[queenofthehivemomof5]

Forum: Auctions: Coupons or Actuals

Listing:

All auctions must be hosted on Hot Coupon World in the Auctions forum.

The template found HERE is to be used for all auctions. It includes all info required of auctioneers. (added 10/7/08)

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 occasionally longer but. Please keep this in mind when hosting an auction and selecting an ending time.

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. Not per auction. Per member.
Promotional forms
Rain checks
Rebate forms
Try-Me-Free forms
UPCs
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
Kmart flyers, Kmart home mailers or any Kmart print media advertising double coupons.
More than 100 of any one coupon
More than 2 of the same internet printed coupon.
Auctioneers must accurately post what the coupon is for. If something is free when you buy (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 word your listing, pm one of the forum moderators.
If a coupon has a store logo on it, this information must be disclosed.
We ask that you do not post any portion of the UPC Number of the coupon in your auction 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)

You may post 15 auctions per week. The listing week will start on Sunday.
You can start listing auctions any day of the week. You will need to include which auction # you are listing 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.
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. (example: arizona does not adjusting for dlst so for part of the year it coincides with pst).

Your title should look like this.

Auction #1: 5 coupons for __________. Ends 1/11 @ 7pm CST


All off-site auctions are to be posted in the Hot Entrepreneurs forum for a nominal yearly fee.

You may post a direct link to a manufacturer website in you auction. You can also post direct links to promotional websites.
Examples of promotional websites are movie cash.com, mycokerewards.com and pepsistuff.com

You may not post a link to any other website in your auction with out express permission from the administrators of Hot Coupon World or site moderators.
If you are unsure if your link is acceptable, please contact the forum moderators.

To illustrate the item you are auctioning, you may post site appropriate photo's in your auctions. Photos that are found to be too large, not site appropriate or excessive in number will be removed by the moderators.

You may not extend the ending date of your auction for any reason if there are bids made in your auction.
If shipping is not addressed in the auction terms, then the seller is responsible for shipping the item to the bidder.
Holding shipment:
Rule: If you plan to hold your end until payment is received you must include this information in your original auction post.

We do suggest that you put some a restriction to the effect of: if the winning bidder is a trader with less than 10 positive feedbacks, no recent feedback or a neutral or negative feedback, to send their end/payment first.
Buy It Now Auctions:
HCW has a Trades forum where you can trade your item(s) for a set trade amount, Buy It Now only auctions are not allowed.
You may list a regular auction that also give your bidders the option to Buy It Now. We allow buyers to "buy it now" at any point during the auction.
All sellers that wish to offer a buy it now option must include this in their original post. This option may not be added once a bid has been made
The buy it now amount must be clearly specified including bid types.

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.
During the auction:
You may add items to your auction to increase bidding.
You may add more forms of payment to increase bidding,
To add more payment/bid types to your auction, reply to your auction with the new payment type(s) being added. Pm the moderators to let them know you have added a new form of payment. They can update your original post for you.
If a member bids with a payment type you did not include in your original post but you wish to include that bid/payment type, please reply to your auction with that information.
If a member pm’s you with a payment type not included in your auction but you wish to include that bid/payment type, please reply to your auction with that information.
If a member makes a bid that is not on your list of accepted bid/payment types and it is not a bid/payment type you wish to accept you do not need to do anything.

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.
Cancelling an auction:
You may cancel auctions 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 then send a private message to the auction forum moderators. The auction moderators will remove your thread

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. Traders are first traders in training. To become a trader in training see sign up information 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. Please read the original post before bidding.
Please be clear in what bid type you are making when bidding. example, if you can pay $4 in paypal, cash or RME, state that in your bid. If you are bidding $4 paypal then state $4 paypal not just $4.
The 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 not clear in what payment form you will be making the seller may just skip your bid.


Declaring a winner:
winners must be declared in the auction thread within 24 hours of auction end time.
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.
You may not choose a winning bid that is not stated in your auction as a bid type. Example: you are accepting Paypal only. John bids in free cheese coupons. This bid is not valid unless you replied in your thread during the auction that you are willing to accept this bid 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. This means that a seller has the option of choosing a lower value bid amount if it is a payment form that they prefer.

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Seller also has the option of choosing a lower bid that includes coupons. Example: Mary bids $5. John bids $5 with 10 coupons from the sellers wishlist. Grace then bids $5.25. The seller may choose the $5 with 10 coupons.

Contacting the winner/seller:
The seller is obligated to either send a private message, and email if seller chooses, to the winner of the auction within 24 hours of the end of an auction. The winner of the auction is obligated to PM the seller back within 48 hours of the time the private message 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 time:
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 to inform the winner and to exchange addresses paypal info etc. A good guideline to use is to mail within 24 hours of getting the address.
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.
Shipping:
When auctioning off a package if you are not using First Class Mail, 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.
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 envelope out using priority mail, then that is the amount you would charge.


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 the ability to trade here at Hot Coupon World.
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 moderators 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.

Please note also, when there is confusion about bids, bidding, pm's regarding auctions, declaring the winner or any other issue that arises where a clear answer is not forthcoming, the mods will sort it out using the rules as a guideline. By hosting an auction you are agreeing to these rules and any decision that is made regarding your auction.