Auctions begin when a seller posts a new auction in the system. They do this by filling out the New Auction Form, which creates an online auction. Interested buyers place bids on the auction to compete for the item(s) until Auction Close time, at which point the person(s) with the highest bid wins. Some auctions may have a Reserve Price: this is the lowest amount the seller will accept for the item. (Sellers may start bidding lower to encourage competition.) If the last bid is less than the Reserve Price, the buyer and seller contact each other to negotiate the bid and hopefully agree on a price. If they cannot agree, the auction is considered unsold.

Once the auction is closed, the seller and winning bidder(s) are notified via email so the final arrangements can be made. The winner(s) typically have 7-14 days in which to send payment for the item(s) to the seller. The seller then ships the item(s) to any winners, and once the item has been received, the buyer and seller each can leave feedback for each other based on how well the transaction went. This lets future buyers and sellers know if this person is someone they want to do business with.

Some auctions do not sell or meet Reserve Price. When this happens, the seller has the choice to relist the auction. The system saves the auction information so the seller does not have to write everything all over again; they just press a button and it reposts. (It is very common for auctions to be relisted several times before selling, so if your auction does not sell, do not be discouraged.)

After an auction is completed, eventually it will be archived and disappear to make space for more auctions. There is a limited period of time (180 days) to leave Feedback or relist the auction if it did not sell.

If you're a seller: The Merchants' Guild offers a great deal of options and flexibility for posting and tracking your auctions, including Dutch Auctions and Bid Time Extension. The Merchants' Guild also has a great deal of ways for your auction to be seen by the users of the system: besides the normal public auction listings by category, we have List By Seller, Image Gallery Listing, Art Show Listing, and a full set of auction searching tools. Plus we have ways to modify your listings To get them more visibility, and the My Auctions Herald so you can advertise your live auctions on other websites. And you can post and sell items on the system for free!

If you're a buyer: The Merchants' Guild works to make sure you have a full set of features to let you track your favorite auctions and check seller feedback before buying. In addition to the Buying List, which shows all auctions you have bid on, you can add auctions to your Tracking List without needing to place a bid. Email notification helps keep you informed on the status of your bids, with the ability to customize the way the features work for you. Our special categories help you find the items that you want in a hurry, or use our advanced search features to find exactly what you want. You can also browse through thumbnail listings in the Image Gallery or Art Show to find something you like at a glance. We offer many ways to get the job done so you can use the system the way that suits you best. Flexible Message Boards and Auction Comments also allow you to stay informed and communicate with other users on the system both quickly and easily.

We realize that there are other auction houses on the Internet, and while they are perfectly acceptable for selling your wares, the goal of The Merchants' Guild is to build a free system that is more comfortable and user-friendly by offering as many useful features as possible. Our site only offers medieval, Renaissance, and fantasy LARP auctions, so you don't have to wade through a long list of irrelevant things to find something that interests you. And we also like to receive friendly communication from you to find out what you want in an auction site. This site is designed for the users, by the users.

The Merchants' Guild is a commercial grade auction system, running on two very powerful internet servers: one for all the web hosting and scripts that operate the site, and the other a beefy database and development system to ensure speedy results and secure data transactions. We offer everything you need out of an auction site without sacrificing speed, stability, or security. The addition of The Merchants' Guild being FREE just sweetens the deal all the more.

Here is a list of all the features The Merchants' Guild has to offer that other auction sites may be missing:

• Direct Bid AND Proxy Bidding: Choose between placing a set bid, or placing a maximum bid and letting the site bid against others automatically for you.
• Dutch Auctions: Place more than one of the same item up for bid in a single auction (great for prints, merchandise, etc.).
• My Auctions Herald: A great tool for automatically listing your live auctions on your own websites.
• Custom Auction Close Times: Decide what time you want your auction to close, instead of having to wait until the right time of day to post.
• Bid Time Extension: Prevent "sniping" by malicious bidders by automatically extending the close time.
• Image Management System: Host your auction images for FREE on our site, create automatic thumbnail images, even manage images hosted on other sites for use in your auctions.
• Auction Tracking: Easily keep track of all the auctions you are interested in, whether or not you have placed a bid.
• Auction Sales Tracking: Easily keep track of the auctions you are selling, and update them with a click.
• User Ratings: See ratings based on Feedback left by buyers and sellers relating to their auctions.
• Image Gallery: Get greater exposure for your auctions with rotating thumbnails on the main page.
• Art Show: Gallery of thumbnail images makes browsing auctions by picture quick and easy.
• User Preferences: Decide how you want the site to work for you with customizable options.
• My Personal Page: Create your own personal webpage FREE on our site to tell buyers and sellers more about yourself, explain your policies and preferences, and so on.
• Private Auctions: Keep special auctions from being listed publically so they are not stumbled upon.
• Enhanced Website Design: Use The Merchants' Guild in text browsers, non-scripting browsers, and scripted browsers.
• Intuitive Design: Get around quickly and efficiently with our easy-to-use website design.
• Message Boards: Our versatile message boards make communications fast and simple.
• Auction Comments: Ask questions about an auction without having to send an email.
• Detailed FAQs: You're reading them now.
• Context-Sensitive Help: Help is only a click away anywhere on the site.

No. The Merchants' Guild is designed to be a free site for everyone to use. You can create an account, buy and sell, post your own MyPage, leave feedback... All the features of the site are free. The site primarily pays for itself with advertising and donations, so you don't have to pay site fees or auction fees.

