Vintage Auctions of Canada - Help


Frequently asked questions:

What is a LIVE auction?
How do I sign-up and what is involved in signing up?

How do I place a bid on an auction and what happens?
How do we help honest bidders stop the "last minute bidder"?
How do I submit (post) an item to the site?
What happens when an auction closes?
How does an auction with a quanitity of more than one work?
What is the cost of using the service offered on VintageAuctions.ca?




What is a LIVE auction?



VintageAuctions.ca is owned and operated by a world class auctioneer. Mr. Knight runs regularly scheduled vintage car auctions at many locations across Canada. You can consign your vehicles to any one of these published auctions directly through this site. At the time of submitting an item, select the live auction from the Auction Location in Section IV of the "Submit an Item" form, at which you wish to have your vehicle sold. Please note vehicles submitted to live auctions have different posting fees and commissions from "On-Line" auctions. Live auction items submitted through the site are also subject to acceptance.

YOUR SUBMITTED ITEM WILL NOT APPEAR ON THE SITE UNTIL REVIEWED BY MR. KNIGHT FOR ACCEPTANCE.

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Signing-Up

Before you can bid on auctions or post auctions of your own, you must first become an authorized user of VintageAuctions.ca. Once authorized you become a registered user at VintageAuctions.ca. Creating a User Account on our site is completely free and should take less than 2-3 minutes. It is IMPORTANT to note that part of becoming an registered user of the site involves accepting the terms and conditions outlined in our User Agreement. YOU MUST NOT continue using the services offered on this site if you DO NOT ACCEPT the terms and conditions outlined. To review these terms and conditions now click here.


STEP I
To start the sign up process simply click on "New Users Sign-Up Here" found on the home page, centered at the top (or click here to sign-up now). You will be taken to the New User Sign-Up Form which requires you to enter

• Your full name
• Choose a UserID and
• Choose a Password to use with your account.

The User ID and Password you choose is "case sensitive" and this means for example that "Kitten" and "kitten"are two different passwords.


STEP II
After clicking on the "Sign up!" button, you will be taken to the 2nd step of sign-up which requires that you provide us detailed information about who are you and where you live. All boxes marked with a "(*)" are required fields and the sign-up process will not allow you to proceed unless information if keyed into those fields. If you are wondering how we use the information collected, please review our Privacy Policy.

The second thing you are asked to do at this stage of the sign-up process is to provide us with a "question and answer". The question must be something you will recognize and the answer something you will remember. We use this question and answer to offer to you when we need a way to verify that it is you who is asking us to perform certain jobs (for example sending you your passwrod if you forget). Remember to word your question in such a way that you will recall the answer exactly how you entered it on this page.

You are now done with the process of signing up as a "Buyer". There is the option to "register as a seller" at the bottom of this page and this is explained in the next step. If you leave the box un-checked, you will still be able to register as a seller anytime at a later date. However, if you are not interested in selling anything at this point in time you are now done.
Click the "Sign-up!" button and you can start using the site to bid on any item listed. Have lots of fun and we hope you enjoy the deals you will make.


STEP III
Please note that for promotional purposes you are automatically upgraded to seller status at no cost.

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Submitting a bid on an auction

After you have unconditionally accepted the User Agreement and completed Sign up, you are an authorized buyer and/or seller and can use the services we offer. You may place bids on current auctions posted by sellers on VintageAuctions.ca. REMEMBER WHEN YOU USE YOUR PASSWORD TO CONFIRM A BID, YOU ARE AGREEING TO AND ENTERING INTO A LEGALLY BINDING CONTRACT.

Before you bid on an item you must first get to the details page for that item. There are many ways locate auctions on the site, but the three common ways are,

Browse the auction categories.
Auction categories are listed on the rightside of the front page of this on-line auction house. The number in parenthesis (#) following each section and sub-section is an indication of how many auctions are currently live in the respective section/subsection.

