Search other Bids link and Search for all your bids. You can also limit your search to dates, categories or items.
The act of placing a bid on an auction.
For additional Bidding Help, check out the Help Desk.
Visa and MasterCard require the entry of a three digit Card Verification Value in addition to the credit card number. The number is typically found written on the right side of the signature line on the back of the card. Providing this value enhances your protection by ensuring that charges are incurred by someone with the actual card in his or her possession.
A Cookie is a very small text file placed on your hard drive by a Web page server. It is essentially your identification card, and cannot be executed as code or deliver viruses. It is uniquely yours and can only be read by the server that gave it to you. On this site, we use cookies to keep track of who you are so you don't have to log in every time you bid, or look up your Account Information. If you are having trouble logging in or have to log in repeatedly, you may not have cookies enabled/accepted. Check your browser's Options or Preferences to Enable/Accept Cookies.
As a Bidder, if you need more information about a listing, please contact the Seller using the links provided. Please do not contact Customer Service. Customer Service cannot respond to item-related questions.
Also in the "User Resources" section of My Account is a link called "Email Preferences". This page allows you to control which types of email you would like to receive from this site.
Your Maximum Bid is the amount you are willing to pay for an item. You can enter this amount the first time you bid and our Automatic Bidding software makes sure that your actual bid is the lowest possible winning amount. If you are bid against, your bid will be raised automatically until it has reached your Maximum Bid and will never exceed that set amount.
The Minimum Bid is the least amount you can bid on an item in order to be Winning. This amount will be the amount of the current high bid plus the Bid Increment.
My Account is your site management area. You can keep track of your e-commerce activity, change your User Information, and manage your Watch List and Agent.
Users who have been registered for fewer than 30 days have a New Icon 
next to their UserName when they bid.
The Opening Bid is the amount set as the minimum amount allowed to bid on the listing.
Your Password is required to log in to the site. You can change your Password from My Account once you are logged in. If you forget your password, use the link on the login page to reset it.
A Camera Icon designates listings with an item's picture.
You can search the Titles and Descriptions of all Open Listings from any Search box. Also available are Searches for listings Closing this Hour, listings Closing Today, and auctions just listed.
Transactions on this site sometimes require a credit card number. We ask that you enter these numbers via our secure server. This server uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology, the industry standard in Web security used primarily for transmitting sensitive information over the Internet. If you are using an older AOL or other non-standard browser, it may not support an SSL connection. You may also have difficulty if you are attempting to access the site from behind a firewall or server. In either of these cases, you will have to submit your credit information using the link provided to our non-secure server.
All auctions are based in PDT.
Listings close at the time specified by the Seller. They are not automatically extended by last minute bids, so it is possible for the listing to close between the time you click "Bid Now" and the time you finally "Submit" your bid. Closed items may continue to appear in listings for approximately 20-30 minutes on this site, but you will not be allowed to bid on them.
Listings open every 10 minutes, but there must be at least 10 minutes after the review and confirmation of the listing(s). Therefore, a listing placed at 9:05 will not appear until 9:20.
A Listing with a status of Upcoming has been placed in the system, but is not yet open for bidding. You will most likely never see such listings unless you are part of a special preview of an item.
All users of this site must agree to abide by the Terms and Conditions in order to use this site. Registration requires accepting those Terms.
Every Registered User of this site has a UserName. It is used to log in to bid or view Account Activity. When you bid, your UserName is displayed in the Bid History rather than your name or email address. Note: Your UserName is the same as your Second Life account name/information.
The Watch List is a list of items that you want to keep track of without bidding on them. Most listings have a link that says "Add to Watchlist". Clicking on this will add the item to your Watch List. Whenever you want to check the status of the listing, click on "Watch List" under My Account and you'll find the current price and number of bids of all the listings you're following.