Guest Author - Maria Thompson

Before you bid on a Yahoo Auction, you will need to setup an account. Here are step-by-step instructions on setting up a Yahoo Auctions Account.

Now the fun begins. You can sign into your Yahoo Auctions Account and start browsing for items to buy. You can search by keyword, closed auction, yahoo id or item number. You can even narrow your search by price. Once you see an item that you like you can click on the link to view the item details.

1. From the details page, you can see the sellers rating. You can also easily view the bid history, auction start and end dates and the payment and shipping terms. You can even see if the seller is online so you can have a live conversation.

2. After you enter your bid, you will be asked to preview and confirm your bid.

3. Once you confirm your bid, you should receive one of the following messages:

~~High bid confirmation: If your bid is the highest, you'll be notified of this. Your bid cannot be retracted once you confirm it.

~~Outbid confirmation: Another bidder has probably placed a bid using automatic bidding, if so, an updated bid was placed on their behalf and you were automatically outbid. If this happens and you want to bid again, you can return to the auction page and enter a higher amount.

~~Bid is below reserve price confirmation: In some cases, a seller may set a reserve price, which is the lowest price the seller is willing to accept. Any bid less than the reserve price will not win the auction. If this happens and you want to bid again, you can return to the auction page and enter a higher amount.

~~Not allowed to bid: You may not be allowed to bid if a previous bid on the auction was cancelled by the seller, if you've been added to the seller's blacklist, or if you're a seller who has an overdue balance on your auctions account. Also, if your rating is below the minimum bidder rating set by the seller, you won't be allowed to bid on the auction until your rating goes up.

4. As you wait for the auction to close, you'll receive notifications if you've been outbid. You can view your My Auctions link to monitor all of your auctions.

5. The seller will contact you, if you are the winning bidder, when the auction closes. This emails should include payment instructions.

6. Once you have received the item, you should remember to leave feedback for them. Feedback is one of the things that helps to make the online auction system work.

Visit Yahoo Auctions Today.


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