Online Guide to Auctioning   

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Buying on Online Auctions

Introduction

Buying on online auctions is fun - warmer than a car boot sale and you don't have to go round to anyone's house like with adverts in the paper. There are many bargains to be had on auctions and it can be very exciting, especially when you get embroiled in a 'bidding war' for something you really want!

This page aims to tell you everything you need to know to get started buying on online auctions.

What You'll Need

There is very little you need in order to be able to bid on online auctions:

• Computer with internet access or WebTV (you may even be able to use your WAP phone if you have one!
• An email address
• A cheque book would be very useful but you could always pay by postal orders

Which Site to use?

There are many online auction sites, so I will not concentrate on any in particular as this is a general guide, take a look at the links page for a list of sites

There are many excellent sites that have much to offer the potential buyer. They have differences however, there will be most choice on eBay, but others don't charge fees to the seller so you may find different things on each. Why not try more than one!?

You will certainly have to sign up for an account (see the signing up section below), which I will explain below, although it is very easy, but whichever site you use an auction site should never charge it's buyers to use the site. Any fee charged should be born by the seller. NOT the buyer.

For a more comparison between auction sites, check out the comparison page

Signing up for an account

You will almost certainly have to sign up for an account before you can bid on any items on the auction. You can, of course, search the auctions without signing up but you won't be able to buy anything (see the searching section for info on searching auctions)

Signing up for online auctions can vary in complexity, although it is never difficult. Signing up for is usually very easy, you just need to input your name, address and email details, choose a username and password and off you go!

Signing up for other sites may be slightly more complicated. For example, eBay requires all buyers and sellers to either input credit card details, or to use a 'non-anonymous' email provider (such as AOL or another internet service provider - any web-based email that anyone can use, such as hotmail or excite, will almost certainly be classed as 'anonymous')

Don't let signing up put you off though, it is not difficult and you only have to do it once. Then you can get searching those auctions!

Searching the auctions

In order to find the items of your dreams you will need to search the auctions. You could, of course, browse through the sections but any big auction site will have so many that it would become an impossible task to find the thing you want

In order to search for something you want you will need to either type in the search box, or click on the 'search' option. If you are searching for something specific you will need to try and narrow down what you search. Simply typing 'DVD' or 'star wars' for example will certainly return way too many results for you to be able to look through. Try narrowing your search until you get a sensible set of results - you'll soon get the hang of it!

The search is very likely to be 'case insensitive' - this means it doesn't matter if you type in capitals or not, you will still get the same results

Advanced Searches

The auction site may well have an 'advanced search' facility. This will often allow you to further narrow your search by selecting search criteria or usernames. Give it a try!

If you are competent at using search engines, you might also try a 'boolean search' to narrow your search

Title or description searches?

The auction site may have an option to search in the title or the description of the auctions. All this means is that your search will be made against either the title of the auction, or what has been written in the description

Searching in the title is usually enough, but searching in the description may return more results if you are looking for something a little more obscure

Before you bid

Before you bid, there is something you must understand - bidding on an online auction is like placing an order at any shop or internet site. Even though you don't pay before ordering, it is still a legally binding contract on both sides. If you win the auction, you MUST buy it, and the seller MUST sell it to you (if you really have changed your mind, the seller may be kind enough to cancel the order but they don't have to) Of course, if you don't win or don't meet the reserve then you don't need to buy the item

You should also check the rating (also called feedback) of the seller (more on feedback below) before you bid. Check that they have not had many bad ratings for not sending goods etc. If they have, stay well clear. That said, most sellers will have at least some bad ratings - it is a sad fact of auction life that some users on auctions are either plain rude or think it is funny to bad rate decent users for nothing. If the seller has got some bad ratings, see if their responses to the rating seem fair. If they have many good ratings and not many bad ones then it is probably safe

Bidding

Now to the exciting bit of online auctions - bidding!

