1. Reserve - This icon
indicates that a reserve has been placed on the
property. A reserve is the amount set by the owner
as the amount they would like to realize
from the sale of their property. Although
the bidding starts lower than the reserve (usually
at $1,000), the owner is under no obligation to
accept any bid lower than their reserve price.
Our agents will convey the highest bid to the
owner even though it is lower than the reserve
price. This allows the seller to consider
accepting the lower bid and/or make a counter
offer to the bidder. Many times, owners who
have placed their properties in an auction find
that the bids received do not meet their
expectations and, having made that realization,
will consider and accept a lower amount after
having "tested the waters", so to speak. It
never hurts to make a bid below the reserve
amount. If the bid is not accepted, the
bidder is not out anything except for a few
keystrokes on their computer.
2. New Today - This icon will
appear in the listing area if the property was
just added that day. After the first day,
the icon will not appear. Conversely, the
"Ending Today" icon will appear on the last day
the property will be up for auction and the
auction will end at the time indicated (item # 6).
The purpose of these icons is to help you
make a rapid assessment of the properties
available.
3. High Bid - The current high
bid will be displayed here. This is the
amount you are bidding against. The login
name appearing after the high bid (#7) is the
person you are bidding against. The login
name is displayed as opposed to the bidder's name
to protect their (or your) privacy. The
actual bidder names, addresses, and email
addresses are never disclosed to other bidders.
Your anonymity is completely guarded.
4. Next Bid - This is the
amount you must bid in order to make a bid.
It is the amount of the highest bid plus the
bidding increment. In the above example, the
high bid was $7,000 and the bid increment was $100
making the next possible bid $7,100.
5. Reserve Price Met - If a
reserve has been placed on the property, the
amount of the reserve is not disclosed until the
bid amount reaches and surpasses that amount.
When this occurs, the notation appears indicating
that the reserve has been met and the owner is
obligated to accept the highest bid made beyond
the reserve. It should be noted here that
the Bidder is also under an obligation to purchase
the property at the price they have bid.
6. Ends... - The date and time
the auction on this property ends will be
displayed here on all properties. Keep in
mind that the official server time (#11) is the
official time. Therefore, in the example
above, if you place a bid at one second past 8:00
AM (server time), your bid will not be accepted.
However, if you have a maximum bid placed on a
property, that amount will be compared against all
other placed bids and other maximum bids and will
be processed as a bid since your maximum bid was
actually placed before the expiration time.
We'll discuss "Maximum Bid" later to make the
process clearer.
7. Peace - This is the login name of
the person holding the highest bid on the
property. Incidentally, "Peace" is an actual
login name of one of our bidders.
Perhaps someday, you too can have your name
highlighted here!
8. Bid - This is the space provided
for you to place your bid. The bid amount is
in round numbers and must be at least the amount
of the highest bid shown to the left plus the bid
increment. In this example, you would place
'7100' in the block as the next bid. Please
note that you do not have to use a dollar sign or
any decimals. We'll add those for you
automatically.
If you should place a bid lower than the highest
bid plus the bid increment, the software will
reject your bid and you'll get a nastygram by
email as well as a rejection on your computer
screen. Please don't take these
notifications personally, the software is just
doing its job in administering the auction.
9. Max - This is an automatic bid
mechanism that will take care of your bidding so
that you don't have to spend 7 days and 7 nights
in front of your computer. Simply determine
the maximum amount you are willing to pay for this
property and enter it here. Then, just
forget about it. As the bidding goes on, the
software will check your maximum bid and, if the
amount is high enough, it will bid for you in the
amount of the bid increments until you win the bid
or exhaust your maximum. A word of caution
regarding the "maximum bid" function: if you
are bidding on a property that has a reserve set
and that reserve has not been met, the software
will consider your "maximum bid" to be your bid
against the reserve amount and will increase the
bid to your maximum. For example: if you're
bidding on a property that has a reserve of $3000
and the current bid is $1000 and you wish to bid
$2000 and place 2000 in the "Bid" box and 2500 in
the maximum bid box, the software will
automatically increase your bid to $2500.
The program considers you to be bidding against
the reserve and applies your maximum until the
reserve is met or your maximum is exhausted.
Once the reserve has been met, your maximum bid
applied in increments of $100 against other
bidder's bids.