• If subsections exist for a category they will be displayed on the right side of the main menu. Select a subsection by clicking on the name of the subsection you wish to review.
• Once no further subsections exist any auctions posted under that area will be displayed to you. Any of the listed auctions can be viewed for more detail (or for placing a bid) by clicking on the title of the auction in the list.
• If nothing exists in a section or subsection a message indicating that nothing was found will be displayed.

Use the search function.
You may choose to submit a specific search for an item on the site

• On the home page at the top and to the right hand side, you will find search criteria box with the red "go" button on the right side.
• Enter into the box a word to search for.
• Click go.

The system will search across all auctions and return the list of auctions and/or subsections names found. Simply select the item name or subsection name found to view the auction or those contained in the subsection returned.

and finally...

Follow an Auction Link
Vintage Auctions of Canada Ltd is a professionally run organization who's Auctioneer has more than 50 years experience in the world of auctions. We will typically list on the site links to live auctions that are scheduled to take place at some real venue located in Canada.

• Links to these auctions will typically be listed below the section listings found on the home page.
• Selecting anyone of these links will take you to the listing of items are schedulled to appear at the auction.
• The listing is typically a partial listing as we do our best to keep the list up to date however we generally continue to accept consignments up to the day of the auction.
• ALL BIDS SUBMITTED ON THESE ITEMS ARE TREATED AS ADVANCED BIDS, the "winning bid" of these auctions is taken as the top advanced bid from the Internet and is made public to the auction once the bidding on the floor has stopped.
• If the "on-line bidder" still has the "winning bid" the auction is then awarded to the "on-line winner". If not the item on auctiion is sold to the highest bidder at the live auction.
• All items in these auctions are also listed in the regular site and can be found throughout the site in the respective section(s).
• Vintage Auctions of Canada will flag each of these items on the site as "Taking advance Internet bids only!". REMEMBER, high bids on these items are not winners unless they still stand on the scheduled day of the respective auction.

Placing that bid
Once you displayed the details of the auction item you have selected to place a bid on, to bid,

• Simply enter your bid amount in Canadian dollars in the box provided.
• DO NOT type in the currency symbol ($).
• Click "BID".
• You will be prompted to enter in your password to confirm the bid (remember, your bid is legally binding).
• Once you have confirmed your password and clicked "Submit Bid" your bid will then be immediately applied to the item. You will now have the high bid.

You will receive a notification of your bid immediately on-line and as well you are sent an email confirming your bid. If you are not logged in at the time of attempting to place a bid the system will ask you to log in. Once you log in you will be provide with a link to take you back to your previous operation and this will get you back to your item of interest.

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Honest bidders are High Bidders

BIDDER ASSISTANCE FEATURES
VintageAuctions.ca utilizes various features that help improve your bidding experience on our service.

• Bid defeated feature is a notification that is sent to the top 5 bidders on an item indicating the current high bid. This feature was designed to notify bidders of the fact that their bids are defeated and saving our bidders the trouble of having to visit the site to check when they are too busy to do so.
  
  
• High Bidder Protection feature is a system by which we do not allow the high bidders bid to be beaten by that last minute bidder who typically preys on the high bids by waiting for the last 5 minutes of an auction before bidding. VintageAuctions.ca will automatically extend any auction that has a "last minute bid" for a period set by us (current defined as six (6) hours). Notices of the extension will be sent to the top 5 bidders who will be invited back to have the opportunity to continue bidding. The auction will close after the extension period if and only if there is no further bidding on the item for 15 minutes since the last bid. We feel this is fair as it offers the previous high bidder ample opportunity to respond to the "last minute bid". Again, the auction will close after the additional period plus 15 minutes without a new bid (don't worry only ta real high bidder will win and the others will chicken out eventually).

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Submit Your items for Auction

After successfully signing up as a seller on VintageAuctions.ca, you can post auctions of your own! Click on SUBMIT AUCTION (found on title header) to begin, or click here.

If you are not logged in you will first be asked to do so. Once you log in follow the "Continue with previous function" to get to the add auction form. You will not be allowed to access the add auciton form if the account you have logged in as is not est up as a seller.

