 |
|
| Sep. 07, 2008 | BROWSE |  |
 |
|
Advice to Sellers . We have received a few complaints from buyers about reserve prices. The specific complaint is that reserve prices aren’t close enough to the selling price. Bidders have had some reservations about bidding several times to meet the reserve price. At times, if nobody else bids on the item, the bidder is forced to outbid their self to find the reserve. Putting your opening price closer to your reserve may create some more bids. Whitetail Exchange Partners with Apple Creek Whitetails Whitetail Exchange is proud to announce its partnership with Apple Creek Whitetails. Partnering with Apple Creek Whitetails provides the opportunity to promote the online auction site to its fullest. Whitetail Exchange staff will now be at many of the major live auctions and State Deer Farmer functions around the country promoting the site to potential users. This will ultimately help to sell consignors items and will assure even more quality consignments to choose from on the site.
.
The common goal of the entire Whitetail Exchange Staff is to assure that the auction continues to maintain the highest level of integrity. We all want the online auction to continue to be a place where both buyer and seller can be confident in their purchases and sales. With the future of Whitetail Exchange looking even brighter, there are plans for bigger and better things to come. Stay tuned to www.whitetailexchange.comto hear about the future plans for the site.
Rating Buyers and Sellers? . Several people have asked what the “stars” are next to people’s user number on the site. Those stars reflect the feedback that buyers and sellers have received on the site. When you buy an item or sell an item, you can give both positive and negative feedback on the person you did business with. Whitetail Exchange encourages all users to take advantage of this function. . To use this function you need to be logged in under your username. On the left hand side of the screen you will see “Reputation”. Just under that you will see “My Reputation” and “Leave Comments”. This is where you can review your reputation and leave comments on others that you have done business with.
How does Proxy Bidding Work?
There are two different scenarios when proxy bidding is utilized on this web site. Below is a description of both.
Items that have not met their reserve price – When dealing with items that have not yet met their reserve price, the proxy function does not go into effect until the reserve is met. The easiest way to describe how this works is by way of example. Let’s say for example an item is listed with a $100 opening bid, but the consignor has set a reserve price at $1000. Let’s also assume for this example that the bid increments are $10 increments. If the first bidder bids $100 on the item, that bid is recorded as the highest bid, but notes that the reserve is not yet met. If the second bidder bids $800, this will be recorded as the highest bid, again with the reserve not met. If the third bidder bids $1100 the highest bid will be recorded as $1000, the value of the reserve. This is because the Whitetail Exchange software will only take the bid as high as it needs to go to win the item. The bidder is essentially saying that they will go all the way up to $1100. This bidder now has an $1100 proxy and they are the highest bidder at $1000.
If the next bidder places a bid at $1050 the software will accept the bid and automatically tell them that they are outbid. Once this bid is placed the original bidders bid will go to $1060, the next increment.
Items that have met their reserve price – Bids that have met the reserve price work the same way as described above after the reserve was met. A bidder can bid the maximum amount of money they are willing to pay for an item and the software will only take them as high as they need to go to outbid the previous bidder. This software was designed so the user doesn’t have to constantly monitor their bids. They can put in the maximum amount that they are willing to pay and all bids below that which are submitted by other bidders will be outbid. . Tips for Sellers As sellers, everyone would like to sell their consignment for as much money as they can get or at the very least sell if for your minimum. Whitetail Exchange has compiled a few tips to help you sell your consignments. Time of Day – For those of you that have been keeping tabs on the auctions, you know that there are far more people on line during the evening hours than the morning hours. When you list your consignment you can choose the “custom end time” and pick the exact day and the exact time you want your consignment to end. Peak hours seem to be between 6:00pm and 10:00pm Eastern time. Starting Price – Starting your consignment at a lower price and allow for more bidding on your consignment. This allows the seller to see how much there is on the consignment. When listing your item, you can choose to “enable reserve” function, which guarantees the seller that the item has to meet their reserve price. No Reserve – This is a bit more risky for the seller, however buyers know that the seller is serious about selling the consignment. If you choose not to have a reserve, we suggest that you start the auction out in the ballpark of what you want for the consignment. Features – Featuring your consignment on the home page or the category page puts your consignment in front of more viewers. The home page featured items rotate each time a person clicks on the home page. This function is not free, however it is inexpensive. Bold and highlight – Bolding or highlighting your consignments is an inexpensive way to draw attention to your ad. This can be selected when you set up your auction. Make Offer Whitetail Exchange has added a “Make Offer” option when listing your consignments. This option will enable buyer and seller to essentially “barter” a bit when the seller chooses to use this option. When the Seller sets up their auction and they choose to use the “Make Offer” option they will set a price range on the offers that they will consider on their consignment. No offers can be made outside the price range established by the seller. This option will let potential buyers know if the seller is firm on their price or if they are willing to reduce it a bit. This is not to be confused as an offer to start the bidding at a lower price. You are offering to buy the consignment if you make a lower offer. If the seller accepts your offer, you purchase it. If a consignment is not listed with “Make Offer” Whitetail Exchange asks that you do not use the “ask the seller a question” function to offer a lower price. What are all these different Auctions? To help with some of the initial confusion with the different types of auctions, we will try to further define the auction types for you. Standard Auction – A standard auction is the every day auction that everyone is used to. When the consignor sets up a standard auction they will have the opportunity to set a price to start the bidding. This price is not necessarily the price that they will accept, it is a price that will start out the bidding within the “ballpark” of what they would like to get for the item. When the consignor sets up this