We do offer paid accounts, which are completely optional. These accounts also help us afford to keep the site running by allowing us to maintain faster servers, pay the monthly Internet fees, and cover annual renewal fees. We do not expect to turn a profit from running this website, we merely want to make sure the system is the best it can be.

Being a Premium member not only helps support the site, but it also gives you access to a wider range of features. For example, a free member may post up to 7 auctions at a time: plenty for the average user. But if you plan to use the site to sell many items at a time, you might want to upgrade to a paid Premium account, which allows you unlimited postings. Premium membership also gives you access to unlimited Image Gallery listings, larger image sizes in auctions, and more! If you are interested in becoming a Premium member, GO HERE.

If you are not interested in a Premium account but would still like to help keep the site running, we gladly accept donations. If you are interested in making a donation or helping us out in any way, you can find information on mailing address or other contact info on the Contact Us page.

The Merchants' Guild usernames are not case-sensitive. Usernames must be unique regardless of letter case, therefore the following three names cannot be in use on The Merchants' Guild at the same time: Snowangel, SnowAngel, snowangel.

Passwords on The Merchants' Guild are always case-sensitive. If you have forgotten exactly how your password is stored in the system, please use the Lost Password Form to have your password instantly emailed to your registered email address(es).

If you are still having trouble with your username or password, please feel free to Contact Us.

You may start setting up a new auction using the New Auction Form, which can be reached by clicking "Sell" in the top menu bar, or by going to your My Account page and using the "New Auction Form" link on the "Selling" tab.

Note: Before you start an auction, you may want to upload images to help your auction sell. You can do this via the Image Management Tool, located in the My Account page under the Images tab, or by using the Quick Upload box at the top of the New Auction Form. You can read more about how to upload images here in our Image Management How-To.

Some FAQs match multiple categories, and so are listed once under each category. Right now, our FAQ system is still being reorganized for better efficiency and ease of navigation. We are planning on moving the various categories to their own separate pages instead of having all FAQs on one page as it is now. Having redundant FAQs assures that, once the categories are separated, you will be able to find your question easily and intuitively in every category that the FAQ pertains to.

The best way to contact us is via email, and it is how you will most likely receive the fastest response. Although the head admin may be reached by IM, that information is only given out at their personal discretion. We usually respond to email as quickly as possible, though LARP weekends might cause a slight delay in communication. If you do not receive a response from an admin within 24 hours, your mail may not have been received, you may not have requested an explicit response, or the admin might be out thwacking monsters with a boffer weapon (weekends only). For further details on contacting The Merchants' Guild for any reasons, please see the Contact Us page.

The homepage, or Marketplace, is designed to work as a centralized source of auction information. The Listings section is updated once per day to show all available categories and special listings available. The Image Gallery is updated every 6 minutes and rotates through all Image Gallery that are currently live. The right-hand section displays the Most Popular items, which are sorted by the number of views in the last 24 hours; the Newest Auctions, showing which auctions have been updated last; and the Closing Auctions, which are the auctions with the least time left. These categories can be expanded to show up to ten of each listing.

Below the Image Gallery and Special Listings, the Special Information section contains useful links to other parts of the site or other sites entirely and is updated by hand. The Town Crier section at the bottom of the page is comprised of the five most recent News entries entered by the admin, and is only updated when a new News entry is added by the admin. In addition to these notable sections, the header and footer are also loaded on the homepage as well as every other page on the site, so that every page has ready access to the menus you need to navigate the site quickly and easily.

The Image Gallery contains auctions that have front page thumbnails enabled. These auctions are rotated up to eight (8) at a time on the front page, so each auction has an equal chance of being highlighted on the site. This gives you the ability to have your auction featured on the main page for free.

The Art Show is a gallery of items with special thumbnails listed. It allows buyers to browse the live auctions quickly and easily just by looking through the thumbnails to preview art before looking at the actual auction for details. The Art Show may contain thumbnails with both General Audience and mature content, unlike the Image Gallery Listing.

The MyPage is basically like a mini-webpage. You can create your own personal space to tell others about yourself and link to other places, like your own galleries and outside websites.

If you are a seller, you can use your MyPage to list things like shipping and payment info, commission policies, working timeframes, and other important info so you can just link to your MyPage in your auction instead of retyping everything each time.

To set up your own MyPage, simply go to your My Account page under the "Prefs" tab. In the "MyPage Settings" field, type what you want included in your MyPage, and then activate it by selecting the button above that says "Activate the following text as the content in MyPage". When you are done, click the "Update MyPage Settings" button just below the field, and your MyPage will appear in the listings.

You can use basic HTML in your MyPage to give it a unique look. Go here to see a sample MyPage with HTML added. There are many tutorials online for using HTML, but if you are not comfortable with it, you can use plain text instead. If you do use HTML, make sure to close all your tags! If you do not, your MyPage may not show up correctly, if at all.

You can easily view another user's MyPage (if they have one) by going to their Contact Info page and clicking on the MyPage link there, or by viewing an auction that the user is the seller or high bidder in and clicking on the MyPage icon following their name. If a user does not have a MyPage setup, then neither of those links will appear. You can also browse our MyPage Listings to see who has a MyPage set up.

The Listings pages automatically update every 6 minutes, as long as your browser supports auto-refresh. Otherwise, you can get the latest auction listings by hitting Reload/Refresh on your browser. If you are not sure how up-to-date the listings are, you can always check the last update time by looking at the bottom of each page, just above the footer navbar.

