Tutorial for Submitting & Selling Items
Selling at penbid is easy. Once you have registered as a seller, just go to sell
and choose to add an item to the auction. If you have more than one item you can choose to list the items as a "dutch" auction, and you can set a predetermined price by listing the auction as a reserve auction with a reserve price. All listings are free and you only pay a commission if the item sells or if you ave bought advertising (feature, bold, etc) for the auction.
Below is a list of the information you will be asked when you add your item:
Item Title:
Enter a one line description for the item you are placing in the auction. This will be what the customers
see first when items are displayed in the auction listings. Using keywords would be helpful to your sale
(so when customers are using the search engine function for specific items in the auctions your sale appears).
Category:
Select a category from the list to place your item into.
Quantity:
(1) is the only selection here as different items should have a seperate listing, especially if your
selling antiques and collectibles. In Dutch auctions the quantity should be more than one (1).
Starting Bid:
This is the price at which the bidding will start. This could be considered an alternative for a reserve
and this will be the minimum amount you will accept for your item(s). A high starting price or
unreasonable starting price will hurt your auction and probably result in no bids at all.
Location:
Enter the physical location (ex. city, state, country) of the item(s). This information can be used to
help calculate shipping costs.
Start Date:
Click on the date you wish the auction to start. Important: Please set the start time to the hour
preceding your selected ending time (do not leave this at 12:00AM).
Start/End Time:
Enter the time of day you wish your auction to start. Auctions end at the same time on the last day.
Default is time of submission plus one (1) hour. Please note that all times are US Eastern Standard Time
(EST).
Days:
Enter the number of days you wish your item to be auctioned (maximum is 11).
Premiere:
If you wish your item to be listed as a premiere auction, check this box. Your item will then be displayed
at the frontpage of penbid. Included in the Premiere option is also the featured and bold options. Premiere auctions incur an additional fee of $24.95.
Feature:
If you wish your item to be listed as a feature auction, check this box. Your item will then be displayed
in top of all listings on the category pages. Featured auctions incur an additional fee of $9.95.
Bold Listing:
If you wish your item to be listed in a bold font so as to stand out in the listings, check this box.
Bold listings incur an additional fee of $1.95.
Gallery:
This option will add a thumbnail to your auction in the listings. It's only possible to use this option if your pictures are hosted at pen.luxbid.com. Auctions added to the Gallery incur an additional fee of $0.25.
Highlighted:
If you wish you item to have a highlighted background you should check this box. It will appear on all pages your lot appears on. Highlighted auctions incur an additional fee of $4.95.
Description:
Enter a description of the item(s) up for auction. You may use HTML tags (EXCEPT <HTML>, <HEAD> and
<BODY> tags as they will cause your description to be unable to be seen) and links to photos of the item.
Adding Photos:
Enter the correct url for the link from your server for the image or you can add your image directly when
listing items at penbid for a nominal fee.
Shipping:
Enter in the information regarding the shipping, handling and insurance costs in the shipping entry box.
It is also suggested you mention who pays (the costs) for shipping, handling and insurance and the cost as
not to create any confusion in the sale.
Cancellations:
Once your item has been entered in the auction and has received at least
one bid, it cannot be removed. You can, however, request penbid to close your auction early.
Preview your Items:
Click on the preview button on the bottom of the page to preview what your listing will appear like. Any
corrections or errors can be corrected now by clicking on the back button of your browser. It's important
that once you submit the item now to the auction, the only changes you can make are changing categories
and adding information to your description (If you have a photo link and the image doesn't appear when you
click on photo, you will not have a photo image in the auction - doesn't apply to images that are placed
through penbid's upload image feature). However, contact penbid if something like this happens - we are
always here to help!
Click on the submit item to auction and your all set and let penbid do the rest!
During the Sale:
During the sale you may have various emails requesting information and/or additional photos. Success of
your auctions can depend on how well and how promptly you reply to these. In no instance do sellers reveal
their reserve price in reserve auctions.
You will recieve daily updates in regards to the items you have in the auctions. This includes the current
high bids, the number of times each item is actually viewed from the individual page descriptions and when
the auctions close, etc.
Last Hours or Minutes of a Sale - Bids:
Buyers have a habit of waiting until the last hours or minutes of many auctions before they place their
bid. What happens is, many people place their bids on items right before a listing is scheduled to close,
and then it closes shortly thereafter, thus not showing the bids. This places a "selective pressure" on the
open listings to display items with no bids. In reality, unless you are on the individual item pages and
hit refresh or reload you will not see these bids placed right before the listing is scheduled to close.
Conclusion of the Sale:
At the conculsion of the sale both the seller and the bidders will receive emails notifying them the sale
has concluded. Once an item has been sold on penbid Online Auction, the Seller will email the Buyer
directly to make payment and shipping arrangements by just forwarding the penbid sold email with a note on
making payment to your address, acceptable type of payments, the total including shipping, handling,
insurance, etc. After payment has been secured, the seller then ships the item(s) to the buyer
(in most instances the seller does not ship items until funds have been received and cleared with your
bank institution).
After the Sale:
When payment is received and the item is received by the buyer, both parties can (and please do!) proceed
and enter a comment at the users profile area on each other. Great user profiles create better business and
makes everyone happy!