How to bid

Having established that you actually want to bid for the item, and that the seller seems OK, it is time to bid! Assuming the auction doesn't have a reserve (see below for more on reserve prices), then bidding is easy (you will have had to sign in to auctions using the username and password you set up earlier). There will either be a 'bid now' button or similar, or a box to type the amount you want to bid in

• Check the current price is less than you would want to pay for the item
• Check what the current bid increment is (unless yours is the first bid for that item)
• Enter the price you want to bid (either the starting price or the current price plus the bid increment)
• You might have to enter your password, username or both again before clicking the bid button
• Now you will either:
  • Be the highest bidder on the auction - well done! (remember this is an auction, you can still be outbid by someone else)
  • You will have been outbid by someone else's proxy bid (see below for more on proxy bidding)

Bidding on items with a 'buy price'

Many auctions have buy price which may also be called buy now, But It Now or first bid wins

Buy prices make auctions more like a purchase than an auction. The buy price will either be the same as the starting price (in which case you will bid that price) or might be higher than the starting price (in which case you can bid as normal, or choose to bid the buy price)

Bidding the buy price means that you automatically win the auction - you cannot be outbid

Auctions with reserve prices

If you ever been to a 'real-world' auction, you might have come across reserve prices before. The idea of them is that the seller sets a price at which he will not sell the item below. If the auction does not meet the reserve, the item will not be sold

Reserves are exactly the same in online auctions. The reserve is usually known only to the seller (some sellers tell you the reserve price, although this is a bit contradictory to the idea of reserve prices). The auction may, therefore, appear to have a very low starting price but in reality you will not win the auction unless you meet the reserve price

To bid on an item with a reserve price, you bid as normal, but will be told if you don't meet the reserve price. Because you don't know what the reserve will be, make sure you bid in small increments. If you meet the reserve, you will be the highest bidder and the auction will continue as usual. Everyone else will also know that the reserve has been met, so you can be outbid

Proxy Bids

Proxy bidding is possibly the most complicated to grasp (and explain!) part of online auctions. One you understand them, though, you will wonder why it seemed so complicated in the first place

A proxy bid is where you (or another bidder) bids more than the current price of the auction in order to safeguard their bid from other bidders

In order to use a proxy bid, rather than bidding the next bid increment you bid a maximum amount (eg if the current bid was £1.00 you might decide to bid £10.00). Only you will know what your maximum bid is - neither other bidders or the seller will know what you bid unless the bidding reaches that amount. If another bidder now bids, provided their maximum bid is less than yours, you will still be the highest bidder on the item (if they bid the same amount, the first one to bid will remain the highest bidder)

This is where the confusion surrounding proxy bidding arises. In my previous example where you bid £10.00 on a £1.00 item, what happens if someone else bid, for example, £5.00? Well, the bid will go up to the next bid increment above their bid (in this case their bid being £5.00). So if the increment was £0.50, you will still be the highest bidder on £5.50. You will remain the highest bidder unless someone else bids more than you

If you bid on something, therefore, where someone has used a proxy bid and your bid is less than theirs, you will not be the highest bidder on the item - you should get a message telling you that you have been outbid. You can either try bidding a higher amount, or give up

Dutch auctions

Dutch auctions are those where there is more than 1 of the item available on the same auction. When the seller listed the items for sale, they would have set the number of that item that they had

This type of auction gives you more chance of winning the item you want, as there can be more than 1 highest bidder, depending on how many items there are for sale. A bidder can, of course, bid for more than 1 of the items, or even all of them! When bidding for items in a 'dutch' auction, you will have to specify the number of items you want to bid for - even if you only want 1 you will still have to do this - just type the number in the relevant box when you bid

Dutch auctions can also be combined with buy prices which means that you can bid for the number you want and automatically win them, just as you can in other buy price auctions

After winning an auction

When you win an auction you should receive an email from the auction site informing you that you have won and how much for. You should shortly receive an email from the seller giving you the total price, where to send it and any payment methods they offer (see the payment methods section below)

The standard time for a seller to contact you within is usually 3 days. If you haven't heard during this time, you might like to write to the seller to jog his memory, but don't be rude or impatient, some sellers have many hundreds of auctions close a week. They will write to you

If they still don't contact you should firstly check that the email address you provided when you singed up is correct, as this is the only way the seller has of contacting you. If your email address is correct, you really have no choice but to either wait, write to them again or leave feedback on their account (see the feedback section below)

Assuming they have written to you, you should arrange payment as soon as possible, as timely payment will mean you should get good feedback on your account

Payment Methods

There are a few different types of methods of payment you might consider:

Cheques

The most obvious choice - personal cheques or business cheques, it shouldn't really matter which as even if you write your cheque card number on the back the seller has no way of verifying it so it's a bit irrelevant

Many people don't seem to be able to get them or know about them (they are usually purchased from Post Offices)

Credit/Debit Cards

Unless you are a business it is unlikely you will be able to accept Credit or Debit Cards. However, there are services available on the internet that can allow you to do just that! I only have experience of 2, so those are the ones I will tell you about