Yes. On the main Search Page there is a section titled "Search by Seller". Simply enter the seller's name in the text field and click the Search button. Usernames are not case-sensitive, but the letters and numbers must otherwise match up. The resulting search will show all current auctions posted by the seller, with the option of including Closed Auctions (until archived), Private Auctions, Delayed Start Auctions and any other auctions in the system.

The Bidding History page shows the history of bids placed on an auction. Bids are listed from newest to oldest, from top to bottom. The bid time is shown for each bid, as well as the amount of the bid. Please note that bids may be proxy bids, and the proxy limit will not be shown in the Bidding History, only the current bid amount. You can usually tell when a Proxy Bid has been activated because it will replace the previous bid within only a second or two.

The Bidding History for an auction may be loaded by clicking on the small "Bidding History" link in the Bids section of the auction display page. If there are no bids yet on an auction, the link will not be present.

The Sitemap page of The Merchants' Guild is a central collection of links to all pages and page-like scripts on the site, organized in a way to make them easy to find. Some of the links on this page may only be found here and nowhere else in the site. Please note that a great deal of links are missing at present as the system is still under development.

This page is to help explain the goals and progress of The Merchants' Guild's development to the users so they know where we stand on various components of the system. Note that the estimated completion percentile includes a great deal of administration tools in its calculation, and therefore makes the system appear less complete than it actually is for the purposes of typical buyers and sellers on the system. All administrative tasks can be completed without the tools, but the tools will aid in accomplishing common tasks more quickly and easily, as well as present a standard for how data is manipulated To be certain it is being handled correctly.

First, you will need a The Merchants' Guild Account To bid on items; you can create one for FREE by filling out the New Account Form. Once your account is created, go to the bottom of the auction you want to bid on. Fill in the Username and Password fields, the Bid Amount you wish to place, and select whether you are placing a Proxy or Direct Bid (see the Bidding FAQs for the difference between Direct and Proxy Bidding), then click on the Place Bid button. (If you are already logged in, then just fill in the Bid Amount and click the Place Bid button.) You will then see a Bid Result screen containing the new auction information, based on applying your bid.

Please note: The Merchants' Guild makes use of a Proxy Bidding system, and you may be immediately outbid. If that happens, please feel free to bid again.

Important Note About Proxy Bidding: **You CAN bid against yourself!** Unless you want to deliberately raise the minimum bid, please only place ONE BID and wait for auction close or for another user to outbid you. In the future, we may implement a system to revise a proxy bid price, but for the time being it is very important to remember this when placing bids.

A proxy bid raises the bid to just high enough to beat the next highest bid, and will automatically match others' bids until it reaches the amount you entered. (Think eBay.)

Example: A leather bodice is currently at $30. You decide that you would be willing to pay up to $75 for it, so you place a proxy bid for $75. If no one else bids, you only have to pay $31 (or whatever the auction shows now as the "Current Bid")! But if someone bids against you, the system will automatically defend your bid until someone bids higher than $75.

A direct bid immediately raises the auction price to the amount you enter.

Example: The description for an auction says that, if the bidding reaches over $100, they will include a free set of accessories. But the bid is only at $25. You want the accessories, so you place a direct bid for $100. This guarantees that you will get the bonus offered, because your bid forced the price to the required amount. (Note: The system will not defend this bid. If someone beats the bid, you might want to place a proxy bid for further competition.)

There are a number of common reasons people can't bid on auctions. First, you must have an account to bid. Accounts are free; all you need to do is fill out the New Account Form to register. Second, make sure you have not mis-typed your password in the bidding form. If you have lost or forgotten your password, you may quickly have your password mailed to you via the Lost Password Form. Third, make sure you have entered your bid correctly. If not, an error message should inform you why the bid was not accepted. Usually this is due to the bid amount being below the minimum acceptable bid (someone else may have placed a bid since you last loaded the page with the bidding form) or being over ten times the current bid price.

If you still cannot place a bid on an auction, you may be on the seller's blacklist, which basically bans you from all auctions they have posted. Usually this only occurs if you have done business with the seller before and there were issues with the transaction, or if there is a personal issue with them selling to you. The seller's blacklist feature is provided for the seller's security and defense, and if you have been added to a seller's blacklist you will need to resolve the issue with them. Please keep all communications civil; the best way to get off a blacklist is with good behavior.

If your error in placing bids is not related to any of these common problems, please feel free to Contact Us.

This almost always occurs when someone else has placed a Proxy Bid on the auction you are trying to bid on. If their proxy bid is higher than the bid you just placed, then the bid price on the auction will be 'bumped' up above your bid and the auction will remain in the other user's control. You will often need to 'bump' up your bids on an item until you exceed the other user's Proxy Bid price. See the Proxy Bidding FAQ above for details.

Dutch Auctions are auctions for more than one item. They usually have a set quantity (although auctions with a quantity of 99 are considered unlimited and everyone wins). Bidding on Dutch Auctions is the same as bidding on a regular auction, except that when the auction ends, more than one bid wins, and all the winners pay the lowest "top bid". If there is a tie for the lowest "top bid", the oldest bid wins... First come, first served.

