If the option is available you can use “Buy Out” to purchase the item immediately without having to place a bid. Some sellers offer such an option which can be used at any time until a bid has been placed over any applicable reserve price.

The “Buy Out” option will appear on the item details page, you will be asked to confirm your intention to buy out the item before the sale is concluded. Buy out’s cannot be retracted.

To create your account choose the “Register” link on the header navigational bar or use any of the links available on the home page.

When registering you will be asked to complete a short form which includes standard information such as your contact details, preferred login credentials etc.

Mandatory fields include:-

· Name

· City

· State/Province/county

· Zip/Post Code

· Phone Number

· Birthday

· Username & Password

· E-Mail address

· Confirmation of terms an conditions acceptance

Once registered you will receive E-Mail confirmation.

Should you encounter any registration difficulties please contact us.

Placing a bid on an item you are interested in couldn’t be easier, when viewing the item details page you will have two areas from where you can place your bid, one next to the item details and a second at the bottom of the page.

To place your bid simply enter the amount you wish to bid e.g. 50.00. Please note no currency symbols are required. The bid will be placed in the auction currency.

Once done you will be asked to review your bid and you will also be able to view vital item details such as the shipping conditions before confirming your bid. To submit your bid simply press the “Place Bid” button.

If your bid is high enough to take the lead in the auction a confirmation message will be displayed to you, however if your bid has not taken the lead be it due to a higher proxy bid or not meeting the reserve price you will be invited to make a further bid.

Should you decide to retract your bid this can be done via the “Current Bids” section of the member’s area.

You can also place a proxy bid, proxy bidding allows you to place your “High Bid”. At all times you will only pay the lowest required bid should you win the auction. For example, if the current bid on an auction is 500.00 you can place a proxy bid of 2,000. Should you remain the only bidder you will only pay 500.00. However should the item receive other bids the site will automatically re-bid for you (upto 2,000 in this scenario) to ensure you remain in the lead.

To list your item simply click on the “Sell” link found on the header navigational bar. The listing process is split up into several main sections, notably:-

• Category selection
• Item Details
• Auction Settings
• Shipping and Payment
• Listing preview
• Listing confirmation

The listing process is developed in such a way that you are guided through every step seamlessly.

The first part of the process is to choose the category you wish to list your item in, this can be revised at any time by using the “Previous Step” navigation button.

Step two enables you to enter your item title and description, a full wysiwyg editor is in place to enable you to use HTML descriptions.

If you have a voucher code to redeem this can be entered just below the description field.

Moving on to step three, this is the biggest stage of the listing process. On this step you can set the following:-

· Auction type:-

Standard Auction

This is a single quantity auction

Dutch Auction

Dutch auction enables you to list a multiple quantity auction, for example if you have 100 pens to sell you can list all of these together in a single lot. Bidders will be able to select how many they wish to bid for.

· Currency:-

You can select your preferred auction currency using the drop down menu available

· Quantity:-

This field is only active if listing a Dutch auction, please see above for an explanation of this listing type

· Auction Starts At:-

This requires you to enter the minimum bid you are willing to accept, you can also set a reserve price to ensure you do not sell the item for this amount. Please see below for more information on this.

· Reserve Price:-

Enabling a reserve price affectively means you will not sell the item for less than the amount set, for example you can set the start price at 5.00 but only accept winning bids over 50.00, should a bid be placed for 49.99 the item will close without a winner.

· Buy out (if available):-

Buy out allows you to set an amount you are willing to sell the item for – straight out. For example you can set the start price to 10.00 but offer interested parties the option to buy the item immediately for 100.00.

You can also list buy out only auctions, these auctions remove all bidding options meaning the listing can only be purchased for a set amount. To set a buy out only auction you need to set the buy out value to be exactly equal with the start bid.

· Offer-Range (if available):-

You can set a price bracket in which you are willing to listing to offer, for example if you set the price brackets from 15.00 to 100.00 interested parties will be able to offer you an amount within these brackets, you can opt whether to accept or decline these offers at any time via the members area.

· Bid increment:-

This option can be used to set your own custom bid increment if preferred.

· Item featuring (if available):-

The following options are available to you (fees may apply), these will highlight your item on site to ensure they reach more visitors:-

§ Home page featured

§ Category featured

§ Bold text

§ Highlighted background

· Set start/end time:-

You can either opt to list your item right away and set a defined number of days for it to be live for or you also have the option to define your own custom start/end time.

· Private Auction:-

Private auction will hide the bidders identity on the item details page

· Image upload:-

To accompany your item you can either upload images from your local computer or enter the URL of an image(s) hosted elsewhere

· Media upload:-

In addition to images you can also upload media files, please note only .avi/.mpeg/.mov are supported.

· Auto Re-List

For convenience you can opt to have your items automatically re-listed for you, options are available to allow you to select whether the item should be re-listed if sold and how many re-list attempts should be made.

On the next step you can set your shipping and payment preferences including your shipping rates and available methods of delivery.

Proceeding on, you can then review the listing and make changes if required, please note you can still edit your listing once live via the members area.

The final step provides you with listing confirmation.

The auction watch features notifies you of newly listed auctions which contain keywords you have chosen. For example if you are looking for a new Digital Camera you could enter in those keywords from within your members area area. Each time a new auction is listed containing those keywords you will be notified via email.

The item watch features lets you keep a close eye on any auction without having to place a bid on it. This feature means you can be kept up to date on how an auction is doing and prepares you to place a winning last minute bid. You can watch any auction by clicking on the “Watch this item” link on any auction page.

