Rules for Buyers
It may seem like a lot of rules, but Sell Madness's policies help make our website as safe, fair, and enjoyable as possible. As a buyer, you’ll need to review and understand Sell Madness’s policies, including the Sell Madness User Agreement, before you bid on or buy an item.
These policies are intended to:
Follow local laws and regulations
Minimize risks to buyers and sellers
Make sure no buyer has an unfair advantage
Create an enjoyable buying experience
Protect Intellectual Property Rights
Support Sell Madness Community Values
(Rules about bidding and paying)
You can’t bid for an item, or use Sell Madness at all, if you have false contact inforamtion on your account.
Buyers and sellers need to be able to get in touch with each other, and we need to be able to get in touch with them.
You must pay for any item you buy.
Many of the items on Sell Madness are sold in an auction-style format where you can make bids. Bidding is a lot of fun, but remember that each bid you make is a binding contract to buy the item if you win. The same is true for Buy It Now purchases. Not paying for an item after you have agreed to buy it has some negative consequences, which are explained in our unpaid item policy
.
You can only bid if you really intend to buy the item, even if you’re making a non-binding bid.
Non-binding bids can only be made on certain items, like real estate and vehicles, but they still mean that you are seriously interested in buying the item. The bottom line is, don’t place any bid unless you mean it.
You can't bid on your own item, obviously. But we have to mention it.
We call this shill bidding and it not only violates Sell Madness policies, it’s against the law in many places.
Be careful about bidding on a bunch of similar items if you only want one.
If you are the winning bidder of more than one listing, you're required to purchase all the items, even if they’re the same or similar.
You can only retract a bid under very specific circumstances.
For example, if you meant to bid $10 but bid $100 instead, you can retract the bid through administration. Even then, you're required to immediately bid the amount you intended. Never use bid retraction to manipulate the bidding process. It’s unfair, and it has serious consequences.
Make sure you read the item description before you bid.
Many of the problems buyers and sellers encounter start with a simple misunderstanding about what is for sale and the terms of the sale. For example, some sellers only want to sell to bidders who live in a certain country, or who will pay using PayPal. You should only bid on or buy an item if you meet the seller’s requirements. These are described in the item listing. If you bid on an item and you don’t meet the seller’s qualifications, we consider that unwelcome and malicious buying.
If you know the seller, you can’t bid on the item. But if the seller offers Buy It Now, you can use that to buy the item.
This rule applies to family, friends, co-workers, roommates, and anyone who might know something about the item that most buyers don’t.
Note: You have to actually want the item you're buying. Buying items from someone just to increase their Feedback or improve their search standing is called shill bidding and it's against our policies.
You can’t offer to buy items you found on Sell Madness without using Sell Madness.
Items bought outside of Sell Madness aren’t covered by our policies, and you aren’t protected against fraud. Sellers have to follow the same rule, and if a seller offers to sell you something outside of Sell Madness, don’t take the offer. For more info, see our rules for everyone.
If you're buying an item from a seller in another country, you can't ask a seller to mark on the customs declaration that the item is a gift. That's not just against our ploicies, it's illegal.
Rules for Everyone
There are rules that all Sell Madness members, both buyers and sellers, need to know and follow. These rules are created to protect you and to keep Sell Madness a safe place to buy, sell, and participate in the community.
(Rules about general member conduct)
Sell Madness members are not allowed to:
Interfere with the Sell Madness site.
Use profanity on the site.
Infringe on Sell Madness's Intellectual Property.
Continue to use Sell Madness if a member’s account is suspended.
Make offers to buy or sell outside of Sell Madness.
Post want ads, except in the Want It Now section of Sell Madness.
Falsely Report that another member has violated a Sell Madness policy.
In addition to rules that apply to all Sell Madness members, Sell Madness also has rules specifically about Feedback, buying and selling.
(Rules about identity)
Member identity is a building block of the Sell Madness Community. Sell Madness treats member identity with great respect. Sell Madness expects all members to treat member identity with the same level of respect.
(Sell Madness members: )
Must be at least 18 years old.
Cannot misrepresent their identities.
Must always provide valid and complete contact information and must always have a valid email address.
Cannot publish the contact information of other members in an online public area.
Must choose their user ID according to Sell Madness rules.
Rules about communicating with other Sell Madness members.
(Sell Madness members:)
Can't misuse the Sell Madness mail forwarding system or send unsolicited email (spam) or email threats to other members.
Must follow Sell Madness’s rules for Sell Madness Groups, Sell Madness Discussion Boards, and community content (includes reviews, guides, and blog entries).
(Rules about Sell Madness responsibilities)
Sell Madness Privacy Policy specifies how your personal information is used. The Appendix to the Privacy Policy lists which third party has access to which type of information.
Sell Madness outage policy allows sellers compensation if the site experiences an extended outage.
Sell Madness employees are bound by all Sell Madness policies and need to identify themselves as Sell Madness employees when they bid, list an item or submit content to the site.
Sell Madness appreciates your ideas, but considers these unsolicited submission ideas as non-binding.
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.
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.
