2011-12 Notes

Everything below is generic and does not change year-to-year. Here are a few things about this year:

• Everything re-auctioned will close Monday, March 12, in early evening. (Subject to anti-snipe extensions.)
• Some items may have reserve prices - this does not necessarily mean we will not honor a winning bid less than that amount. We may or may not, or we may be willing to negotiate something in between.
• We are using the buy-it-now option on most items. This is mainly because it is beginning to get late in the season (as far as interest, not avalanche activity). The buy-it-now option allows an item to be purchased outright if you want it immediately.
• Have fun!

Auction Features and Policies

[Selling] - Important Information for anyone selling and posting items themselves
[Closing] - Details on the closing of bids, such as anti-sniping and bid increment reduction

[General Overview] - How it works in general
[Features] - Tips on listings/navigation, emailing items to friends, dutch auctions, and proxy biding
[Registration] - Bidders must be registered, there are helpful utilities if you've forgotten yours
[Shipping] - Generally covered by the CSAC, but an extra contribution for it is always appreciated

Overview

For the most part it is self-explanatory. You must Register to participate in the bidding. If you bid on an item and somebody else outbids you an e-mail message will be sent to you. This is sent only to the previous high bidder, not to all previous bidders. If you are the highest bidder when the item closes you will receive an e-mail notification. The features and terms are similar to any other auction site, including e-bay, although they may be implemented somewhat differently.

Features

The front "cover page" has any updates at the top. It is constantly updated and lists donated items by company so you can click on an item to go to the bidding page. The main auction script page is the gateway to the available categories - new items from our Avalanche Store, used items, and the fall fundraiser when it is in progress. Each category has a main page with items in the order they will close by default, but they can also be sorted by any column by clicking on the header. The "Closing" column will show the hours remaining once there are less than 24 but days remaining until then. This main script page can be reached by clicking the blue icon with the white fractal "up" arrow on it which appears at the lower left of each page.

At the bottom of the main listing page and all bidding pages are small-type links for various options and features as well as registration related features.

New features have been added over the years. We have "dutch auctions" for cases where there are more than one of an item. For the sixth annual auction there was the introduction of proxy (or auto) bidding, which allows you to specify a maximum amount you are willing to bid and then have new bids automatically placed for you up to that amount as necessary. (Proxy bidding only works with single items and is disabled for dutch auctions.)

An option added for the seventh annual auction was the one to e-mail a particular auction to a friend - look for this link on any bidding page in the "Information" section, on the second row of the table to the right of a photo. You can help promote the auction and make it more successful by e-mailing particular auction item bidding pages to friends who might be interested in such as item.

The most recently added feature, between the seventh and eigth annual fundraisers, was a "Buy it Now" option. Sellers may now specify a certain price which a buyer can opt to pay for the item to be certain of getting it. When a "Buy it Now" bid is made the item is closed and removed from the auction and the buyer is obligated to purchase from the seller.

While most of the features added over time were available add-on scripts they typically required quite a bit of programming. Sometimes the way the work needed to be tweaked, sometimes there were conflicts between add-ons. The script ceased to be available or supported a long time ago now but we continue to maintain our version in-house.

Registration

You will need to Register in order to participate. You should receive your password via e-mail right away. The registration process insures that everyone bidding has a functional e-mail and reduces the chances of abuse. Once you register you will need the password if you return, so either keep the e-mail or change your password to something you can easily remember.

Unfortunately there are various login sections on the website, such as forums, members, the Avalanche Institute, etc, that are not integrated. We would love to do this and it's been on the wish list for quite some time but it exceeds our in-house programming capacity (or motivation, anyway) and we lack the funds to have a freelancer do it. So the auction login, username, and password are independent of any others on our site. (We recommend using the same name and password across our site so at least there is only one to remember.)

If you have previously registered or bid within the past two years you can provide your e-mail address and recover your registration name if you've forgotten it. (We periodically clean out all registrations inactive for two or more years.) You can also enter your username and have your password sent to the registered e-mail address.

At the bottom of the main listing page and all bidding pages are small-type links to registration related utilities - new registrations, changes to registrations, and registration lookup (for forgotten names/passwords). There is also a link to a list of all items with the most recent bidding activity on them, as well as a few other utilities.

Closing

Every item has its own closing time, depending on the time at which it was added and how long it was posted for. The closing time for each item is on the bidding page for that item. (All times are MST since the I-World servers are on Mountain Time in the US.)

It is your responsibility to be aware of the exact closing time. There is an "anti-sniping" time which is usually (but not always) 120 minutes, so the item will close at either the specified time or this amount of time after the last bid, whichever is later. When an item closes an e-mail will be sent to the highest bidder(s).

A new feature installed for the seventh auction (2004) is a parameter we can set to automatically reduce the minimum bid increment when a certain amount of time is left before the item closes. So pay attention as the closing time approaches. You may find that the amount for the new minimum bid is decreased. This is still a new feature since we only do this once a year for a short time and we have no idea exactly how we will apply it each year. It can be set to decrease all the minimum increments by either a percentage or an amount and we are still experimenting with changes once in a while. This increment change does not affect any other features - proxy bidding will still work up to your set maximum, the anti-snipe time still functions, and a Buy it Now offer can still be made (if the option is available).

Shipping

Avalanche Store Items - New items auctioned off by the CSAC avalanche store have the same shipping policy as the store, which is a flat rate of $6.00 per shipment in the US and Canada. International charges vary, contact the store to inquire. Many items which fit into a flat-rate global priority envelope can still be sent globally at a cost to you of $6.00. Members pay no shipping. Note that the charge is per shipment, so if you anticipate the possibility of winning another item or you want to buy something from the store in the near future we will be glad to hold items for you at your request in order to consolidate them into one shipment.

Private/Used Items - Shipping is set by the seller, read the item description for details. Items sold by the CSAC Avalanche Store in this category are subject to the same shipping as above.

Fundraising Auction Donated Items - Shipping costs will be paid by the CSAC, limited to First Class mail (airmail outside North America). For express service the buyer may pay the difference between that and first class mail. Items will be shipped as soon as payment is made. If paying by credit card there should be adequate time for fundraiser items to be received by the holidays. While we have always paid the shipping on fundraiser items in the past and are continuing that tradition we ask people to consider adding something to their payment to help us offset this cost. The auction is a fundraising event and we can use all the help we can get!

Go To the Main Auction Listing or the "Recent Bids" page

www.avalanche-center.org