That can be a bit confusing to understand, so let us give an example: An auction has a quantity of three. At the end of the auction, there are four bids: $8, $10, $12, and $15. Since there are only 3 items, only the top three bids win: $10, $12, and $14. (Sorry, Mr. $8!) The lowest "top bid" is $10, so all the winning bidders only have to pay $10. (This way, no winner has to pay more than another; everyone pays the same.)

Note: You can place a bid for more than one items, but it does not guarantee that you will receive the entire quantity you have requested. See the FAQ on Bid Quantity for more details.

You may start setting up a new auction using the New Auction Form, which can be reached by clicking "Sell" in the top menu bar, or by going to your My Account page and using the "New Auction Form" link on the "Selling" tab.

Note: Before you start an auction, you may want to upload images to help your auction sell. You can do this via the Image Management Tool, located in the My Account page under the Images tab, or by using the Quick Upload box at the top of the New Auction Form. You can read more about how to upload images here in our Image Management How-To.

The description field is a great place to put all of the important information that you need to grab a bidder's attention. Some important things to include in the description are:

• Description of the image - Add a bit more flavor to the piece by telling the story behind it or using colorful description to enhance it.
• Technical details - Put information about the materials used, craftsmanship involved, techniques, etc.
• Shipping costs - People are less likely to bid if there are "hidden" or unstated shipping fees.
• Rules - (mostly for commission auctions) State what you will and will not do or accept, timeframes for working or accepting payment.
• Payment type - Yes, there is a field specifically for payment types, but the description field is an excellent place to add anything not covered by it.
• Links - Use your auction to link back to your other galleries or websites (it's okay to promote yourself!), or to use HTML to insert more images. If you have a MyPage with important auction information in it, you can link to it and let bidders know that you have the information listed there instead.

By the way, the Description field DOES allow HTML... If you want to have fun and really make your auction pop, try adding some style to it!

If you have posted a new auction and it is not in the listings pages, or if an auction has closed but is still listed, it is probably due to the list pages not having been updated yet. On The Merchants' Guild, the listings pages are updated every 6 minutes using auto-refresh. If the listings appear out of date, try refreshing your browser.

One other possibility may be your browser caching the listings pages. You may need to clear the cache in your browser. The way to do this varies depending on what brand and version of browser you have. Refer to your browser's Help files to find out how to clear the cache.

To update your auctions, log into your My Account page and select the Selling tab. Find the auction in the listing and click the Update button on the far right side of its line. This brings up the Auction Control page, which will provide various options to change your auction depending on whether or not it has received any bids yet. For further information, see the My Account Selling Page FAQs and the Auction Control FAQs.

A Private Auction is a special type of auction that is not listed on the regular listing pages. Private Auctions are for holding special auctions that are not open to the general public, such as "Members Only" or "Friends Only".

Auctions may also be made Private by admins if there is a problem with the auction or if it violates the Terms of Use. This keeps the auction from being listed publically while allowing issues to be resolved properly. Users will always be notified if their auction has been made Private.

The Standard Art Show thumbnails show in the Art Show Listings in a four-row, four-column image layout per page. The maximum size for Standard Art Show thumbnails is 80 x 80 pixels.

Priority Art Show thumbnails are shown first in the Art Show Listings, and take up more column/row space than Standard thumbnails. The maximum number of Priority Art Show thumbnails on a page is 4: two rows and two columns. Priority Art Show thumbnails must be between 81 x 81 and 160 x 160 pixels.

Direct Buy allows buyers to immediately buyout an auction at a set price if there are no other bidders. Once a buyer uses the Direct Buy option, the auction immediately closes and the buyer automatically wins for the amount of the Direct Buy price. If any regular bids are placed on the auction before Direct Buy is used, the Direct Buy option disappears.

To use Direct Buy on an auction, simply select the checkbox for Direct Buy at the bottom of the auction listing and click the "Place Bid" button. You do not need to place a bid in the Bid Amount field.

Bid Time Extension keeps people from being able to "snipe" an auction. It automatically extends the close time of an auction if a bid is placed within a certain time of the scheduled auction close time. For example, if the Bid Time Extension is set to 15 minutes and a person places a bid 5 minutes before the auction is scheduled to close, the auction close time will be reset to 15 minutes after the last bid placed. This allows bidders to fairly compete at the end of an auction without having to worry about last-minute "sniping".

The Merchants' Guild offers free image hosting space, but to be able to offer this, we can only allow a certain amount of space per user. There are many ways, however, to make the most of your space:

• Resize your images - The best way to make space is to reduce the size of your images. Cutting down the size of a picture makes a big difference on the amount of space it takes up. Resizing an image to 75% of its original size is a good way to keep the picture large enough to see detail, and can cut the filesize in half.
• Use the right filetype - JPEGs and GIFs are both acceptable on The Merchants' Guild, but they save in very different ways. A picture that is 150kb as a JPEG may be 300kb as a GIF.
• Use a smaller DPI - "DPI" means "dots per inch". A high DPI means higher resolution, which gives the picture more clarity. However, it also means a much larger filesize. We recommend using no more than 72 DPI. That will give the image enough clarity to be clearly seen on a computer monitor. (Not all image editing programs give you the ability to change the DPI, so if you can't change it, don't worry about it, and use some of the other methods to reduce your images.)
• Compress/optimize your images - Many image editing programs offer compression or web optimization to make files smaller without decreasing the image size. If an image is too compressed, though, it can visibly decay the quality of the image and cause "artifacts" (especially in JPEGs).

