Placing a Bid
To place a bid:
Step 1: Navigate to a product page.
Step 2: Enter your bid next to 'My Bid'.
The next highest required bid has been pre-filled for your convenience.
Step 3: You may also enter a Maximum Bid, which will allow this
site to place proxy bids on your behalf (click here for an explanation of proxy bidding).
Please note that proxy bidding is not available for Dutch (multi-quantity) auctions.
Step 4: If more than one is available, enter your desired quantity.
Step 5: Click the 'Bid Now' button.
Step 6: You will then be taken to a confirmation page. Verify your bid price by clicking
'Submit My Bid'
Step 7: Check your email confirming your bid. If you do not receive this email,
please email us at CustomerService@Herrschners.com.
Step 8: Continue to watch your email! If someone outbids you, you will receive an email
warning you that you are no longer the winning bidder.
Step 9: You win! Read about paying for your winning bid.
Proxy Bidding
Bidcrafts uses a helpful bidding system (called 'proxy bidding') to make bidding on auctions
more convenient and less time-consuming for you.
Here's how it works:
- When you place a bid, you enter the maximum amount you'd be willing to pay for the item.
Your maximum amount is kept confidential from other bidders.
- The BidCrafts auction compares your bid to those of the other bidders, and will place bids on
your behalf if you are outbid (but only as much as is necessary to maintain your high position).
- The system will only bid up to your maximum amount.
If another bidder has a higher maximum, you'll be outbid. BUT, if no other bidder has a higher
maximum, you win the item.
In this way, you don't have to keep coming back to re-bid every time another bid is placed.
* Sorry, but this auto-bidding does not apply to 'Dutch' (multiple quantity) auctions.
Dutch Auctions
Dutch auctions are those containing more than a quantity of '1' for the same item.
Here's how they work:
- High bid wins, regardless of quantity
- If more than one bidder ends in a tie for high bid, then the bidder with the larger desired quantity wins
- If there is still a tie, then the bidder who placed their bid first, wins
For example, let's say we auction four needlework kits and there are two bids: one at $10 for
three kits and one at $10 for one kit. At this point, both bidders will win. However, if a new bidder
bids $12 for one kit, that bidder becomes the highest winning bidder, leaving three kits to assign to
lower priced bidders. The bidder at $10 for three kits will remain a winning bidder because of greater
quantity; the bidder at $10 for one kit will be bumped from the highest bidder list.
By contrast, if both initial bidders had bid for two kits, then the new bidder had bid $12,
whichever of the two initial bidders placed the earliest initial bid would have remained a winner.
The later bid would now be winning only 1 of the 2 desired.
Another example: if there are three available on which to bid, and the first bidder bids $10 on
all three, then the next bidder bids $12 for one, then the auction closes: the $12 bidder would get
their one, and the $10 bidder would win 2 of the 3 on which they originally bid.
Viewing Your Bids
After you've successfully placed a bid on an item, you may check the status of it in
the following ways:
- Using the link provided in your bid confirmation email (Note: this link
will only remain active for one week after the auction closes)
- By returning to this site, (login, if necessary), and clicking the View
Your Current Bids button:
- By returning to this site, clicking the My Bids/Account link at the top of the page,
(login, if necessary), and clicking the Bid Status/History on the right-side of the menu bar
Paying for your Winning Bid
If you specified to retain your credit card information on our secure server, there is no action
required on your part. Your 'order' will automatically be placed, processed, shipped and billed to you.
If you did not specify this option, then look for the email confirming your win. Once received, you
will need to click-through the link provided and complete your purchase through our online checkout.
"Buy It Now"
For some items, there will be an option to immediately buy the product, in addition to the ability to bid upon it.
Typically, this 'Buy It Now' price will be in-between the initial bid price and the retail price. If you wish to purchase
a product in this manner, go to the product's page, enter your desired quantity (if more than one is available) and
click the Buy Now button.
You will be taken immediately to a page to provide/confirm your payment method; verify the information on this
page and click 'Place Order'.
NOTE: Once a product has been bid upon (or all quantity bid upon, in the case of a
Dutch auction), the Buy It Now option is removed. |