This is pretty important, so we'll spend some time
on this so that you have a clear understanding.
Follow the progress in the following example based
upon the example above:
a. Peace has bid $7,000 and set a
maximum of $7,500
b. You bid $7,100 and set your maximum
at $7,800
c. Peace's maximum bids against your
$7,100 bid with a bid of $7,200
d. Your maximum bids against Peace's
$7,200 bid with a bid of $7,300
e. Peace's maximum bids $100 more
making the bid $7,400
f. Your maximum bids $7,500 to outbid
Peace. (note: you have just exhausted
Peace's maximum but since his $7,500 bid (his
maximum) was placed first, the $7,500 bid is his.
You won't know his maximum bid but your maximum
will bid until it passes his maximum if you set
your maximum higher than Peace's.
g. Your maximum then bids $100 more and now
the bid is yours at $7,600. If Peace or some
other bidder doesn't sneak in from the shadows (we
call them snipers), you've won the bid!
Please note that even though you set your maximum
at $7,800, your watchdog (maximum) only bid enough
to outbid the highest bid ($7,600) leaving the
other $200 in your maximum.
h. If one of those snipers does sneak in with a
$7,700 bid, your maximum will bid against them
also until your maximum is exhausted.
Each time your maximum makes a bid on your behalf,
an email notice will be generated to notify you of
the bid increase. The email will show the
amount of the bid and your maximum. The
bidding example above would take place in just a
matter of seconds, faster than you or I could
possibly keep up with it and emails will be flying
through hyperspace to keep you informed.
A word of caution regarding the "maximum
bid" function: if you are bidding on a
property that has a reserve set and that reserve
has not been met, the software will consider your
"maximum bid" to be your bid against the reserve
amount and will increase the bid to your maximum.
For example: if you're bidding on a property that
has a reserve of $3000 and the current bid is
$1000 and you wish to bid $2000 and place 2000 in
the "Bid" box and 2500 in the maximum bid box, the
software will automatically increase your bid to
$2500. The program considers you to be
bidding against the reserve and applies your
maximum until the reserve is met or your maximum
is exhausted. Once the reserve has been met,
your maximum bid applied in increments of $100
against other bidder's bids. If you are
unsure about this concept, it's best not to use
the maximum bid function until the reserve has
been met.
You can always increase your maximum bid, but you
cannot lower it. But then, again, what would be
the point? Your maximum bid will only bid
the amount necessary and then only to the amount
you set. Compared to an on-site auction,
this is much safer for you. It takes the
emotion out of the bidding and you're less likely
to get caught up in the bidding frenzy and spend
more than you had intended. Just be sure to think
through the amount you place in the maximum bid
block; what is the property worth to you?
10. Add to my watchdog - Your
watchdog is a bid tracker that keeps track of the
properties you want to monitor. By simply
placing a checkmark in the "Watchdog" block of any
property your interested in, you can have the
software track those properties for you.
When you come into the auction site, click on the
"Watchdog" link and the properties you are
interested in will be displayed for you to check
on. Its not necessary to bid on
a property to have it added to your watchdog; just
put a checkmark in the box. By the way, we
call the watchdog "Spike". There's more
about him in the "Watchdog"
section.
11. Current Time - This is the
official time for the auction. All bids that
are placed and all auctions are ended based upon
the displayed time which, incidentally, is
prevailing Eastern time. When you are
bidding toward the end of the auction, keep in
mind that those snipers are lurking there watching
the clock. At the last possible second, they
will slip a bid in trying to get the last word in
and scoop up the property. Spike can help
you there if you have your maximum set; he's much
quicker than they are and has the home court
advantage.
12. Resort Name - The name of the
resort will appear here and is a hyperlink to
additional information on the property. Just
click on the name and you'll have a full page
display with graphics to tell you more about each
property.
13. Resort Location - The city,
state, and country of the resort will be displayed
here for each property.
14. Property Information - The line
WK 14 1BR High is a brief description
of the properties attributes. WK 14
indicates that the property is the 14th week of
the year, the condominium in question is a 1
Bedroom unit, and the High indicates that it is a
prime time week. This abbreviated
description is placed here to help you scan
through the properties rapidly when looking for
specific accommodations. Each of the factors
shown here are important in determining a
property's intrinsic value. We'll discuss
more about these terms in the Timeshare Terms
section.
