Go Swap Auctions Seller's Guide

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This document describes the process of selling items at auction at the Go Swap website. In this document, we will attempt to simplify the process of selling your items on our website using a step-by-step tutorial that outlines each of the individual steps you need to take.

Step #1: Register for an Account

I guess it's not much of a mystery that in order to sell anything on Go Swap Auctions, you must first create a member account. Registration is free and only takes a few minutes to complete. On the upper-right hand corner of the page, you will see a link to Register. Click that link and follow the instructions on the screen.

Once you complete a form containing your registration details, an e-mail will be sent to the address you specified on the registration form containing a link that will allow you to activate your account and logging into the site. Once you log in, you can begin selling items at auction by using the Sell link that appears in the main menu at the top of the screen.

Step #2: Log into Your Account

Before you can begin listing auctions on the site, you must first log into your account. In fact, if you click on the Sell menu item without logging in first, you will see the ominous login warning that is shown below:

Illustration 1: An ominous login warning shown when clicking the Sell menu item

Remember, that you must have already registered with Go Swap Auctions and then activated your account by using the link sent in your registration e-mail.

Step #3: Choose a Category

Now we begin the process of listing an auction for sale. Your first task will be to designate a category where the new auction item will be listed. To do this, you simply click on a list of categories that looks just like the categories displayed on the home page.

Illustration 2: Selling at Auction Step #1: Choosing the Listing Category

You will see a list of categories to choose from where each category is a link. Clicking on any of the categories here will select the category and take you to the next step. Please try to choose the most specific category as possible so your auction will be seen by the maximum number of potential buyers.

You should also notice the Progress indicator at the top of the screen. It gives you a visual representation of where you are in the listing process. Choosing a category is considered the first step in the process (we don't count registering and logging in as a step on the website).

You may notice that you can only choose one category for you auction listing. This is by design. We currently do not allow our sellers to list an item in more than one category. This may change in the future if we find there is demand for this sort of thing.

Step #4: Auction Properties

Now we really start to get into the meat of the matter: the auction properties. Here is where you will define all of the auction properties such as the title, description, starting bid, shipping and payment options. Most of the critical auction details will be defined on this page. Here is a screen shot of the first half of the page:

Illustration 3: Selling at Auction Step #2: Auction Details (Part 1)

First thing you should notice looking at the screen shot, is that the category which we selected in the previous step is shown at the top of the form. In this case, I selected Macintosh Systems. You will see two text boxes which allow you to enter a Title and a Sub-Title. These represent the main headings which will be shown in auction listings and the details page.

The Description is a rich text edit control which allows you to do basic HTML formatting (or if you prefer, word processing) to add style to your auction description. In other words, you can stylize text (by changing font size, making text bold or italic, and even changing the font family). We recommend that you use the latest Internet Explorer web browser for maximum usability of this control.

Now this brings us to the second half of the form which is shown in the screen shot below. The Start Date is already filled in and cannot be changed. You can change the duration of the auction which represents the number of days (the fixed period of time) when the auction runs. Possible choices in the drop down are: one day, three days, five days, seven days, or ten days.

Illustration 4: Selling at Auction Step #2: Defining the Auction Details (Step 2)

The Starting Bid represents the minimum bid amount necessary to begin bidding on the item. Any bid lower than this amount will be rejected by the system. This starting bid is often used to protect a seller against an item selling for too low.

Another tool to protect the seller is the Reserve Price which is a minimum acceptable bid necessary to win the auction. Members are allowed to place bids below the reserve price, but unless a high bidder enters a bid that matches or exceeds the reserve price, the auction is not considered “won†and the seller has no obligation to sell it to the highest bidder.

The Buy It Now field is an optional price that an item can sell for without going through the auction process. At any point during the auction process, a buyer can purchase an item outright for this published amount. Any bids that have been received on the auction will be considered null and void and the auction will end immediately.

For more information about how bidding works, we encourage you to read the Buyer's Guide which contains details about the process.

An optional Shipping Flat Rate allows sellers to set a fixed amount for shipping auction items within the United States. Possible Shipment Options are listed below which the seller may check all options which are available to the buyer. It is recommended that the seller at least choose one of these options.

The Payment Options are used to indicate the accepted payment methods that a buyer may use to pay for auction items won on Go Swap Auctions. As soon as the auction ends, an e-mail is sent to both the buyer and the seller with instructions on how to complete the transaction. The buyer should submit payment to the seller first and then the seller should ship the item to the buyer.

Sell #5: Image Upload

Your next step in your auction listing odyssey is to upload any images that you have for the auction item. Images are a great way for you to promote whatever you are selling. As they say: “A picture is worth a thousand wordsâ€. And like most everything else on Go Swap Auctions, it's free, so why not use it. Below is a screen shot for the image upload part of auction listing:

Illustration 5: Uploading an image for your auction listing

As you can see, the image upload is pretty simple and straight-forward. You only need to click the Browse button to choose a file from your computer and then click the Submit button to upload your image. You may optionally include an Image Caption that will appear just below the image.

The Image File looks like a text input, but it is read only. It displays the file you chose when you clicked on the Browse button. If you would prefer not to upload any images at all, you can click the Skip Image Upload and proceed to the next step. We recommend that you upload an image to increase the chances of selling your item.

Sell #6: Review & Submit

Our long arduous process has just about come to an end. The only thing that is left to do now is to review all of the information entered for our auction and verify that everything is correct. If we detect any errors for our auction, we can easily go back and correct them. The progress bar at the top of each page serves as a navigation tool which allows you to jump around different steps of the auction listing process to make any changes desired.

Shown below is a screen shot of what the review step of auction posting looks like. You should notice that there are no images uploaded for this auction. Had we uploaded an image, you would have seen the image appear in the middle of the details page.

Illustration 6: Almost done now, just need to review our new auction listing

As you can see from the illustration, all of our auction details are displayed for us and we are given one last chance to verify that the information we provided is correct. All that is left now is to click on the Submit button to finalize our post. Below is an image of what the screen looks like once your auction post is complete:

Illustration 7: After clicking Submit, this screen tells us our posting is complete

Conclusion

We hope that this tutorial has helped you understand the process of selling items on Go Swap Auctions. We have made every attempt to make the auction process as seamless as possible. Should you have any questions, comments, or suggests, please feel free to use the Contact Us form on the site to write to us.

Thank you and good luck on your sales!