The best way to leave feedback is to simply log into your My Account pages and select the Feedback tab. Scroll down a little and you should see a section called Auctions Needing My Feedback. Click on the auction name, select a rating (the default is Positive) and enter a small description of your feedback for the user. Everything else is automatically filled in. Once finished, click the Submit Feedback button and you're done!

Another way to submit feedback is to select the Feedback Form link in the Sitemap page and manually enter all of the data by hand. Please note that you may ONLY leave feedback for someone you have dealt directly with in an auction that has been successfully closed with a high bidder or bidders.

Feedback should be left by the seller once they have received payment and shipped off the item(s) to the high bidder(s). Sellers may wish to wait, however, until they have actually heard back from the high bidder(s) concerning receipt of the item(s). Winning bidders should leave feedback when the item(s) have arrived acceptably according to the auction description and any other provisions have been arranged with the seller.

Both sellers and high bidders must leave feedback on the other party within 180 days of the closing of the auction or they will not be allowed to leave feedback for that auction. This is because closed auctions are archived after a certain period of time and are no longer available in the public system.

Negative feedback is taken very seriously on The Merchants' Guild, and we would like to warn users not to use this option except in extreme circumstances. Negative feedback should only be left if the transaction either was not completed or there was intentional misleading of the quality, price or condition of an item.

If you are a seller, negative feedback should be left on a user who fails to contact you or make payment within a reasonable timeframe. You should make every attempt to contact the buyer before leaving negative feedback, and if negative feedback is left, say what timeframe was given and make sure the bidder has had ample time to meet it (at least 14 days is what we recommend).

If you are a buyer, you should leave negative feedback if you send payment and never receive the item(s) you have paid for, or if the item(s) do not reasonably match the condition, quality or description of the auction image/description. Please attempt to resolve any concerns with the seller first before resorting to negative feedback.

If your situation does not meet the criteria above, leave Indifferent feedback instead. All negative feedback is subject to administrative review, and upon further investigation may be reduced to Indifferent status if necessary. If negative feedback is justified, the user's account may be reviewed and action may be taken by the admins, up to and including suspension or removal from the system. Users with a history of negative feedback will be more likely to lose any and all account privileges on the The Merchants' Guild system.

If you are not sure whether or not to leave a negative feedback, PLEASE contact a Merchants' Guild admin through email explaining your situation and we will get back to you as quickly as possible.

If negative feedback has been left for you and you feel it is unjustified, you may appeal the feedback to an administrator. Please note that while we may, after review, move the feedback status to Indifferent and correct your Rating points, we will never move a Negative feedback to a Positive. Make sure any appeals to Negative feedback are sent in email only; do not post them to the Message Boards.

Shill Bidding is the unethical practice of having a second account or a friend with an account who intentionally places bids on your items in an attempt to drive up the price of an auction. It also refers to placing a bid on a piece you may not intend to purchase To raise the price against a competitor to make them pay more. The first form of "shilling" is against The Merchants' Guild policy, and may even be illegal in your place of residence by law. The only justification for the second form of bid shilling is that the protagonist will be responsible for completing the transaction with the seller in the event that they do not, in fact, get outbid by their competitor. So bidders beware: either one of these two types of Shill Bidding could get you removed from The Merchants' Guild, and possibly in trouble with the law. If you can't pay for an item, or don't want to pay for an item, then do NOT place the bid.

The Quantity is how many items are being sold. Most auctions have a Quantity of only one; if an auction has a quantity of more than one, it becomes a Dutch Auction. The Quantity determines how many winning bids will be accepted. For example: if an auction has a Quantity of 5, and more than 5 people bid on the auction, only the top five bids are considered "winning" and are legally bound to pay for the auction. If the Quantity has already been met, bidders may still continue to place bids to compete for the winning slots. In the case of a tie, the first tied bid wins... First come, first served.

Auctions with a Quantity of "99" are considered "unlimited". This helps to avoid confusion and to make sure all winning bids receive the notification email at the end of the auction. Generally, unlimited Dutch Auctions are for selling an unlimited number of items for a single set price.

Dutch Auctions are auctions for more than one item. They usually have a set quantity (although auctions with a quantity of 99 are considered unlimited and everyone wins). Bidding on Dutch Auctions is the same as bidding on a regular auction, except that when the auction ends, more than one bid wins, and all the winners pay the lowest "top bid". If there is a tie for the lowest "top bid", the oldest bid wins... First come, first served.

That can be a bit confusing to understand, so let us give an example: An auction has a quantity of three. At the end of the auction, there are four bids: $8, $10, $12, and $15. Since there are only 3 items, only the top three bids win: $10, $12, and $14. (Sorry, Mr. $8!) The lowest "top bid" is $10, so all the winning bidders only have to pay $10. (This way, no winner has to pay more than another; everyone pays the same.)

Note: You can place a bid for more than one items, but it does not guarantee that you will receive the entire quantity you have requested. See the FAQ on Bid Quantity for more details.

The Reserve Price is the minimum price at which the seller is willing to accept for the item being auctioned. Many sellers start auctions at a low price to encourage bidding, but set a Reserve Price to keep the auction from selling for too little.

If an auction ends without meeting the Reserve Price, the seller and bidder are not obligated to complete the transaction with each other. The seller may negotiate with the winning bidder for an acceptable price, or they may cancel the sale and relist the auction.

If the Reserve Price is met, both the seller and the buyer are legally obligated to complete the transaction as normal.

