• Basic Membership - entitles you to participate in Mothers' Nature's Auctions for free, at a limited level. You may list 4 auctions per month for free, and you can receive support on our Auction Info & Help forum at no charge. Basic Membership is free. A great way to test out the Waters
• Contributing Membership - You can post up to 20 auctions per month, and you're entitled to free auction support on our Auction Help & Info board and by email. Contributing Membership is $2 per month.
• Sustaining Membership - You can post unlimited auctions. Any auctions you list that receive no bids by the time the auction closes can be automatically relisted for you. You can receive support on our Auction Info & Help forum and by email. When you make a purchase from select Market Companies, by phone or online, you will get a 5% discount or a free gift. All Sustaining Members have access to a personal page (http://63.249.189.144/members/username.html) that can be used for personal info, information about your auctions, or pretty much anything else you can think up! Sustaining Membership is $6 per month.

Biddng on Auctions at Mother's Nature is always Free!

1. Go to the bottom of the Auctions Main Page, select post an item and select main category. Then a screen will come up with a fill in the blank form.
2. Title. The title should state the size of the item(s) for clothing and be brief but a little descriptive. If it is girls or boys clothing, it helps to put that in the title so that those only looking for girls clothing do not waste time searching auctions that are irrelevant.
3. Sub category. Choose the category that fits your item. Like for clothing, we have a range of sizes for categories. Or for videos and toys we have subcategories for adults, young kids, etc. Just scroll to the category you want and highlight it.
4. Images Images help an item sell and help reduce misunderstandings between seller and bidder. If you have a Sustaining Membership with Mother's Nature's you can use the Free upload feature so you would not have to use a third party image hosting site. If you choose one of the other forms of memberships but you still would like to have an image for your items here are a few sites that you can use for free to put pictures with your auctions.
   

   Auction Watch
   Photo Point
   Honesty

5. Description Describe your item(s) for sale. You can use HTML code if you would like to change the font colors etc.. Be as detailed as possible. It is also a good idea to put what kind of payments you accept and if you have any idea of shipping amount (I will mention shipping methods below) state the shipping amount too. This helps a person decide how high they would want to pay for the item including shipping. If the item has some flaws to it, describe the flaws in as much detail as possible to avoid any misunderstandings with the final winner. Include the brand name, size of each item (if a lot of clothing), color, condition of item and any other necessary information. Buyers also find it helpful to know if the article came from a pet free or smoke free household.
6. You must be a Registered Member at the site to post Auctions. Registration at Mother's Nature is Free and Basic Members can post 4 auctions per month for free.
7. Starting Bid The amount that you set to start the auction. With Mother's Nature's Auctions the amount you put in is more like your bid for the item and then the first person to actually bid on the item would be bidding the next price.
8. