Alienbids Registration.

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.

Alienbids: Do you feel lucky? Well I do punk.

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.

Alienbids: What are you staring at?

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.

Alienbids: I can't wait I need it now!

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.

Alienbids: How To Sell?

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.

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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.

Alienbids: Sometimes you feel like someone's watching you.

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.

Alienbids: Why list a picture?

A picture is worth a thousand words

Belive it or not one of the most important things about selling items on a site is its content. One example is pictures. Make sure before listing your pictures you preview it. You want to make sure the picture is clear and easy to see. The better the quality the better your chances are that item will be bidded on and sold.

Meaning

A picture tells a story just as well as a large amount of descriptive text.

Origin

This phrase emerged in the USA in the early part of the 20th century. Its introduction is widely attributed to Frederick R. Barnard, who published a piece commending the effectiveness of graphics in advertising with the title "One look is worth a thousand words", in Printer's Ink, December 1921. Barnard claimed the phrase's source to be oriental by adding the text "so said a famous Japanese philosopher, and he was right".

Printer's Ink printed another form of the phrase in March 1927, this time suggesting a Chinese origin:

"Chinese proverb. One picture is worth ten thousand words."

The arbitrary escalation from 'one thousand' to 'ten thousand' and the switching from Japan to China as the source leads us to smell a rat with this derivation. In fact, Barnard didn't introduce the phrase - his only contribution was the incorrect suggestion that the country of origin was Japan or China. This has led to another popular belief about the phrase, i.e. that it was coined by Confucius. It might fit the Chinese-sounding 'Confucius he say' style, but the Chinese derivation was pure invention.

Many things had been thought to be 'worth ten thousand words' well before pictures got in on the act. For example:

"One timely deed is worth ten thousand words" - The Works of Mr. James Thomson, 1802.

"That tear, good girl, is worth, ten thousand words" - The Trust: A Comedy, in Five Acts, 1808.

"One fact well understood by observation, and well guided development, is worth a thousand times more than a thousand words" - The American Journal of Education, 1858.

The idea that a picture can convey what might take many words to express was voiced by a character in Ivan S. Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons, 1862:

"The drawing shows me at one glance what might be spread over ten pages in a book."

A similar idea was seen very widely in the USA from the early 20th century, in adverts for Doan's Backache Kidney Pills, which included a picture of a man holding his back and the text "Every picture tells a story".

Neither of the above led directly to 'a picture is worth a thousand words'. Who it was that married the 'worth ten thousand words' with 'picture' isn't known, but we do know that the phrase is American in origin. It began to be used quite frequently in the US press from around the 1920s onward. The earliest example that I can find is from the text of an instructional talk given by the newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane to the Syracuse Advertising Men's Club, in March 1911:

"Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words."

Alienbids: What the hell is a scammer?

How can I spot a untrustworthy seller and avoid scams?

Sometimes it's hard to know who you can trust and who you can't. Here are some of the potential warning signs to look out for when considering whether a given seller is trustable:

• No feedback. This one is kind of a no-brainer, but we mention it here anyway since it should be the foremost caution flag when considering a seller. Understand that while AlienBids is a new site, every seller has the option of importing their feedback from eBay, so if the seller has sold online before at eBay, then they are likely to have some AlienBids feedback that shows up. If their feedback rating is 0, it is not necessarily a deal-breaker, but you should remain skeptical as you evaluate other factors. Try just purchasing through paypal since they have protection plans in place for that.
• The aren't a Verified Seller. Verified sellers have to actually pay a small fee on a monthly basis to keep they're status. A member that's a verified seller are less likely to scam you.
  
• They insist on money order. For many sellers, money order is a low-pain option to allow along with Paypal and Google Checkout. But for scammers, money order is the easiest way to get your money and leave you in a position where you have no recourse if the item isn't delivered. Google Checkout and Paypal are much safer options.
• They sell electronics or other high priced goods at unusually low prices. Some sellers really know where to get great deals, but be wary of deals that seem "too good to be true." This is a favorite way that fraudulent sellers lure in unsuspecting buyers into bad transactions.
• They haven't uploaded a profile picture, filled out booth policies, or completed their profile. Again, there are both real and fraudulent sellers that don't invest the time to provide information about themselves and become a part of the community. But those that are heavily involved in the community are generally safer sellers to deal with -- a scammer doesn't usually have the time to regularly post in the forums and fill out a thoughtful profile.

I've Spotted a Suspicious Seller. What Do I Do?

If they're only slightly suspicious, you might try sending them an email to vet them out. Ask for links to other places they sell online and get a sense for their style of communciation. If they are highly suspicious, you can flag their user account, which will alert us to their presence and/or lead to their possible suspension and or termination.

Alienbids: Gimme that dollar.

For items that you sell, you'll be billed once monthly. You can pay with Paypal or Google Checkout. We don't have the ability to accept check or money order payments at this time, but you can use any old credit card through either Paypal or Google Checkout. You'll receive a monthly email summarizing what you owe Alienbids. Remember before 2010 there is no fee's currently only fee you may incur is through becoming a verified seller which is optional.

Alienbids: Can you see me?

First this you need to do is make sure the picture is not more than 1000kb and is in .jpg or .gif format.
Then you goto My Account and click on Personal Information. You will see all your registered information on this screen. If you scroll down you will find

Select your Avatar

above it make sure you verify your password in the box like pictured below.

Verify Password

then when your all done click on the button update like the one below.