The Bidding History page shows the history of bids placed on an auction. Bids are listed from newest to oldest, from top to bottom. The bid time is shown for each bid, as well as the amount of the bid. Please note that bids may be proxy bids, and the proxy limit will not be shown in the Bidding History, only the current bid amount. You can usually tell when a Proxy Bid has been activated because it will replace the previous bid within only a second or two.

The Bidding History for an auction may be loaded by clicking on the small "Bidding History" link in the Bids section of the auction display page. If there are no bids yet on an auction, the link will not be present.

First, you will need a The Merchants' Guild Account To bid on items; you can create one for FREE by filling out the New Account Form. Once your account is created, go to the bottom of the auction you want to bid on. Fill in the Username and Password fields, the Bid Amount you wish to place, and select whether you are placing a Proxy or Direct Bid (see the Bidding FAQs for the difference between Direct and Proxy Bidding), then click on the Place Bid button. (If you are already logged in, then just fill in the Bid Amount and click the Place Bid button.) You will then see a Bid Result screen containing the new auction information, based on applying your bid.

Please note: The Merchants' Guild makes use of a Proxy Bidding system, and you may be immediately outbid. If that happens, please feel free to bid again.

Important Note About Proxy Bidding: **You CAN bid against yourself!** Unless you want to deliberately raise the minimum bid, please only place ONE BID and wait for auction close or for another user to outbid you. In the future, we may implement a system to revise a proxy bid price, but for the time being it is very important to remember this when placing bids.

A proxy bid raises the bid to just high enough to beat the next highest bid, and will automatically match others' bids until it reaches the amount you entered. (Think eBay.)

Example: A leather bodice is currently at $30. You decide that you would be willing to pay up to $75 for it, so you place a proxy bid for $75. If no one else bids, you only have to pay $31 (or whatever the auction shows now as the "Current Bid")! But if someone bids against you, the system will automatically defend your bid until someone bids higher than $75.

A direct bid immediately raises the auction price to the amount you enter.

Example: The description for an auction says that, if the bidding reaches over $100, they will include a free set of accessories. But the bid is only at $25. You want the accessories, so you place a direct bid for $100. This guarantees that you will get the bonus offered, because your bid forced the price to the required amount. (Note: The system will not defend this bid. If someone beats the bid, you might want to place a proxy bid for further competition.)

Direct Buy allows buyers to immediately buyout an auction at a set price if there are no other bidders. Once a buyer uses the Direct Buy option, the auction immediately closes and the buyer automatically wins for the amount of the Direct Buy price. If any regular bids are placed on the auction before Direct Buy is used, the Direct Buy option disappears.

To use Direct Buy on an auction, simply select the checkbox for Direct Buy at the bottom of the auction listing and click the "Place Bid" button. You do not need to place a bid in the Bid Amount field.

On Dutch Auctions, you can place a bid for more than one item. The bid amount you set is per item. If you place a bid of $5 for a quantity of 2, you are bidding on 2 items for $5 each; a total of $10.

Placing a bid for a quantity of more than one does not guarantee that you will receive the entire quantity. If you have the lowest winning bid slot and there are not enough items left, your bids will be valid for only the remaining number of items.

Example: An auction has five items. You bid for 4 items, but there are three bids higher than yours. Since 3 items are already spoken for, you only win the remaining two.

Bid Time Extension keeps people from being able to "snipe" an auction. It automatically extends the close time of an auction if a bid is placed within a certain time of the scheduled auction close time. For example, if the Bid Time Extension is set to 15 minutes and a person places a bid 5 minutes before the auction is scheduled to close, the auction close time will be reset to 15 minutes after the last bid placed. This allows bidders to fairly compete at the end of an auction without having to worry about last-minute "sniping".

Shill Bidding is the unethical practice of having a second account or a friend with an account who intentionally places bids on your items in an attempt to drive up the price of an auction. It also refers to placing a bid on a piece you may not intend to purchase To raise the price against a competitor to make them pay more. The first form of "shilling" is against The Merchants' Guild policy, and may even be illegal in your place of residence by law. The only justification for the second form of bid shilling is that the protagonist will be responsible for completing the transaction with the seller in the event that they do not, in fact, get outbid by their competitor. So bidders beware: either one of these two types of Shill Bidding could get you removed from The Merchants' Guild, and possibly in trouble with the law. If you can't pay for an item, or don't want to pay for an item, then do NOT place the bid.

A Private Auction is a special type of auction that is not listed on the regular listing pages. Private Auctions are for holding special auctions that are not open to the general public, such as "Members Only" or "Friends Only".

Auctions may also be made Private by admins if there is a problem with the auction or if it violates the Terms of Use. This keeps the auction from being listed publically while allowing issues to be resolved properly. Users will always be notified if their auction has been made Private.

To remove item(s) from your Tracking List, log into your My Account - Tracking page and click the checkbox to the right of each item you wish to remove, then click on the "Remove Selected Items" button at the bottom of the listing. After you click the "Remove Selected Items" button, the page will refresh without the items you had checked.

At the present, we have not developed a system for removing items from your Buying List. They will, however, be removed from your list when an auction expires from the system and is no longer available for public viewing. We will eventually be dealing with this system in greater detail, but for now all auctions you bid on will appear in this list until they expire.