The add auction form is fairly detailed and most of the information is required. REMEMBER, bidders will bid amounts based on the percieved condition of your item, so the better the detail the much more likely you will sell the item.

The following information is requested:

Section I

• Section. Choose the section in the site where you would want your item posted. Do not post items into section where it is obvious that the item does not belong. Items questionably posted will be moved and in the worst case remove from the site. No refund of posting fees will take place.
• Title. Enter in the title of your auction (to be displayed in search results and among listings).
• Description. Describe the item you are auctioning in detail. This is a good place to include additional payment/shipping info. This field is use to dislay the vehicle parameters.
• Quantity. Enter the quantity of this item that you are putting up to be auctioned.
• Start Bid. Enter opening bid amount for auction. Remember do use commas "," or dollar signs "$".
• Reserve Price. If you wish to apply a reserve on your auction item you must check the "RESERVE PRICE" box and set your reserve bid. Remember do use commas "," or dollar signs "$".
• Bid Increment. If you would like to set your own default bid increment for your auction, you can check the box and enter in a dollar amount by which bids will increase.
• Auction Length. Enter the time, in days, to run your auction.
• Make Auction Title Bold. Optional. Check this box if you wish the title of your auction to be in boldface font among the listings and search results (There is an additional charge for this service).
• Payment Methods. Select all methods of payment you will accept for your item.
• Item Location. Describe the current location of the item.
  
  Section II (Skip this section if you are not consigning a vehicle. You MUST fill these in if you are consigning vehicle to a live auction. It is strongly recommended for on-line listing as well. Remember buyers base their bids on the detail provided to them.)
  
• Year of Mfg. Enter the year the car was manufactured.
• Make. Enter the "Make" of the vehicle.
• Colour : Exterior Describe the exteriour colour of the car.
• Serial No. Enter the serial number of the vehicle.
• Model Enter the model of the vehicle.
• Body Style Enter the body style of the vehicle.
• Number of Cylinders Describe the number of cylinders in the engine.
• Odometer Provide the current odometer reading.
• Restoration Detail Enter any details you may have for all restoration work done on your vehicle.
• Other things with Radio Buttons Correctly set all the radio boxes on the left side of Section II.
  
  Section III
  
• Shipping. Select areas where you will ship your item to.
• Shipping Payment. Indicate who will be expected to pay shipping when the item sells.
  
• Payment Methods Indicate the types of payment you will accept when the item sells.


Section VI

• Auction Location/Date. Select the auction that you want your item to appear in. If you are selling the item for yourself your only option is "Sell it On-Line". If you are consigning your Vehicle to one of Vintage Auctions of Canada's LIVE auctions select the appropriate auction location. All auctions consigned to Vintage Auctions of Canada enjoy exposure on both our on-line site and listing in our traditional advertising efforts. It is important to note that listing and consignment commissions differ and you must accept the additional Terms and Conditions that apply to our live auciton shows. Click here to view these Terms and Conditions now.

* Remember you can use the "DESCRIPTION" box to enter any kinds of additional info especially if a field that applies to your items is not represented here.

After selecting "SUBMIT MY LISTING", you will be taken to a page that will allow you to add auction images.

• Click "BROWSE" to browse your computer's hard drive.
• Select the desired image file by clicking on it ONCE.
• Click OK to have the location of the image inserted correctly into the page for uploading.
• Click the small "Go" button to move the image to the auction.
• You will receive a confirmation that the image was uploaded with options to add more images, etc.
• To add images after an initial submission, use the edit auction option and after clicking on the "Submit My Listing" button the system will take you to the add image page again.

Note only valid Internet image files (.gif/.jpg/.jpeg extensions) will display.
It is recommended that you keep your image to a maximum size of 300x300 pixels. We have found this size looks good but you can use any size you wish. If you wish your auction to display images that are stored somewhere else on the internet, use the box below the "BROWSE" box to enter in the URL where the images can be found.

You may view, edit, or move your auctions anytime by using My Auctions, but after bids have been received you will be limited to what you can change.

