Auction Tips For the Seller Use these suggestions and guidelines when listing your items for sale in the PrintWeb Auction. The Starting Bid (optional): When you post an item, set the starting bid below your reserve price. One of the purposes of the Starting Bid price is to prevent frivolous bidding at unrealistically low prices -- a $200 bid on a 3302 press, for instance, isn't exactly going to be seriously considered and just clutters up the auction. BUT the higher the starting bid, the fewer bids you'll see, and you'll have no idea who might seriously be interested in your item or what a fair price might be. If the Starting Bid is too high, your auction listing is practically no more than a classified ad and you lose all the potential benefits of an auction. The more bidding action you can generate, the more likely you are to sell your item profitably. So don't make the Starting Bid too high. The Reserve Price (optional): The Reserve Price is your protection against allowing an item to be sold for too little. But the Reserve Price is your secret! We like the way eBay describes use of the Reserve Price: "...the reserve price is the lowest price at which a seller is willing to sell an item. eBay will never disclose a seller's reserve price to bidders. A seller might specify a reserve price if he or she is unsure of the real value of an item. The seller is basically saying that he or she would like to reserve the right to refuse to sell the item if the market value is below a certain price. During a Reserve Price Auction, a notice will be displayed on the item information page next to the item's current price if the seller has specified a reserve price. "The seller specifies the reserve price when he or she lists an item. This price should be above the minimum bid price. The auction begins at the minimum bid price." If someone's bid is too low to meet the Reserve Price, they have the option to bid again at a higher price. Or they can take a chance that no one else will bid, and the seller may decide at the end of the auction to reduce his price and sell it to the high bidder anyway. But he's not obligated to do so. Grouping items: In most cases, your auction items will probably do better if each are listed individually. Group them only if you feel it adds value. Shipping information: Be sure to include shipping info in your listings -- who pays for shipping, how you'll ship, and at least the general location where items would be shipping from. That's especially important with larger items such as presses. Again, that will increase the likelihood of credible bids. Payment information: It's also a good idea to include what forms of payment you'll accept. Credit cards? Cash/MO only? A company or personal check -- and how long will you wait for it to clear before shipping items? The more you say up front the easier your sale will reach a successful conclusion. One other payment option you may want to consider -- PayPal -- makes it very easy to pay or be paid quickly and easily by credit card. Photographs: People like to see what they're bidding on. If at all possible, include a photo in your ad (right now you're limited to one photo per item). Upload the photo (preferably no larger than 200x200 pixels) to your own Web site, noting the address. For instance, if the file name is photo.jpg and you upload it to the "images" directory of your Web site, when you post the item in the PrintWeb Auction you would specify the photo's location (in the "Image URL" box) similar to: http://www.yourdomain.com/images/photo.jpg. Anytime someone views your item, your photo will be included on the page -- just that easily. Days Until Close (1-14): You may choose how long your auction will run, up to two weeks. In general, the longer the auction, the better your chances of getting a higher bid. On the other hand, bidding for highly desirable items can reach a feverish pitch in the last hours and minutes before an auction closes, regardless of how long or short the auction runs. But for right now, while we're trying to build traffic to the auction pages, longer is almost always better -- assuming it's not a perishable item. If you have a problem, and you have a change that must be made, your item can be removed from the auction by the Webmaster only if you have received no bids so far. However...an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure -- think ahead when you post. And do make good use of the auction! One last comment for now...BE SURE YOUR ITEM IS NOT LISTED IN BOTH THE CLASSIFIEDS AND THE AUCTION. If it's in the Auction, you're obligated to sell it to the high bidder there, assuming you receive a qualified bid in the time allotted. You can easily remove items yourself from the Classifieds...however the Webmaster is the only one who can do that from the Auction, and as a rule items won't be removed unless there have been no bids. Coming soon...auction tips for the buyer.