AUCTION QUESTIONS &
ANSWERS
You can find answers to the most commonly asked questions about our new auctions
below. If you do not find the answer that you seek,
Contact Us, and we will get back with you as
quickly as possible.
Index to Answers
HOW TO REGISTER IN OUR NEW AUCTIONS
If you've not done so already, you can register to bid in our auctions
on our registration page at
http://auctions.emovieposter.com/Registration.taf.
Be sure to let me know if you have any difficulties registering. Note that the
registration requires a phone number and a state/province to be entered. If
either do not apply to you, please write "N/A" in the box so that you can
complete registration.
Once you have created an account, we recommend that you change your user ID from
the randomly assigned one to one that you can easily remember. You can do so by:
1.) Log into your account, and then you should be doing your account settings
page.
2.) In the first column, click "Profile/Username Editor".
3.) On that page, scroll down till you see "Username:". Change what is there to
something you can remember (it may be the same as your eBay ID or something
completely different)
4.) In the next box labeled "Verification:", retype your password, then click
the button "Review Updates".
5.) On the next screen, verify that all the information is correct (if it isn't,
go back and correct it), then click "Update Profile".
6.) That's all you have to do!
HOW TO LOGIN TO THE AUCTIONS
There are two different ways to log in.
NOTE: a lot of customers have told us they are copying and pasting their username and password when trying to log in. A lot of times when they do this, there is an extra space at the end that is being copied, and when that is pasted in to the username and password fields, the log in is not recognized. So, if you are unable to log in, you should check for an extra space before or after the username and/or password you are entering.
HOW TO TELL IF YOU ARE LOGGED IN
When you are on the auction home page (http://auctions.emovieposter.com), if
there is a log in box at the left of your screen, then you are NOT logged in (if
you ARE already logged in, it will show your username at the left of your
screen).
HOW TO LOG OUT OF THE AUCTIONS
There is a button to log out. It is at the very top of an individual
auction page (when you click on any item in our galleries, you are looking at an
individual auction page) within the
auction site at the left just above our logo (it will read "Logged in as
*youruserid* [Edit] [Log Out]").
HOW TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD
If you think your password could have been compromised in any way and want to
change your password (or if you just feel like changing it), you can do so by
following these steps:
1.) Log in to your account, and then you should be on your account settings
page.
2.) In the first column, click "Password Editor".
3.) On that page, in the "New Password:" box, type in the password you would
like (and be sure to remember what it is!).
4.) In the next box labeled "Verify New Password:", retype your new password.
5.) In the next box labeled "Old Password:", type your old password (it should
be located in the registration confirmation e-mail you received when you
registered), then click the "Update Password" button.
6.) The next screen should read "Thank you, your password was successfully
updated." That's all you have to do!
HOW TO CHANGE YOUR USERNAME
We recommend that once you log in, you should immediately change your user ID
from the randomly assigned one you were given when you registered to one that
you can easily remember (it can be the same as your eBay ID, or anything you
want). You can do so by following these steps:
1.) Log in to your account, and then you should be on your account settings
page.
2.) In the first column, click "Profile/Username Editor".
3.) On that page, scroll down till you see "Username:". Change what is there to
something you can remember
4.) In the next box labeled "Verification:", retype your password, then click
the button "Review Updates".
5.) On the next screen, verify that all the information is correct (if it isn't,
go back and correct it), then click "Update Profile".
6.) That's all you have to do! Remember that unless you change your ID to your
eBay ID (or any other one that you want) you run the risk of not being able to
get it later, so doesn't it make sense to change it now?
I DID NOT RECEIVE MY
REGISTRATION/OUTBID/ETC. E-MAIL
Some customers have not been receiving our auction related e-mails. The cause of
this is usually that some e-mail providers (Comcast, AOL, Hotmail, WebTV,
EarthLink, etc.) have really tough spam filters that block our e-mails, so if
our e-mail addresses are not in your contacts list or address book, then our
e-mails go into your spam or junk folders.
If this is the case, it is easy to solve. Just add our main e-mail addresses
(emovieposter.com@emovieposter.com, mail@emovieposter.com,
phillip@emovieposter.com, and shipping@emovieposter.com) to your contacts list
or address book and that should allow our auction e-mails (such as winning bid
notifications, shipping notifications, outbid notices, account information,
etc.) to reach you. In addition, we recommend that you check your spam or junk
folders for any e-mails from us, and if there is a way to mark them as not
spam/junk, do that as well.
Doing the above will likely take you less than five minutes and will allow you
to receive IMPORTANT auction related e-mails. We certainly hope the above
helps make your bidding experience in our new auctions run as smooth as
possible.
HOW DOES PROXY BIDDING (OR "LIMIT BID") WORK
A proxy bid is a bid that works the same way as bidding on eBay. You bid your
maximum, and the auction software will bid on your behalf. So, if another bidder
is currently bidding $25 and you place a maximum bid of $100, you will have the
high bid at $27. If another bidder comes in at $60, you will have the high bid
at $63. So as you can see, it works just like eBay does.
By the way, you can see what your maximum bids are. When you're logged in to the
auction site, on the menu below our logo, click on "My Account". On that page
just below the menu is a link that reads "Bids". Click on that and it will show
you all the bids that you have placed as well as what your maximum bid is.
HOW COME SEARCHING DOES NOT WORK AS EXPECTED
For right now, searching from
auctions.eMoviePoster.com will only search the
TITLE of the auction. We are working with the software company to get full
description searching added, but until that time, we really recommend that you
use our thumbnail galleries to search as it works much better, and it does have
direct links so that you can bid on the auctions.
The Tuesday Auction Gallery is located at
http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/13.html
The Thursday Auction Gallery is located at
http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/14.html
HOW TO ADD AN ITEM TO YOUR WATCH LIST
Once you have logged in to the system, go to an item that you wish to watch. At
the top where it shows you the auction details (current price, time left, high
bidder, etc.), look at the left where there are four blue buttons. The third
button is "add to watchlist". When you click on that, it will add it to your
"Watch List".
HOW TO VIEW YOUR WATCH LIST AND ITEMS YOU HAVE BID ON
There is an easy way to see your watchlist and the items that you have bid on.
Here is how...
When you're logged in to the auction site, on the menu at top, click on "My
Account". On that page just below the menu is a link that reads "Bids" and
clicking on that will show you all the bids that you have placed as well as what
your maximum bid is. Right next to that link is another link that reads "Watch
List", and when you click on that link it will show the items that you are
watching.
Please know that by default, any item that you bid on is automatically added to
your Watch List. If you would rather this NOT happen, click on "My Account", and
then in the right column under "Preferences" click on "Bidding". Here you can
set three different preferences including "Automatically add items I bid on to
my Watch List". Click "no" if you do not want items you have bid on added to
your watchlist. If you change anything, be sure to click "Submit" to save the
changes.
HOW TO NOT AUTOMATICALLY ADD ITEMS YOU BID ON TO YOUR WATCH LIST
By default, items are automatically added to your watch list when you bid on
them. If you do not want it to do this, you can change this in your preferences
by using the following steps:
1) Log into your account. Once logged in, you should be looking at your account.
2) In the third column of options, click "Bidding"
3) The second option is called "Automatically add items I bid on to my Watch
List:". Just click "no", then click the Submit button.
4) That's it!
You might consider looking over the other preferences to be sure the system
behaves the way you would like.
HOW IS BIDDING DIFFERENT
The bidding in our new auctions is similar to how it is on eBay (it includes
proxy bidding where you can bid the most you are willing to pay and the software
will bid on your behalf until you have been outbid).
There is one major difference. These auctions use time extended bidding. Here is
an explanation of how it works. Let's say that an item you want to bid on ends
at 7:00 PM. If you bid at 6:51 PM, the auction will now end 10 minutes later, at
7:01 PM. If another bidder bids at 6:55 PM, the auction will now end at 7:05 PM.
So as you can see, the auction will always end when 10 minutes have passed after
the last bid was placed.
Some buyers have voiced a concern that the auctions could last "forever" with
time extended bidding, but this will not happen. We know this because we have
spoken with other sellers who also use time extended bidding. They say, for the
most part, items rarely get extended more than 10 or 20 minutes. This is because
buyers quickly realize there is no benefit to waiting until the very end to bid
(because they can never "bid at the last second" as they do on eBay), so most
buyers bid on whatever they are interested in well before the end of the
auction, but at the latest, in the final few minutes.