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After The Auction Ends...


The High Bidder
You will be notified via the email address provided on the bidder's user profile stored on our site at sign-up.

If you are the high bidder, 1 of 2 things will happen:

1) Your high bid met or exceeded the sellers reserve bid, in which case you have won the auction and should soon be recieving payment instructions / information from the seller and/or VintageAuctions.ca via email or telephone. REMEMBER WHEN YOU USE YOUR PASSWORD TO CONFIRM A BID, YOU ARE AGREEING TO AND ENTERING INTO A LEGALLY BINDING CONTRACT.

2) You had the highest bid, but it did not reach or exceed the sellers reserve price. In this case, the seller may choose to award you the item at your high bid. You will simultaneously be sent an e-mail offering you the opportunity to match the seller's reserve price. If this is not successful, then the seller can choose to re-post the auction. If the seller awards you the item within the allotted response time (currently 12 hours after closing) you are the successful bidder for the item and as such you shall be obliged to purchase the item at the high bid amount.

Seller
If your reserve bid (items with no reserve are treated as a reserve of $0.00) was met or exceeded, the auction is won and you are legally obliged to deliver the item to the high bidder under the terms and conditions that you MUST have define on the item at the time submitted. You will be contacted by VintageAuction.ca with the closing status of your auctions and the information about the high bidder needed to complete the sale.

If your reserve was not met the following process is automatically initiated,

• An e-mail is sent to the high bidder (only) with details of the closing and with a link where the high bidder could go to in order to submit a one time bid matching the reserve price.
• Simultaneously, an e-mail is sent to the you with details of the high bid and a link to where the seller is offered a choice to drop the reserve and allow the high bidder to win the auction at the high bid.
• Since these auctions take place on-line and their is no gurantee that a buyer or seller will see the e-mails submitted in any time frame, VintageAuctions.ca has selected 12 hours as the window for either response.
• Once the 12 hour window has expired without either the buyer offering to match the reserve or the seller awarding the auction to the high bidder, the auction is closed without a winner.
• When either party responds the auction will close with a winner declared.

Auction Payment
A winning bidder must pay the seller for their item as defined on the item or in any mutually acceptable form. VintageAuctions.ca does not have any obligation to the seller to collect their funds or to the buyer for the delivery of the item.

Vintage Auctions of Canada is not involved in the actual exchange of goods or services and funds between buyers and sellers who use our on-line services.


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How does an auction with a quanitity of more than one work?


Auctions with a quantity of more than one work under the following rules,

• The bid submitted is the price to be paid for each of the items being purcahsed.
• The bidder must indicate at the time of the bid the number of the items that he/she will buy if suscessful at the auction.
• When the auction closes with a winner the high bidder is awarded the number of items he/she requested at the time of the bid.
• If any items are left over the next highest bidder is awarded their requested amount or the remain quantity at the next highest bid amount until all the items are awarded. Remaining stock is "returned" to the seller as unsold.


NOTE: An upgrade to this protocol is being implemented to support a more professional auction process where the high bidder is awarded the amount requested and then all other bidders will be offered the balance of stock at the current high bid. Any remaining stock, after no further offers to buy at the high bid are submitted, will be "returned" to the seller. VintageAuctions.ca remains dedicated to bring to the market a professional auctioneer's site through the proper implementation of real world auction processes, visit this section regularly for notification of this change.

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Fee Schedule & Invoicing Procedure


Invoices are resolved typically on a monthly basis. The credit card provided at the time when the Seller's Profile was first entered on Sign-Up is used. Updating this credit card infomation on the Seller's Profile will affect the next billing cycle. All currently owing listing fees & commissions are due upon the sellers comsumption of the services offered. VintageAuctions.ca reserves the right to hold billing of any client's account owing funds less than $5.00 until we feel it is appropriate to collect these small amounts. Click Here to view current VintageAuctions.ca pricing.

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We know this page is helpful but if you have additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us Thank you for choosing VintageAuctions.ca.