Exhibit & Sell Help

DID YOU KNOW

By exhibiting your artwork on Our Connection Artist Auction Site, you are also open to selling your art in an auction format.  Exhibiting & Selling your art on this site is 100% free for both the seller and buyer so you can freely make your exhibits & auction pages look & feel the way you want.  Most auction sites charge money for the selling and buying of items.  For example, you need to select a time limit for your auction; however, you can enter a longer period of time that suits your needs and can freely select to relist your exhibit/auctions up to 4 times.  This document will explain to you all the features of exhibiting & selling your artwork on our site as it is set up and will also contain technical help for those who are unfamiliar with auction-style selling.

I HAVE ARTWORK I WANT TO EXHIBIT & SELL HERE

The first thing you will need to do to begin using this site is become a registered user.  Once you've registered and logged in, be sure to select My Profile from the user menu located at the top right hand side of your screen.  Then select Accounting: My Payment Settings to set up your method of receiving payments for sold artwork.  Currently, we can set up to accept payment by PAYPAL where you'd enter your Paypal email address and select whether this address is active or not.  There are other methods of payments which will be implemented in the accounting area of our site at a later date.  Iif you have a paypal account set up, this option makes selling your artwork on our site a lot simple.  There will soon be an INTERAC email money transfer option added in this area for Canadian residents only.  For the time being, if a user wins at your auction, you can email that user your INTERAC email address in order to receive payment.

You do not need Paypal or INTERAC Email Money Transfer to make sales for your auctions.  You can easily communicate with buyers by email exactly how payments should or can be made. 

FINALLY PLACING YOUR ARTWORK INTO AN EXHIBIT/AUCTION ON OUR SITE

Select Exhibit & Sell from the main menu.  Take a quick scroll down the page and view what options and features we have for you to exhibit & sell your artwork.  You can always make changes to this exhibit at any time by selcting You can still make changes to your auction as you are previewing or even just logged in and looking at your own exhibits/auctions.  System messages will always appear at the top of your exhibit/auction page.  Using our system allows you to build your own exhibits, and you'll be given a website address to share with friends/family/potential buyers.  You can also add this URL as a link to your own website.

Title:  You will need to enter a short title for your exhibit/auction page.  This can be a short name for the individual peices of artwork you are selling or can be a name for your exhibit as a whole.  A title must be entered in order to proceed though, so try to choose a one line title that will catch buyer attention.

Category:  Here, you will need to select a Category which best suits your particular artwork.  If the category you want does not exist, simply email admin@ourconnection.ca to request that it be added.  Your exhibit/auction will be placed into the category you select here.

Item Description:  At this point, enter a complete and detailed description of the item or item(s) you are exhibiting.  It's a good idea to add information such as size, shape, materials used, and other information related to the creation of your peice.

Default Image Upload: It is recommended that you upload an image of your artwork here.  This image is shown on our main pages as a thumbnail to entice buyers into clicking on your exhibit/auction.  Image uploads can be up to 800 KB.

Picture Gallery Uploads:  You can upload up to 5 images to be displayed within your exhibit/auction.  Each image can be up to 800 KB each.  When a buyer clicks on your gallery image while viewing your exhibit/auction, they will see a very nice representation of your artwork.  It's recommended that you upload your best pictures of the item(s) you wish to sell to the image gallery.

Upload Documentation:  This option is ideal for those who are exhibiting/selling books or literature.  You can upload any form of textfile, some examples include: ( .TXT, .RTF, .PDF, .HTML, .EXL).  You can also use this feature to upload text for your artwork as an extended description or as an extended BIOGRAPHY of yourself as an artist.

Youtube Video URL:  You can add a link here to a youtube video.  If you have a video on another website, that video URL can be placed here also.  This allows those who are exhibiting/selling video/film/graphic arts a method to display their work within this exhibit/auction site.  You could also have a video BIO that could be displayed here. 

 Auction Types: 

Standard Auction:  By selecting this option you are starting your auction with a minimum bid and are not limiting the final price to any specific amount.  Each time a buyer places a BID on your artwork item(s) the price will incrementally increase for other bidders.  You may select a Reserve Price to limit the amount that your item sells for.

Fixed Price:  By selecting this option you are setting a final price for your artwork item(s) and there will not be any bidding on your item.  Buyers can use the BUY NOW option to immediately purchase your item(s).

Lot Auction:  By selecting this option you are letting buyers know that you have a whole lot of item(s) to sell in a wholesale fashion.  This could be used to sell photographic prints of your photography, or for the sale of books, CDs, DVDs, Films, or other wholesale items.

Auction Starts With:  Here you enter the minimum amount that you will post your artwork item(s) up for sale.  Be sure to enter an amount here that truly reflects what your minimum amount that you want to receive.  This auction site is set up to use CAD (Canadian Dollars).  There is a currency converter on site at the bottom right hand corner of your screen if you wish to convert an alternate currency.

Reserve Price:  Here you can set a maximum bid for your exhibit/auction item(s).  Once this price has been reached, your auction bidder wins the auction and the item(s) is sold.  Again, this amount is entered in CAD (Canadian Dollar) amounts.

Buy Now:  With this option selected, you should have set a Reserve Price, or should have selected that your auction be a Fixed Price Auction.  It allows a buyer to immediately purchase your item by selecting the BUY NOW option while viewing your exhibit/auction.

Bid Increment:  This feature allows you to either Use the built-in proportional increments table or to Use your custom fixed increment.  It is recommended that novice users use the built in increments table.  The bid icrements increase the price of your item(s) for sale as buyers place bids.  As an example, (if you posted a minimum bid of $1, and a buyer places that $1 bid on your item, for the next buyer, your item price will begin at $2. 

Starting Date:  Here, you can set a starting date for your exhibit/auction.  Or, you can allow the system to start the auction on the date you submit the auction.

Duration:  This option allows you to select a time frame for your exhibit/auction to run.  You may select any amount of days but it is recommended that you keep the number of days less than 30 days.  If you did not sell your artwork within those 30 days and had no Bids, you can easily Relist it when the system emails you notice that there were no winners to your auction.  You can also select below to relist your auction up to 4 times.

Auction Relisting:  This feature allows you to have your exhibit/auction relisted automatically up to 4 times if it has had no winners.

Shipping Conditions:  This allows you to select whether you (the seller) will pay for shipping or if (the buyer) will have to pay shipping.

Shipment Costs:  This feature allows you to set a shipment cost.  Usually this is only a good idea if you are selling your artwork/items within the same country so you know what costs will be.

Shipping Terms:  This area allows you to set shipping terms.  It's a place for additional shipping information.

Payment Methods:  This is where you select a payment method for your exhibit/auction items.  This is what most people are reluctant to use over the net.  If you do not have a Paypal Email Account, INTERAC email money transfers, then don't worry!  You can accept a cheque, money order, cash, money wire, or money transfer by conversing through email with your buyer.  If you are unsure, simply select Other Payment Method which will allow you to find your own means to have buyers pay for the artwork you have sold.

Home page featured item:  This option is FREE on our system and allows you to display your exhibit/auction randomly on the front page Featured Items list.

Category featured item:  This option is FREE on our system and allows you to display your exhibit/auction randomly on the front page Featured Items list when users are browsing categories.

Bold item:  This option is FREE on our system and allows you to display your exhibit/auction in BOLD on the front page Featured Items list and when users are browsing categories.

Last updated on : 20/11/2009