Forum: Auctions: Coupons or Actuals Listing: All auctions must be hosted on Hot Coupon World in the Auctions forum. ***All auctions are moderated and must first be approved by a member of our mod staff. While we strive to get them approved as fast as we can there are times when the auction mod is not online to approve them. It can take up to 24 hours for them to go live on the site. Please keep this in mind when hosting an auction. You may post up to 15 auctions per week on HCW!! The listing week will start on Sunday. Weekly limits will work is like this: You can start listing auctions any day of the week. You will include which # auction it is 1-15 in the title. When you get to 15 for the week you are done. The auction week will start again the following Sunday. Your title should look like this. Auction #1: 5 coupons for ABCDEFG. Ends 1/11/09 @ 7pm CST All off-site auctions are to be posted in the Hot Entrepreneurs forum for a nominal yearly fee. You may not post a link to any other website in your auction with out express permission from the administrators of Hot Coupon World. You may post site appropriate photo's in your auctions. All auctions must have a clearly posted ending date, time and time zone in the title of your thread. If you live in a time zone that for any reason does not match up with the rest of your zone you must note it in the auction. (ex arizona not adjusting for dlst so for part of the year it coincides with pst). Ending date must be posted in the following format Ex. Ends 1/08 4:44 pm EST . This allows members to search by the ending date. You may not extend the ending date of your auction for any reason. You may cancel auctions only if there have been no bids on your items. Once someone has made a qualifying bid the auction must remain up and you are obligated to fulfill the auction terms. To cancel, reply to your auction thread that you wish to cancel and also pm the auction forum mods so that your thread may be removed.
You may not auction off more than 100 of any one coupon. You should post a starting bid & post a bid increment amount.
You may add items to your auction to increase bidding.
You may add more forms of payment to increse bidding.
If you plan to hold your end of an auction for any reason, you must post this in your post. If you are accepting paypal or RME it is fine to wait for the payment to be sent before mailing. The exception to this is if your winning bidder is a Trader In Training. You may ask them to send their end/payment first.
If the bidder is responsible for shipping, list the shipping amount. If you are covering shipping, say so, its a great selling feature.
If shipping is not addressed in the auction terms, then the seller is responsible for shipping the item to the bidder.
Types of shipping: you can use any shipping method that you wish appropriate for the items you are selling, however you cannot inflate shipping charges here on HCW. If it is $4.60 to ship an envie out priority mail, then that is the amt you charge.
When auctioning off a package if you are not using Parcel Post or Priority mail, please note it. Media Mail does take significantly longer to arrive and if you are shipping via this method, bidders need to be aware before bidding. UPS, Fed Ex, DHL need a home address so members that use PO boxes need to know before bidding.
When accepting bids that need to be mailed to you, if you plan to hold your end of an auction until payment/mailing is received, you must post this in the body of your auction post.
Items that are permitted to be auctioned off: - Actuals
- Checks
- Concealed cash (CC)
- Coupons
- Expired coupons
- Free samples
- Gift cards
- Money orders
- Pay-pal Handling Fee (PPHF)
- RME (revolution money exchange)
- Postage stamps
- Printable coupons Limit of 2 of the same printable coupon per member. **
- Promotional forms
- Rain checks
- Rebate forms
- Try-Me-Free forms
- UPCs
** HCW only allows 2 of any same printable coupon to be auction off by a member. This is not per auction, this is per member.
Items that are not permitted to be auctioned:- Cash Register Tapes (CRTs)
- Complete deals (UPC, CRT, and Form...all items needed for a rebate)
- Unspecified Potlucks (All auctions must clearly state the exact coupons or items for bid, you may not hold auctions for potlucks based on have lists etc. You must write out what coupons are up for auction, if you wish to do undisclosed potluck trades you may do so in the trading forums but not in the auction forum. *** However, a potluck may be added in and listed as an extra in your auction.
- Please be advised that the auctioning of coupons that you do not have in hand is not permitted in the auction forums. You may not presell coupons that you are waiting to come out in your inserts or that you have traded for. All coupons must be in your possession.
- If you are auctioning off coupons that are from the upcoming Sunday inserts, please note that you are not able to auction them until Thursday when they become available to the public via early edition papers.
- Actual items containing pseudo-ephedrine and/or ephedrine
- Firearms or Fireworks
- Drugs/Drug Paraphernalia
- Alcohol
You must accurately post what the coupon is for. If something is free WYB something else. Do not list it as a "free" coupon. If something is free after mail in rebate, list it as free after MIR not free. If you are not sure how to list, pm one of the forum mods. We ask that you do not post any portion of the UPC Number of the coupon in your trading posts. A moderator WILL edit this out, and a warning and /or infraction will be issued. You MAY however post if a coupon is DND 5, DND 9, or store only coupon coded (ie starts with a 0)
Bidding:
All bidding must be done in the auction thread. Bids via pm & email are not allowed.
You must be a member of the trader user group to bid on an auction. join HERE. ALL BIDS ARE FINAL! - Please do not bid on an auction unless you are prepared to follow through with your bid. Your bid is a contract with the person holding the auction. You may not edit/change/delete your bid once it is made. Failure to comply is subject to negative feedback and/or bad trader proceedings.