To change your Notification Preferences you will need to log into your My Account page and click on the Prefs tab. Click to check or uncheck any Notification Preferences to suit your needs. After setting the feature boxes to your preference, click on the "Save Notification Prefs" button and the page will reload itself, showing your new preferences for this section of the page.

This section of the My Account - Preferences page allows you to choose which of your My Account pages you wish to be loaded by default when you login using the My Account Login page. To change the default page setting, simply select which page you would like to load upon login, then click on the "Set Default Page" button and the page will reload showing your new preferences for this section of the page.

The best way to leave feedback is to simply log into your My Account pages and select the Feedback tab. Scroll down a little and you should see a section called Auctions Needing My Feedback. Click on the auction name, select a rating (the default is Positive) and enter a small description of your feedback for the user. Everything else is automatically filled in. Once finished, click the Submit Feedback button and you're done!

Another way to submit feedback is to select the Feedback Form link in the Sitemap page and manually enter all of the data by hand. Please note that you may ONLY leave feedback for someone you have dealt directly with in an auction that has been successfully closed with a high bidder or bidders.

Feedback should be left by the seller once they have received payment and shipped off the item(s) to the high bidder(s). Sellers may wish to wait, however, until they have actually heard back from the high bidder(s) concerning receipt of the item(s).

Winning bidders should leave feedback when the item(s) have arrived acceptably according to the auction description and any other provisions have been arranged with the seller.

Both sellers and high bidders must leave feedback on the other party within 180 days of the closing of the auction or they will not be allowed to leave feedback for that auction. This is because closed auctions are archived after a certain period of time and are no longer available in the public system.

Negative feedback is taken very seriously on The Merchants' Guild, and we would like to warn users not to use this option except in extreme circumstances. Negative feedback should only be left if the transaction either was not completed or there was intentional misleading of the quality, price or condition of an item.

If you are a seller, negative feedback should be left on a user who fails to contact you or make payment within a reasonable timeframe. You should make every attempt to contact the buyer before leaving negative feedback, and if negative feedback is left, say what timeframe was given and make sure the bidder has had ample time to meet it (at least 14 days is what we recommend).

If you are a buyer, you should leave negative feedback if you send payment and never receive the item(s) you have paid for, or if the item(s) do not reasonably match the condition, quality or description of the auction image/description. Please attempt to resolve any concerns with the seller first before resorting to negative feedback.

If your situation does not meet the criteria above, leave Indifferent feedback instead. All negative feedback is subject to administrative review, and upon further investigation may be reduced to Indifferent status if necessary. If negative feedback is justified, the user's account may be reviewed and action may be taken by the admins, up to and including suspension or removal from the system. Users with a history of negative feedback will be more likely to lose any and all account privileges on the The Merchants' Guild system.

If you are not sure whether or not to leave a negative feedback, PLEASE contact a Merchants' Guild admin through email explaining your situation and we will get back to you as quickly as possible.

If negative feedback has been left for you and you feel it is unjustified, you may appeal the feedback to an administrator. Please note that while we may, after review, move the feedback status to Indifferent and correct your Rating points, we will never move a Negative feedback to a Positive. Make sure any appeals to Negative feedback are sent in email only; do not post them to the Message Boards.

At this time The Merchants' Guild does not have a secure server for handling encrypted data transmission. We have an SSL-capable webserver and would like to offer this feature, however the costs of obtaining SSL certificates from VeriSign to become a trusted SSL site are quite costly. If you would like to donate money for or directly purchase an SSL cert for The Merchants' Guild, please feel free to Contact Us for further information.

The Merchants' Guild is based on a system that was originally tested for IE, but the rest of the site has been developed using Firefox. For this reason, Firefox may give the best experience. However, we try to keep all browsers in mind when designing and testing the site, so any browser should work just fine. If you are having issues in a specific browser, please Contact Us and let us know what browser and version you are using, and what the issue is so we can address it.

JavaScript is not necessary to use The Merchants' Guild, but it will improve your experience if you make use of it. All portions of the system are tested with JavaScript enabled, and verified for security and potential risks of locking-up or damaging your browser. Most of our JavaScript is small, fast and clean, used primarily for aesthetic purposes. Some forms use JavaScript to validate the form fields for errors, making sure you have provided acceptable data. In all instances, however, The Merchants' Guild will work properly without having a JavaScript-capable browser or with having JavaScript disabled.

While we cannot recommend using text-only browsers with The Merchants' Guild, we have attempted to keep them in mind when designing our pages and layout. Due to the amounts of data presented by the system, using text-only browsers can make it difficult to follow the data in a convenient manner. However, we realize that at some times, these are the only browsers some users have available to them, and therefore we have tried to make use of the site as easy and compatible as possible in text browsers. There are also current plans for incorporating WAP (wireless) technologies into the The Merchants' Guild system - keep an eye on the news and message boards for more details.

To post a message on the The Merchants' Guild message boards, you will need a valid user account on the system. You can get an account for free by filling out the New Account Form. If you have an account, go to the Message Boards page by clicking on the Boards link at the bottom of any page. Click on the board by topic you wish to post a message in, then click on the "Post New Message" link on the bottom of that page. The "Post New Message" link may also appear on other pages. You will then see the New Message form, simply fill in your username and password, select the board it should be posted to (it should default to the board you were in), optioanlly include a subject, then type in your message in the text field provided. HTML tags are okay, but please try not to use tables and other complex tags that might disturb the overall appearance of the message's display. Any Carriage Returns (the Enter key) will automatically be converted into <BR> tags. Click the submit button, and you will be shown a screen with your new message if the post is successful.

