Why Sailing Vacation Auctions?
Online auctions are great places for entrepreneurs and bargain shoppers alike. Online auction sites such as Bid & Sail provide the ability of a charter yacht owner or a bareboat charter company to sell just about any type of “specialty” charter. Online auction sites such as SailingVacationAuctions.com is a great way for bargain hunters to find the sailing vacation they’ve been looking for at the best possible price.
What to Look for aboard SailingVacationAuctions.com:
Buying and selling sailing vacations online via an auction website should be fun, easy and safe. Bid & Sail is easy to navigate, provide the buyer with a wide selection of crewed and bareboat charters, different locations and separated in charter locations and charter months. SailingVacationAuctions.com has several custom selling options such as Buy it Now, Make an Offer, Reserve Price and bid options. The best feature is that the winning bidder only pays for the deposit specified in the auction and most importantly, Bid & Sail has a straightforward feedback system.
Additionally, the auction detail pages on Bid & Sail are designed so that the charter yacht can add their 3d walk-thru. It also accommodates YouTube videos, Flash Presentations and last but not least a “birds-eye view” via live webcam feeds directly from the yacht. The auction detail pages accommodates all information about the sailing vacation and/or bareboat charter, the auction listing includes pictures, descriptions, bid history and information about the seller. Bidders are encouraged to view the yacht’s personal website for more details.
Reliability/Security:
Helping buyers and yacht owners feel safe is very important to us. Yacht owners have complete control over their auctions. They have the opportunity to block bids, cancel auctions. The yacht owner chooses the category that best describes their services and are instructed to disclose all information about the services they offer for their sailing vacation auction.Bidders should have assurance that they're buying from a reputable charter boat company. Their experience on the SailingVacationAuctions.com should be easy and fun.
SailingVacationAuctions.com is designed to encourage confidence for bidders and feel safe. Bidders are encouraged to contact the “seller” and check the “sellers” website for more details. SailingVacationAuctions.com utilizes a feedback system where yacht owners and buyers can rate each other based on their auction experience.
Scams on the internet:
Online auction fraud is one of the most commonly reported cases of internet fraud reported to the Federal Trade Commission each year. Don’t get scared off by the statistics, many shoppers have excellent experiences with online auctions. For this reason we encourage buyers/bidders to do your research and read the fine print.Payments:
The safest, and recommended way to pay the deposit for a sailing vacation auction is through a third party payment company like Pay Pal or Alert Pay. A company like Pay Pal or Alert Pay provides both the buyer and seller with an additional sense of security because the seller has no access to the buyer’s personal credit or back accounts.Escrow:
Escrow on auction websites can be a buyer’s best friend or their worst enemy. Escrow is usually used in high–ticket purchases and acts like a middleman between the exchange of money and product/service. If the seller or buyer insists on an unknown escrow company, beware.Although sellers can sometimes be the victim of auction fraud with “deadbeat bidders,” fake checks or escrow scams, buyers are more likely to be taken advantage of. Just remember to stay sharp. Just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t make it legitimate.SailingVacationAuctions.com recommends Pay Pal, Alert Pay and/or the yachts credit card services for deposit amounts. We are confident our yachts are most willing to work out payment arrangements to fit your particular financial needs. 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 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 Now (if available):
Buy now 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 now only auctions, these auctions remove all bidding options meaning the listing can only be purchased for a set amount. To set a buy now 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
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 payment preferences.
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 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.
The main benefit of Proxy Bidding is that you do not have to sit at your computer for the duration
of the auction, continuously outbidding your competition. SailingVacationAuctions.com does that for you via the proxy
system.
Proxy bidding is the part of our bidding system that most often confuses new members or bidders. Under the proxy bidding system:
You, the bidder tells our sytem the absolute maximum that you are willing to bid for your sailing vacation.
Our system will place a bid on your behalf.
Our system will continues to bid on your behalf until you are
outbid by another member's bid, until the maximum is exceeded or the
auction is won.
Keep in mind that our system automatically performs proxy bidding on behalf of every
bidder in an auction.
If the option is available you can use “Buy Now” 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 Now” option will appear on the item details page, you will be asked to confirm your intention to buy the sailing vacation before the sale is concluded. Buy it Now cannot be retracted.
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.