VBD Auctions

[nickjones]

I have altered the auction site to "account mode",
I believe what happens now is you get billed for £3 when you first sign up and you are allowed to have 10 auctions, then what happens is your account will be allowed to run up to £10 into the red (33 additional auctions) before your account is frozen until payment is made. so as long as you pay the £10 when it is due everything is ok, an invoice is sent to you when the balance reaches £5 so you can pay it then or wait until it has reached £10.
Several members have written to me saying that I should increase auction price to 30-50 pence , plus I forgot that paypal would also want their pound of flesh so I have increased the auction price to 30 pence but with no final valuation fee I'm sure you still won't find a better deal.
Members will still be due a refund on half of the monies paid by the end of the month.
Also all monies that have already been paid will be refunded as a thank you to those that helped me test the system, it all seems to be running well so far...

[Ewan]

Very impressed with the auction so far - nice and easy to use. I've been back in to try and edit the two listings that had been bid on. It is possible to add extra information but not extra photos. That'll teach me to list items without having them to hand I failed to notice a missing sidelight on the Renault and some minor damage to the Morris spare wheel so I apologise unreservedly Mr Jones - you can feel free to retract your bids without fear of feedback reprisal

[nickjones]

Thats fine Ewan. I'm not worried about a minor bit of damage so no problem

[Big Al]

However the currencies must be updated from time to time (manually) as by default they are the values from 2007.

Hi RacingFreak,

Does that mean when we click on the "convert" button for our home currency, it isn't really a real-time price?

Confused now (but the site is super-promising), and thanks,

Alan

[nickjones]

Not sure about the currency thing. I'll have to check it out.
Well I opened a second sellers account from mums pc. I'm now jones nick.
I uploaded three auctions, I found it was quick to get them online and very easy to use. The puzzling thing was I did not get charged, I guess you can use the credit limit of £3.00 or 10 auctions before you get billed, anyway, I urge all members to give it a try, you got nothing to lose!.

[Big Al]

But if you didn't get charged, aren't you ripping yourself off?!

[Big Al]

Not sure about the currency thing. I'll have to check it out.

Nick,

I just tested the auction site's currency converter using your Ford GT listed at 1GBP, and compared it to an online currency converter GBP to USD. It came out perfect and up-to-the-minute. That's a good thing, unless it was a strange coincidence which I doubt.

Alan

[Idris]

I have disabled the 3 day feature, I guess the idea of the reset to 3 days once a bid has been placed is supposed to prevent last minute sniping, The auction constantly resets to 3 days every time a bid is placed until no more bids are forthcoming for the three days and the auction ends, I suppose it is probably a good idea but kind of confusing, auctions for very desirable stuff could probably run for weeks until the three days run out.

I know I'm going to get shouted down on this because we've discussed it before, but I think this is a worthwhile feature. Having a 3 day reset is OTT in my opinion, but I do think that a strong case can be made for extending the end of an auction when one or more bids is made in, say, the last hour. This would mean that there is more chance of a seller getting a fair price for his/her wares and it also gives would-be bidders time to refelect on just how high they are prepared to go instead of having to make snap judgements.
What i think would work well would be having a reset of 24 hours in the event of a bid being made in the last hour of an auction, since this would deter sniping and encourage realistic bids over the whole duration of the auction. (Whether the software is up to it is another question entirely.)

[Taniwha]

I have disabled the 3 day feature, I guess the idea of the reset to 3 days once a bid has been placed is supposed to prevent last minute sniping, The auction constantly resets to 3 days every time a bid is placed until no more bids are forthcoming for the three days and the auction ends, I suppose it is probably a good idea but kind of confusing, auctions for very desirable stuff could probably run for weeks until the three days run out.

I know I'm going to get shouted down on this because we've discussed it before, but I think this is a worthwhile feature. Having a 3 day reset is OTT in my opinion, but I do think that a strong case can be made for extending the end of an auction when one or more bids is made in, say, the last hour. This would mean that there is more chance of a seller getting a fair price for his/her wares and it also gives would-be bidders time to refelect on just how high they are prepared to go instead of having to make snap judgements.
What i think would work well would be having a reset of 24 hours in the event of a bid being made in the last hour of an auction, since this would deter sniping and encourage realistic bids over the whole duration of the auction. (Whether the software is up to it is another question entirely.)

The TradeMe auction site in NZ has a similar feature - only it is triggered only when a bid is placed in the final 2 minutes of the auction, and it extends only for a further 2 minutes. This works well as a reasonable deterrent for sniping, but also means a few last minute ding-dong battles between bidders helping bring the best price for the seller (and TM too in commission...)

Cheers,
Gavin

[Moyboy]

There is a sniping feature in the admin section that does this. I have it running already