Before you can participate on Testbid, you must first register to receive a Password and Identification Number. Registering is free and we will send your ID and Password via email within seconds after this form is successfully submitted. (click for Registration Page). Write down your ID number and keep it in a safe place. You will need to enter this ID every time you use the site.

Your information remains private and will not be sold or used by any other entity besides Testbid. (See our Privacy Policy for more information).

If you do forget your password, you can have a new one sent to you by entering the email address that you registered with. (click for Password Retrieval Page)

If your information has changed in any way, you can always update your registration information with Testbid. If you registered only as a buyer and now would like to sell equipment, just modify your registration to indicate this.

2) Browsing the Categories

The merchandise listed on Testbid is divided into categories. Each category has a small number in parentheses after it to indicate how many items are listed under that particular category, such as "Fluke equipment (5)". According to this example, there are five units for sale or bid in the category of Fluke Equipment.

Click on a category name to list the items in that category, their prices or minimum bids, and all relevant information. Some category pages contain a list of clickable sub-categories that may contain more items.

3) Search

If you want to search for a particular item on Testbid, type a term or phrase into our search engine form field (such as "spectrum analyzer") and click the Search button. A list of matching items will appear. Click on an item that interests you to get more information about that item. This simple search function can be found on several pages throughout the site, such as the Auction Home Page, for example.

Or, go directly to our Power Search page, where you can specify categories to search under, whether to search only in auction or only in store areas, etc.

Also available on the Power Search page: the List Items feature. This unique feature allows you to see either new items starting today, or items ending today --a great feature for bargain hunters!

4) Equipment Condition Classification Table

We use the standard guidelines below for the classification of equipment condition. Please try to assign a code to indicate the condition of your equipment when listing items for sale or bid. By all using these standard codes we can avoid misunderstandings about what "good" condition really means, etc.

5) Bidding on and Buying Items

The Bidding Form is present on all Equipment Item pages....

To bid on an auction item, enter your Password and ID# into the text boxes shown. The amount of the winning bid needed to be the top bidder will be pre-displayed for you in the Bid Amount text box. You can of course bid higher than that amount, but we recommend that you instead use the AutoBid function to stay on top and automatically raise your bid.

The AutoBid feature allows you to enter in advance the maximum bid on an item that you are willing to offer. Auto Bid will automatically adjust your bid to the next winning bid amount when you have been outbid by another member. The amount of your maximum bid will be kept secret from all other members. If you elected to receive outbid notices via email, you will be notified when you are outbid, or when you win an item on Testbid. If you're not sure if you selected this feature, you can check by updating your registration info.

You may keep track of your bids using our AuctionWatch feature. This feature is handy for keeping track of winning and losing bids you have placed, or if you just want to watch the activity on a particular item.

When the auction closes, if you have won, you will be notified by email. If not, you can see who did win by checking the Winner's Page. Auction results are displayed for 20 days after the close of the auction.

Bidding Rules:

• As a bidder, if you have the highest bid at the end of the auction, at or above the minimum bid price (or in the case of reserve auctions, at or above the reserve price), and your bid is accepted by the seller, you are obligated to complete the transaction.
• Bids are not retractable except in exceptional circumstances such as the seller materially changing the description of the item after your bid or clear typographical errors, or when you can not authenticate the identity of the seller.
• You may not bid in a way that pulls other bidders to their maximum bid, retract the high bid, and then re-bid at a small increment above the legitimate high bidder (bid manipulation).
• Winning Bidders and Sellers have three days after the close of the auction to contact one another to arrange for payment and shipping. If the Winner does not contact the Seller within the 3 day period, then the Seller has the right to contact the Runner-Up and offer them the item at their bid price.

6) Listing and Selling

Listings are text descriptions, graphics and pictures on Testbid's web site supplied by you that either;

(a) textually describe the item you are listing for auction, or

(b) link to the text, graphics and picture(s) describing the item you are listing for auction.

You may post on Testbid's site either or both of these listing types, provided that you place such listings in an appropriate category.

How are items listed for sale?
First, go to the Members' Area and enter your ID number and password. Then click on "Sellers Administration Area" at the top of the right hand column of the page. This will take you to, you guessed it, the Seller's Administration Area, where Sellers can:

create items for sale,
modify previously listed items,
request Auction Express spreadsheets to be able to enter multiple items for sale
view the Winners and Runners Up of your items for sale or bid
re-post unsold items
get auction summaries
upload images
and many other functions.....

When entering the item for sale or bid, please put as much detailed information about your item as possible. List accessories that come with the item, warranty period, condition, a good description of the item, where you are shipping from…it's all helpful to the potential buyer.

When listing your item for bid, you can determine the bid increments. Bid increments should not be so high as to prevent people from easily raising their bids. For example, if you have an item with a minimum bid of $350 and you set a bid increment of $50, the next person after the initial bidder will have to raise his or her bid by $50 to $400. That may be too much. Try $20 bid increments instead. As the price of the item gets higher, you can of course raise the amount of the bid increment.

