Before you make a bid, you should verify the item you're bidding on and the seller's honesty as best you can. If you have any questions about the item, email your questions to the seller. Make sure you clearly understand the shipping terms (who pays?), payment terms (can you pay by personal cheque? credit card? and so on) and other details. Look at the seller's feedback and see how others have interacted with this seller in the past. Always check the feedback of the seller first before buying an item and read the descriptions of the feedback in addition to simply looking at the seller's feedback score.

You can place a bid when you are viewing the item you would like to bid on. Please bid the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the item. This amount is kept secret! If necessary, bids will be automatically made on your behalf as other bidders increase the bid price, up to your maximum amount or the necessary preset bid increment to outbid other bidders. (All bidding is done with bid increments, which vary from item to item based on the current price.) This process is different for Dutch Auctions.

In the case of a tie for the highest bid, the earlier bid takes precedence.

By placing a bid, you are placing a legally-binding and irrevocable offer to purchase the item at any price up through your maximum bid amount. If your bid is accepted by the seller, then you are legally obligated to complete the transaction. Your failure to complete the transaction is a breach of the User Agreement and may be legally actionable by the seller. You must provide a valid email address or User ID with your bid.

Once you make and confirm a bid, you cannot retract it except in exceptional circumstances. Exceptional circumstances include the seller materially changing the description of the item after your bid and clear typographical errors. Exceptional circumstances do not include bidding or winning a bid on another (perhaps similar) item, not having the budget to pay for an item, changing your mind, and so on. Please bid carefully!

Our system will automatically email you, subject to the reliability of email, if your maximum bid is outbid by another bidder. However, you might be outbid minutes or seconds before the close of an auction, in which case you may not have the opportunity to place a new bid. Therefore, you should bid the maximum amount you would be willing to pay for the item when you make your first bid.

At the seller's option, auctions last 3, 5 or 7 days from the listing of the item. Bidding automatically terminates at the end of the auction.

When the auction ends, the seller and high-bidder are notified via email. Auction results are also available for everyone to examine. These results indicate the final bid price and the seller's and high-bidder's email addresses. The complete bidding history is also available as a link from the page showing the item's description. The high-bidder and seller should contact each other within 3 business days of the end of the auction. A seller may contact the next-highest bidder if the seller is unable to conclude the transaction with the high-bidder within 3 business days. Therefore, high-bidders may lose their place as winning bidder if the high-bidder does not contact the seller within 3 business days of the end of the auction.

Call or email the seller to clarify the terms of postage and insurance if you have not done so before the bid. Negotiate with the seller for escrow, sales tax, postage fees, and payment terms. The winning bidder(s) pays the seller for the item(s), and it is the seller's responsibility to fulfill the order when payment terms are met. The binding contract of the auction is between the winning bidder and the seller. Pay the seller promptly -- and leave feedback about your experience!