PayPal

PayPal, located at www.paypal.com allows you to pay by credit card for auctions. They only deal in dollars (so you would need to convert pounds to dollars) but it is widely used throughout the world which means people you pay sellers from many different countries. It is quick and efficient. There is a small fee for uploading money from your credit card

Nochex

Nochex, located at www.nochex.com is an excellent alternative to PayPal for users in the UK and allows you to pay for your auctions by debit card. Unlike PayPal, Nochex deals in Pounds Sterling. You can upload the cash from your bank account (for which they charge a fixed fee). Quite a lot of people use Nochex in the UK, but it is not as widely accepted as PayPal

Payment Methods Overview

Most people will accept at least cheques and Postal Orders, although I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to risk sending cash. PayPal and Nochex are well worth checking out, in my opinion, as you can send the payment immediately and so will receive your item more quickly

There are, of course, others who provide similar services. I will try to add any I find to the links page

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What if something goes wrong?

It is rare that anything goes wrong and it is not likely it will happen to you. But if it should there are things you can do:

If you don't receive your item

If you don't receive your item, don't start to panic :o) First try to work out if it should have arrived yet. Remember that something posted outside Europe can take up to 2 weeks to arrive by air mail, up to 2 months if sent by surface mail! Items posted in Europe shouldn't take much longer than a week, and items posted from within the same country shouldn't take more than a few days

If you don't receive it within a satisfactory period there are a few things you can do

1. Contact the seller - this is the first thing you should do, there is probably a perfectly good reason why you haven't received it yet
2. If you still don't receive the item:
   • Email the seller again (just in case they didn't get your last email). If you are happy with their reply then that's it all sorted. Go back to the start of step 2 if you don't receive it when they say
   • If you paid by cheque, check that your cheque has cleared. If it hasn't, cancel it now. It probably got lost in the post
   • If your cheque has cleared (or you didn't pay by cheque) and they don't reply or you aren't happy with their answer, go on to step 3
   • If the seller does contact you and has proof that they posted the item, Royal mail have a form that can be completed in order to locate lost mail
3. Leave negative feedback on the seller's account (see the feedback section below). You'll be surprised at how leaving negative feedback can spur a lazy seller into action
4. If you still don't hear about your item then things get a little more serious
   • You should now contact the auction site that the item was purchased from. eBay has a safe harbour policy where you can complain about goods not received (they will tell you what to do and investigate for you. There will be a form to print out and send to them in the post). I believe others also have a similar protection policy

If you aren't happy with what you receive

1. Contact the seller - this is the first thing you should do, it is very likely you can sort it out easily
2. If you don't hear back from the seller, email them again (just in case they didn't get your last email).
3. If you still don't hear, or aren't happy with the response you get, leave negative feedback on the seller's account (see the feedback section below). You'll be surprised at how leaving negative feedback can spur a seller into action
4. If you still aren't happy, it depends on the nature of your complaint
   • If you feel the sale was fraudulent the procedure is pretty much the same as if you didn't receive the item (see above list, step 4)
   • If it is a question of quality, ie the item wasn't up to the standard you expected, it is likely that the auction site etc will not be able to intervene. I would suggest a stern handwritten letter to the seller (you should have their address from when you sent the payment)

Thankfully it is very rare for your purchase not to be sorted out. People are generally honest, but should the worst happen, there are lot of people out there in auction-land who can help you :o)

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Feedback

Feedback or Rating is a system that just about every auction site uses to allow users to leave each other comments when they have bought or sold items to each other. The feedback you can receive will usually give you a rating on the site so that others can see how reliable you are

You will usually get a choice of type of feedback such as good, neutral, bad or positive, neutral, negative or something along those lines. You will also get a space to type comments which will appear on your feedback page so that others can read it. Obviously the more good feedback you get, the better you will appear to others buyers and sellers. You will usually start with a rating of 0 or 'new'

Good feedback will add 1 to your rating, whereas bad feedback will take 1 away. A neutral rating will mean your rating stays the same as it was. Provided you pay your seller on time you should only receive good feedback, and you should leave the seller feedback when you receive the item (assuming you are happy with it)

A warning about bad feedback When leaving negative feedback you should simply be factual about your reasons. Do NOT be abusive, rude or leave personal details such as addresses or telephone numbers. Any of these things can get you suspended from the auction site. In the words of Yahoo auctions "You can and will be held responsible" if you do this kind of thing. Receiving too much bad feedback by, for example, not paying people for items you have won, can also get you suspended from the site - at the very least no one will want to sell anything to you

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Summary

By now you should know much of what you need for a happy time buying on internet auctions. It is fun and can be exciting when you find something you really want! Have fun :o)

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