auction they also have the opportunity to set a reserve price. This is the rock bottom price that the consignor wants to get for the item. Once bidding reaches this reserve price, the item will be considered sold to the highest bidder at the conclusion of the auction. If the bidding never reaches the reserve, the item will not be sold. When bidding on a standard auction the buyer can submit any bid they wish that is higher than the starting price. Each time they bid, they will get an e mail (unless they are an AOL user) notifying them that their bid has been received. This e mail will let them know if they are still the high bidder and if the reserve has been met. The buyer may get a message that says they are the high bidder, however the reserve has not been met as of yet. The bidder may then wish to place a higher bid to reach the reserve price. If the reserve has been met, the e mail will simply inform you if you are the high bidder. Dutch Auction – A Dutch auction is an auction that allows for the consignment to be split up. The consignor can list from 1 to as many identical items as they wish on these auctions. Once again the consignor can list an opening bid and a reserve price like in a standard auction. When the buyer bids on these consignments, they can choose how many of the items they want to bid on and how much they want to bid on each item. For example if there is an item that lists 10 straws of semen for sale in a Dutch auction, you can bid on just 1 straw if you wish. Again, once your bid is received, an e mail will be sent to you informing you on the status of your bid. Once the reserve has been met (if there is a reserve) on the particular items that are listed, they will be considered sold to the highest bidder at the conclusion of the auction. You will know if an auction is a Dutch auction as it will ask you how many items you wish to bid on. This box is right above the box that you submit your bid in. Buy Out – All auctions (Standard and Dutch) offer the “Buy Out” option if the consignor chooses to use it. By using the Buy Out option when you list your consignment it gives the buyer the opportunity to forego the auction process completely if they so wish. A potential buyer can simply click on the Buy Out button and purchase the item without bidding on it. Consignors may wish to simply use the Buy Out option rather than listing an opening bid or a reserve price. If you know exactly what you want for your item, no more or no less, this is the best option for you. I hope this helps clarify the different types of auctions offered at Whitetail Exchange If you are an AOL member and sign up using your AOL email address, you will not be able to recieve email notifications from Whitetail Exchange. You can however, contact AOL and ask them to forward your messages from Whitetail Exchange..
Introducing www.whitetailexchange.com Whitetail Exchange is the newest and most technologically advanced deer auction site on the internet. Even with all of its advanced features, it is also the easiest deer auction site on the internet to use. Go to www.whitetailexchange.comand check out this exciting new auction. Auctions start today, so feel free to establish a buyer/seller number now. The software written for this site allows you as a buyer or seller to interact 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with the auction. All new members will be personally verified by the Whitetail Exchange staff to assure that both buyers and sellers are legitimate. This will give you the confidence that you are selling to or buying from a real person. Standard Auctions, Dutch Auctions and “Buy Out” listings are available to sellers. Sellers, not the auction site, choose the start time of their auction and the end time. Once each auction is approved, it will immediately appear on Whitetail Exchange. All auctions are free to list unless you chose to have your consignment featured on the site. If your consignment sells, a commission will be due to Whitetail Exchange, if your consignment doe not sell, it costs you nothing (unless featured). Buyers will have the opportunity to bid on items in several different categories. Semen, live animals, hunts, services, antlers and equipment are currently available. Features available on www.whitetailexchange.com Buy Out – Sellers can set a “Buy Out” price for their consignment. If you know the price you want for your consignment, this feature will treat your item more like a store item than an auction item. If someone wants your item for the advertised price, they simply click on the button and purchase it. Starting Price – You as a seller will have the opportunity to set your Starting price. No bids will be accepted below that price. Reserve Price – Don’t want to set a starting price? Want to set a low starting price to see if there is any interest in your consignment? Sellers have the opportunity to set a Reserve Price. If bidding never meets your reserve price, your item will not be sold. Once your reserve is met, the item will be considered sold at the end of the auction. Pictures and Video – Up to six pictures can be uploaded to your consignment at no charge. Videos are also available at a small fee. When you set up your auction, you pick the pictures and or videos that will appear in your consignment. Bid Increments - Whitetail Exchange has built in bid increments, however you can also as a seller set your own custom bid increments. Start and End Time – As a consigner, you and only you determines when your auction starts and when your auction ends. Common auction times of one week, two weeks and one month are built into the system for use if you don’t want to utilize your own custom times. Home Page and Category Page Featured – Want more than the normal listing? For a small fee you can chose to have your items featured on either the home page of the auction or the category page that your item is listed on. Bolded and Highlighted Items – Bolded and highlighted listings are available at a minimal fee. Auto Re-list – Don’t want to log on every time your auction is over and re-list it? You can auto re-list up to 3 times with Whitetail Exchange. All you have to do is check the box for Auto Re-list and your consignment will automatically re-list for you as soon as the old one leaves the auction site. Pay Pal – Pay Pal is available on our site to pay any listing fees. Currently the only listing fees a person will incur are for Main Page and Category Page featured items, highlighting and bolding or to upload video to your consignment. Other than that, listing is free. Purchased Items – If you are a lucky bidder that wins a consignment, payment will be done through the mail. The buyer is responsible for forwarding the full purchase amount to Whitetail Exchange within 10 business days. Once the check clears our bank, we will forward payment minus commission to the seller. At that time both buyer and seller will be introduced so delivery arrangements can be made. Go now to www.whitetailexchange.comand get your bidder and seller numbers. The verification process will be expedited during this launch period. Once you are approved, you can set up your auctions and they will start immediately. Whitetail Exchange, the future of on line deer auctions. |