In a way, this is the exact reverse of eBay "sniping"! There is no advantage
whatsoever to bid in the final seconds, because the auction will be extended for
10 minutes after you bid, whenever you place the bid. And you have a lot to lose
if you try to bid in the final seconds, and your bid is not accepted (either due
to a problem with your computer, or with the auction software), because if you
try to bid with seconds to go and fail, then the auction ends, but if you tried
to bid with minutes to go and fail, then you can try again until your bid is
accepted.
Or to put it another way, a time extended auction is very much like a live
auction. The auctioneer takes bids, and when no one bids for a short period of
time (in this case, the "time extension"), the auctioneer says "going once,
going twice, sold!", and the auction is over.
So, there really is no purpose in having snipe (last second) bidding in an
auction that is time extended because the auction would be lengthened when the
snipe bid was placed, eliminating any benefit to last-second bidding. Therefore,
all bidders should understand that our new auctions are more like a live auction
and should either bid in advance or within the last 10 minutes of the auction
(the ideal time to bid is with exactly 10 minutes to go, because that way, you
don't extend the auction, and if those last 10 minutes go by without another bid
being placed, then you surely win the item).
To any of you who think "without sniping, I will never get anything (or I will
have to pay way more)", we ask you to wait and see these auctions in action!
There WILL some auctions where you will lose the item (or pay more), but we
guarantee you that there will be many auctions where you get the item for less
than you would have had you place a high snipe bid.
WHAT ARE THE BID INCREMENTS?
These auctions use whole dollar bidding ($20, not $20.43), so the system will
not allow bidding using cents at all. Currently, in order to allow bidding using
cents, we can only use the same type of incredibly tiny bid increments that eBay
uses, and we felt bidding a nickel or a quarter at a time could result in
auctions needlessly being extended.
So, here is a breakdown of the bid increments in our new auctions:
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I MADE A MISTAKE! HOW
DO I RETRACT MY BID?
We do not have a "retract my bid" option. On eBay, bidders were able to retract
their bids which allowed some to place a sky high bid on an item, therefore
exposing the high bidder's maximum bid. Then, they would retract their bid. This
is unfair to honest bidders (exposing their bid for all to see), so we think it
makes sense to not have the retract option. Instead, if a bidder places a bid by
mistake, they can contact us and we can cancel their bid on their behalf, so
that ability is still there. This would also allow us to monitor any suspicious
bid behavior, so we think it is a win-win situation.
If you need to retract a bid,
Contact Us.
HOW CAN I LEAVE
FEEDBACK?
We are glad to hear that you would like to leave feedback, but our new auctions
have no feedback system (since we are the only seller). However, you are correct
that we should have some way to share your feelings about purchases, so we will
work on a customer reviews portion of our site. As soon as we have it ready, we
will notify everyone through our e-mail club and on our homepage.
HOW CAN I REVIEW THE
RESULTS OF AN AUCTION?
We have recently created "Results Galleries" which are on our website for
one week and allow you to browse or search auction results in the same ways that
you could browse and search our current auctions. To get to the results
galleries, go to our homepage (www.eMoviePoster.com),
and then click on Tuesday Gallery or Thursday Gallery. At the top of either
gallery are several links. If you are looking for the results of Tuesday's
auction, click on the link that reads "Tuesday Results: Gallery". If you are
looking for the results of Thursday's auction, click on the link that reads
"Thursday Results: Gallery".
Here are links to the results galleries for quick reference:
Tuesday Results Gallery:
http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/11.html
Thursday Results Gallery:
http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/12.html
If you wish to view results from more than one week ago, you should go to
http://auctions.emovieposter.com.
Then, in the menu bar below our logo, hold your mouse over "Browse" and then
select "Recently Closed". This will show you a list of our categories that
contain items that ended over the last 30 days. Just click on the category that
you want to know about, and it will show you the results in the order in which
the auctions ended.
If you did not find the answer that you seek, Contact Us, and we will get back with you as quickly as possible.