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What is Bid Butler?

1) What is it?
Using Bid Butler is just like having someone watch over your auctions when you're not there to make sure you always have a winning bid:
  • You tell your Bid Butler the maximum amount you are willing to pay and the quantity you would like at that price.
  • Your Bid Butler will never bid higher than you tell it to. If the bidding in an auction goes over your maximum bid, your Bid Butler will send an e-mail to let you know. To reenter the auction, simply return to the product page and give your Bid Butler new instructions or submit a regular bid.

2) How do I use it?
Any uBid member may use the Bid Butler:

  • Enter you login ID and your Password on the bid page.
  • Enter your maximum bid price in the text field. (example: 1209.27) If you enter a maximum bid price without a decimal, uBid will automatically attach 2 zeros. (Example: 1209 will automatically become 1209.00)
  • Auctions will allow you to choose "Bid up to my Maximum Bid" as your bid price. If you select this option, you are submitting a Bid Butler bid. Otherwise you have the option of selecting "Bid this exact amount".
  • Enter the quantity of items you wish to bid on.
  • Click "Place Bid".
  • Winning Bid Butler bidders are marked on the Current Winning Bids list with a special icon.

3) How does it work?

  • Bid Butler determines winning bids using the same order of precedence we use for our regular auctions (see Winning Bid section).
  • Only you and your Bid Butler know your maximum bid price. It is kept secret from all other bidders.
  • Think carefully before bidding! Once you submit a maximum Bid Butler price, you may not retract it.

If you use Bid Butler to bid on multiple quantities, you will pay the same price for each item you win in that lot.

Note:
The price shown next to a Bid Butler bid on the Current Winning Bids list is the most recent winning bid. This price is not the maximum Bid Butler price. The maximum Bid Butler price is kept secret.

4) What happens if the Bid Butler is outbid?

  • If your Bid Butler is outbid you will receive an e-mail stating that "your bid was accepted, but was a non-winning bid due to price, quantity, or time of first bid...".
  • Click on the link provided to return to the auction.
  • You can then counter with a new bid or a Bid Butler bid.

5) Detailed Bid Butler Rules
Bid Butlers bid according to the following rules:

  1. If there is enough quantity to satisfy all bidders, then Bid Butlers only bid the opening price.
  2. Once the quantity cannot satisfy all bidders, a losing bid is selected based on the maximum Bid Butler price or bid price if not a Bid Butler bid (see Winning Bid section). This losing bid must be outbid by all higher-ranking Bid Butlers, for those bids to remain winners.
  3. If the lowest winning bidder in the ranking is assigned a partial quantity (less quantity than they requested), they are a “partial quantity winner”. All higher-ranking Bid Butlers, to deprive that bidder of his full quantity, must outbid a partial quantity winner (See Winning Bid section). The higher-ranking Bid Butlers remain at the top of the list and get their full quantity.

Bid Butler Example - Auction without Reserve Price:
Let's say that Bob has a bid that is outranked by higher price/quantity/time Bid Butlers. There is some remaining quantity, but not enough quantity to satisfy all of Bob's request. Bob will receive the remaining quantity. To receive his entire quantity, Bob must raise the maximum Bid Butler Price or the bid price.

6) Bid Butler Auctions with Reserve Price
Bid Butler works a little differently for auctions that are conducted with a Reserve Price:

For auctions where the Reserve Price has not been met:

  • If your maximum bid price is lower than the Reserve Price, we will indicate this in your bid confirmation and you'll have a chance to raise your bid
  • If your maximum bid meets or exceeds the Reserve Price, your bid will automatically be raised so you are placing a winning bid, based upon the bid increment for that auction.

For auctions where the Reserve Price has been met:

  • Bid Butler will continue to place bids for you up to your maximum bid price, provided that your maximum bid price meets or exceeds the Reserve Price

Bid Butler Example-Auction with Reserve Price not Met:

  • Let's say that an auction has a starting bid price of $9, a bid increment of $20 and the Reserve Price is $20. If you place a maximum Bid Butler bid of $50, your bid will jump to $29 and your bid will become a winning bid. Remember, the Reserve Price will not be revealed

For more information about Reserve Price, click here.

7) Bid Butler Auctions with the uBuyItNow Option

Bid Butler works differently for auctions that include the uBuyItNow option:

If your maximum Bid Butler bid meets or exceeds the uBuyItNow price, we will alert you that your maximum price is higher and offer the chance to buy the item at the uBuyItNow price. Otherwise, you can keep your maximum bid price and we will continue to place bids for you until your maximum bid price is met or until all the items in the auction have been selected as uBuyItNow.

8) Bid Butler Auctions that use Reserve Price and uBuyItNow
uBuyItNow may also be used in conjunction with Reserve Price auctions that have Bid Butler. For those auctions, if your maximum bid price meets or exceeds the uBuyItNow price, we will alert you that your maximum bid price is higher and offer the chance to buy the item at the uBuyItNow price.

For auctions that use Bid Butler and uBuyItNow where the Reserve Price has not been met:

  • You will have the option to buy the product at a fixed price using uBuyItNow and become an instant winner without waiting for the auction to close
  • If you choose to bid and your maximum Bid Butler price is lower than the Reserve Price, we will indicate this in your bid confirmation and you'll have a chance to raise your bid
  • If you choose to bid and your maximum Bid Butler price meets or exceeds the Reserve Price, your bid will automatically be raised so you are placing a winning bid, based upon the bid increment for that auction.

For auctions that use Bid Butler and uBuyItNow where the Reserve Price has been met:

  • You will have the option to buy the product at a fixed price using uBuyItNow and become an instant winner without waiting for the auction to close
  • If you choose to keep bidding, Bid Butler will continue to place bids for you up to your maximum bid price or until all the items in the auction have been bought through uBuyItNow, provided that your maximum bid price meets or exceeds the Reserve Price

 


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