Buy It Now Auctions:
HCW has a Trades forum where you can trade your item(s) for a set trade amount, auctions where the only option is Buy It Now are not allowed.
You may list a regular auction that also give your bidders the option to Buy It Now. Unlike ebay, we allow buyers to "buy it now" at any point during the auction. This is coupons after all and tends to be fast paced.
All sellers that wish to offer a BIN option MUST post this in their original post. This option may not be added later.
The original post must specify with the buy it now exactly what you are looking for in the auction including shipping in the terms of Pay-Pal, RME stamps, coupons. etc.
Members wishing to purchase a buy it now item must do so in the auction thread. Members using buy it now should also pm the auctioneer. This speeds up the shipping process.
The auctioneer then must declare the auction over with BIN, in the thread.
Bumping:
Sellers may bump their auction 3 times every 24 hours. We do not say per calendar day because of the different time zones.
Mods will bump for you occasionally as well. Friends can still bump your auctions, within reason.
This is at mod discretion. If friends are bumping excessively they will asked not to bump any more.
Is adding to an auction considered bumping? Adding to your auction is a great way to keep the bidding going, but if it is found that you are only adding as a way to keep bumping your post, your additions will be merged with your OP and it will be treated as a bump.
Is answering a question considered bumping?
No, you can certainly answer a question in your auction thread, but conversations are to be held via PM or in the visitor messages in member profiles.
Rules on declaring a winner:
winners must be declared in the auction thread within 24 hours of auction end time so other bidders can see who won & mods can verify the correct winner was declared.
Auctions end at the exact time stated. The HCW time stamp shows hour, minute and second to make this easy.
If your auction ends at 6pm EST, a bid at 6:00:00 is a valid final bid. If someone bids at 6:00:01, that bid is 1 second past the end time and therefore is not valid.
You must look at all posts before determining the winner. The last post is quite often, not the winner. Make sure the bid has come in before the auction ended. Also make sure that a previous bidder did not post a higher bid of the same payment type.
If you are accepting several bid types, like coupons, gift cards, concealed cash/stamps, paypal handling fee/RME, then you may choose which bid best suits your needs. Please note that stamps and concealed cash are grouped together & Paypal RME are grouped together. As far as determining a winner is concerned stamps and cash have equal value and both have to be mailed to you. Paypal and RME are both instant internet payment options.
For our bidders: this means that a seller has the option of choosing a lower value bid amount if it is a form that they prefer. Please be clear in what bid type you are making when bidding. example, seller may opt for $4 paypal over your $4.50 concealed cash bid because he/she does not have to wait for it to be mailed.
If you are only accepting one payment type such as pay pal only, RME only cash only, stamps only, then the highest bid before the auctions stated end time is the winner.
The seller is obligated to either send a private message or email to the winner of the auction within 24 hours of the end of an auction. The winner of the auction is obligated to PM or email the seller back within 48 hours of the time the PM or email was sent to arrange payment or other terms of auction. Please note, auctioning coupons is fast paced due to exp dates and short sales. Do not have an auction end if you are not able to declare your winner and pm them within 24 hours of the auction ending.
If the winner of the auction does not contact the seller within this time frame the seller may re-list the items in the auction with the permission ONLY of the mod for the Auction forum. Sellers, please try to contact the winning bidder a second time before contacting a mod.
Failure to follow through on auctions is considered bad trading practices and will be treated as such for both buyers and sellers.
If you do not get any bids on your auction you may re-list your items after your auction is over.
Mailing: edited 8/4
There are several variables that can speed up or slow down auction win mail times. This is why there is no set time frame after an auction ends in the rules for mailing. There could be up to a 72 hour window of time after an auction ends for contacting each other after an auction ends to inform the winner and to exchange addresses paypal info etc.
It is up to buyer and seller to work out when the items will be mailed once the address has been exchanged.
Sellers, please note that members bid with the expectation of you mailing in a timely fashion. Mailing out the following day after receiving your winners address is a way to ensure you get repeat bidders and great feedback!
If you plan to hold your end if you are accepting bids of items that will need to be mailed to you, this must be stated in your OP as stated above in the listing section of the rules.
Other info:
Here at HCW we strive to offer neat, clean forums. Once your auction has ended, an auction moderator will move your ended auction thread into the "Auctions Sold" forum.
PLEASE check feedback of all auctioneers before bidding. HCW world is not responsible for transactions.
Failure to follow the rules in the auction forum can result in warnings/infractions & loss of trading priviledges.
Not following through on an auction as a seller or as a bidder is subject to bad trader proceedings.
Please be aware that all trades must be conducted in the trading forums, and all correspondence must be made via private message or email. Any trading messages left as a visitor message will be subject to deletion without further notification.
PLEASE keep in mind these are the rules but they are not all inclusive. If a situation arises not included in these rules, there are mods in place to handle or mediate the situation.
Finally, we reserve the right to cancel or delete any auction that does not comply with the rules or we feel does not meet the standards set forth for the site overall.