The The Merchants' Guild message boards allow you to reply to a message so that "threads" of messages may be easily tracked, and related messages can be easily located and viewed. If you see a message you would like to reply to, simply go into the View Message screen for that message and click on the Reply To This Message link in the bottom menu of the window. You will be presented with a Message Reply Form that has the Subject line, Board Name already filled-in with default values. Simply fill in any other necessary fields and submit the message. If submitted successfully, the message you just posted will be shown in the View Message page, and you may click on the View Reply Thread link in order to view the order and file of any related messages.

The Merchants' Guild is still under construction in some areas, and not all features that you can see and interact with are available at present. We apologize for having the placeholders available without support behind them, but they help us remember to get them finished. If there is anything you feel is actually a bug, or if you see a feature you'd like done sooner, please feel free to send us mail or leave a message on one of the Message Boards. Thanks for your understanding as we hurry to get the system completed!

The Merchants' Guild usernames are not case-sensitive. Usernames must be unique regardless of letter case, therefore the following three names cannot be in use on The Merchants' Guild at the same time: Snowangel, SnowAngel, snowangel.

Passwords on The Merchants' Guild are always case-sensitive. If you have forgotten exactly how your password is stored in the system, please use the Lost Password Form to have your password instantly emailed to your registered email address(es).

If you are still having trouble with your username or password, please feel free to Contact Us.

Your password can be recovered with the Lost Password Form. Simply enter your email address or username in the appropriate field, click the button, and your password will be mailed out immediately to your email account(s).

There are a number of common reasons people can't bid on auctions. First, you must have an account to bid. Accounts are free; all you need to do is fill out the New Account Form to register. Second, make sure you have not mis-typed your password in the bidding form. If you have lost or forgotten your password, you may quickly have your password mailed to you via the Lost Password Form. Third, make sure you have entered your bid correctly. If not, an error message should inform you why the bid was not accepted. Usually this is due to the bid amount being below the minimum acceptable bid (someone else may have placed a bid since you last loaded the page with the bidding form) or being over ten times the current bid price.

If you still cannot place a bid on an auction, you may be on the seller's blacklist, which basically bans you from all auctions they have posted. Usually this only occurs if you have done business with the seller before and there were issues with the transaction, or if there is a personal issue with them selling to you. The seller's blacklist feature is provided for the seller's security and defense, and if you have been added to a seller's blacklist you will need to resolve the issue with them. Please keep all communications civil; the best way to get off a blacklist is with good behavior.

If your error in placing bids is not related to any of these common problems, please feel free to Contact Us.

This almost always occurs when someone else has placed a Proxy Bid on the auction you are trying to bid on. If their proxy bid is higher than the bid you just placed, then the bid price on the auction will be 'bumped' up above your bid and the auction will remain in the other user's control. You will often need to 'bump' up your bids on an item until you exceed the other user's Proxy Bid price. See the Proxy Bidding FAQ above for details.

If you have posted a new auction and it is not in the listings pages, or if an auction has closed but is still listed, it is probably due to the list pages not having been updated yet. On The Merchants' Guild, the listings pages are updated every 6 minutes using auto-refresh. If the listings appear out of date, try refreshing your browser.

One other possibility may be your browser caching the listings pages. You may need to clear the cache in your browser. The way to do this varies depending on what brand and version of browser you have. Refer to your browser's Help files to find out how to clear the cache.

If negative feedback has been left for you and you feel it is unjustified, you may appeal the feedback to an administrator. Please note that while we may, after review, move the feedback status to Indifferent and correct your Rating points, we will never move a Negative feedback to a Positive. Make sure any appeals to Negative feedback are sent in email only; do not post them to the Message Boards.

The Merchants' Guild offers free image hosting space, but to be able to offer this, we can only allow a certain amount of space per user. There are many ways, however, to make the most of your space:

• Resize your images - The best way to make space is to reduce the size of your images. Cutting down the size of a picture makes a big difference on the amount of space it takes up. Resizing an image to 75% of its original size is a good way to keep the picture large enough to see detail, and can cut the filesize in half.
• Use the right filetype - JPEGs and GIFs are both acceptable on The Merchants' Guild, but they save in very different ways. A picture that is 150kb as a JPEG may be 300kb as a GIF.
• Use a smaller DPI - "DPI" means "dots per inch". A high DPI means higher resolution, which gives the picture more clarity. However, it also means a much larger filesize. We recommend using no more than 72 DPI. That will give the image enough clarity to be clearly seen on a computer monitor. (Not all image editing programs give you the ability to change the DPI, so if you can't change it, don't worry about it, and use some of the other methods to reduce your images.)
• Compress/optimize your images - Many image editing programs offer compression or web optimization to make files smaller without decreasing the image size. If an image is too compressed, though, it can visibly decay the quality of the image and cause "artifacts" (especially in JPEGs).

The best way to contact us is via email, and it is how you will most likely receive the fastest response. Although the head admin may be reached by IM, that information is only given out at their personal discretion. We usually respond to email as quickly as possible, though LARP weekends might cause a slight delay in communication. If you do not receive a response from an admin within 24 hours, your mail may not have been received, you may not have requested an explicit response, or the admin might be out thwacking monsters with a boffer weapon (weekends only). For further details on contacting The Merchants' Guild for any reasons, please see the Contact Us page.