We are currently looking at a unique way of helping people to get the right answers for their problems or any help needed they require.
So what we are trying is a new way of helping people is to introduce them to the forum where there will be a specific help section.
Here are a few Q's & A's to assist you.

	Registering
1	(Q) How do I register?
	(A) To register click on the "register" link found on both the header and footer navigation sections
1	(Q) I'm under 16 and can't signup?
	(A) In accordance with standard law under 16's cannot participate in auctions as they legal binding contracts. To join Okbidnow the age requirement is 18 years old .
	Selling
1	(Q) How can I list an item?
	(A) You must first be a registered member. Once you have registered simply login to your account and click on the "Sell" link. The first thing to do is select a general category for your item, note that you can choose a more specific category further into the listing process. You can then enter in your chosen settings and item description
1	(Q) How can I keep track of items I'm selling?
	(A) You can keep an eye on everything you are selling by visiting your members area and selecting the "selling" page.
1	(Q) Can I use HTML when listing an item?
	(A) Yes you can, however we recomend you use basic tags as complex HTML descriptions may not display correctly.
	How to Bid
1	(Q) How can I place a bid?
	(A) To place a bid on an item you must first login to your account. Once logged in a bidding box will be displayed at bottom of all auction pages. You can use this box to place you chosen bid
1	(Q) How can I keep track of items I'm bidding on?
	(A) You can keep an eye on everything you are bidding on by visiting your members area and selecting the "bidding" page.
1	(Q) How do I know if I am outbid on an item?
	(A) Our auction system will automatically notify you via email if you are outbid.

You can also find some help in the forum in the help section which is being expanded by the members all the time.
If you click on the forum button you will find som use full information from the members as well.

The new postage calculation options may take a short while to get used to. However it is vastly improved from V6.05, almost unrecognizable from existing PPB versions. What has to be considered when introducing the new option is that the software is used globally, customizing things for a specific region isn't entirely viable. However the methods available should cover most if not all requirements. As a seller you can choose your preferred method of postage calculation, for example:-

* Item based

This method will enable you to remain with how things are i.e. you define a specific postage cost for each item listed, that is then added to the buyers invoice. This option will not allow for any reductions etc so is probably best suited to less regular sellers.

* Weight based

Won't be suitable to many but this option will enable automatic shipping calculation based on the weight of each item in the combined invoice/cart. As the seller you can use the option in the members area to define your weight tiers and related costs or use the pre-defined table (set in admin). The total weight of all the items within the invoice will be calculated automatically.

* Amount based

Likely to be the most commonly used method, this enables the seller to fully customize their shipping rates based on how much the buyer is spending. As with the weight tiers you can create your own custom tiers or use the pre-defined table. So for example a seller can setup their shipping rates like so:-

Total Purchase/Invoice amount:-

$0.01 - $50.00 / $5.00 shipping
$50.01 - $100.00 / $2.50 shipping
$100.00 - $500.00 / $1.00 shipping

The tiers are entirely customisable for your specific needs and requirements.

* Flat rates

This method was suggested earlier in this thread and may also become a popular choice. Thomas (any otherbids) raised a request for a method whereby he can charge buyers one fee for their first purchase and a second for any others within the combined invoice. So if we assume you set your rates like so:-

First item:- $5.00
Any other items:- $1.00

If the combined invoice cart has ten items within it the buyer will pay $14.00 for shipping (1x$5.00 + 9x$1.00). Again the amounts can be fully customized by the seller.


Next, you may wish to setup rates for specific locations. The option available gives you control over specific rates for international as well as county/state rates. So for example you can set an additional amount (or percentage) if the buyer requires shipping to a specific country, state/county etc. The amount set will be automatically calculated in addition to whichever shipping method you have selected as detailed above.

You also have an option to offer free shipping should a combined invoice/cart (or indeed single purchase) come to more than a set amount (seller can set the amount).

To conclude, sellers may need to take a few minutes to setup their postage settings etc. However once done (it is a one time process unless you wish to adjust your settings/rates at any time) all your items will be fully and created calculated based on your custom rates and calculation method. Things may appear a tad overwhelming at first but after a short period things will become very straightforward to use and will ultimately greatly improve shipping reductions, shipping calculation and invoice creation for both parties in a transaction.

Using the flat based system will allow you to use the option of second parcel discount etc and so on.
Also if you go down the page there is also a section at the bottom where it says add locations you can select the different countries and then insert the rate for them to the countries that you want to ship to.
Instructions

Select Item Based Rates first and enter the amounts you want into the area just above where it says about free postage but do not tick the box where required.
Then go down to where it says additional countries and select which countries you want it to go to and then add the difference of the postage taking into account of the first price you have already so really you want the difference in postage for abroad to be entered into where it has asked.
Click done and the window with the list of countries and areas will go if not just click the cross at the top right of the page.
When you have done that you will see nothing has appeared but if you then click on proceed it will enter the values you have added.
You can then do any adjusting with the invoice after if you want to give discount on the second item etc.

Site Security

This site is protected by Rapid SSL.

This will give the users and sellers the protection that they need when they register, sign in, any work that they do in there members area and when making payments.

Please note that no credit card details are to be given on this site as they are not needed because it is handled by PayPal and Google Checkout etc.

May I also point out that we do ask any sellers to scan there images or any uploads first before they place them in there store or just for auction.

Thanks for all your help in making this a safe site.