You can also determine the auction duration. The longer the auction duration, the longer that bidders have to bid up the price on an item. It is beneficial to set a fairly long auction duration if possible.

You will be notified by email each time that someone bids on your item.

Seller's Rules:

• If you receive one or more bids at or above your stated minimum price, then you are obligated to complete the transaction with the highest bidder, unless there is an exceptional circumstance, such as;
  • (x) the buyer fails to meet the terms of your listing (such as payment method), or
  • (y) you cannot authenticate the identity of the buyer.
• You may not email bidders in a currently open auction being run by a different seller, offering similar or the same items at any price level (bid siphoning), nor may you use an alias to place bids on your auction for any reason.
• Testbid may suspend or terminate your account if you are found (by conviction, settlement, insurance or escrow investigation, or otherwise) to have engaged in fraudulent activity in connection with our site.
• Sellers may not manipulate the price of their item, either by using a shill (a secondary account or third party) or by bidding themselves.
• Winning Bidders and Sellers have three days to contact one another to arrange for payment and shipping. If the Winner does not contact the Seller within the 3 day period, then the Seller has the right to contact the Runner-Up and offer them the item at their bid price.

7) Fees

There is no charge to bid on, buy or list items for sale through Testbid. Fees are only paid by Sellers, only when an item is sold through Testbid.

Testbid fees are based on the final sales price of your item. If you don't sell your item with a regular listing,you pay nothing!
Commissions on items sold are as follows:

• $0.00-$5000 sale price= 5% commission due
• $5001-$10,000 sale price= 4% commission due
• over $10,000 sale price= 3% commission due

For example, if you sell an item for $7000 on Testbid, our fee is 5% of the first $5000 and 4% of the remaining $2000. Compare our fees to typical finder's fees, other sites, even EBay! No one else offers to help you sell so much equipment for so little $$!

After your equipment has sold on Testbid, you will be sent a Seller's Invoice by email for the percentage of the sales price due to Testbid as commission. Unpaid invoices will result in your being blocked from future use of Testbid.

8) Privacy Policy

Testbid does not and will not provide, sell or lease your personal information to any third parties for any reason. If you have any questions or concerns regarding what is done with your information, please e-mail us at support@testbid.com.

9) Auction Rate feedback ratings

Testbid is only a venue for sellers to conduct auctions and for bidders to bid on sellers' auctions. We are not involved in the actual transaction between buyers and sellers. As a result, we have no control over the quality, safety or legality of the items advertised, the truth or accuracy of the listings, the ability of sellers to sell items or the ability of buyers to buy items.

To avoid fraud, we have established a user-initiated feedback system called Auction Rate to help you evaluate who you are dealing with. We also encourage you to communicate directly with a trading partner to help you evaluate with whom you are dealing. (Please practice safe trading. If you have any concerns about your trading partner, please consider the use of a third party escrow service (such as iEscrow) or services that provide additional user verification.)

Auction Rate lets buyers and sellers rate one another after transactions have occurred. If you had a great experience with a Seller after winning a bid item, or if your Buyer paid on time, let other Testbid members know that this is a great person to do business with! Likewise, if you had an unsatisfactory experience, write a comment in Auction Rate so as to warn other Testbid members.

Feedback Rules:

You may not take any actions which may undermine the integrity of the feedback system, such as:

• leaving positive feedback for yourself using secondary User IDs or third parties;
• leaving negative feedback for other users using secondary accounts or third parties (feedback bombing);
• leaving negative feedback if a user fails to perform some action that is outside the scope of the auction (feedback extortion).
• If you earn a net feedback rating of -4 (minus four), your membership will automatically suspend, and you will be unable to list or bid.

10) Auction Watch

Each time that you access a page with information on a particular piece of equipment up for bid or sale, you can choose to have that item added to your Auction Watch. You can access Auction Watch through Testbid to go directly to items of interest without searching, see bids that you have placed, etc. Use this tool to always stay at the top of the winners list!

You may also choose to view your AuctionWatch for a specific time period: the past 7 days, the past 30 days or the past 90 days.

11) Category Watch

Category Watch acts as a personal equipment shopper and notification service to let you know when items of interest to you are posted on Testbid. Go to the Category Watch page, turn on your Category Watch for your account, then enter keywords, equipment categories, and whether you are interested in auctions, sales or both.

Category Watch will send you an email to notify you when equipment is listed that matches your interests. It's that easy!

12) Auction Express

Do you have multiple items to list for sale or bid? Want to upload them quickly and easily? Just contact support@testbid.com and request that an Auction Express spreadsheet be emailed to you.

We have updated this feature to make it easy to enter or copy and paste multiple items for sale on a customized Excel spreadsheet, save it in CSV format, and upload it to the server. You can post hundreds of items and have them appear simultaneously upon receipt of your spreadsheet to our server. Please contact the Auction Administrator for more details on this service.

Still have questions? Just ask Testbid!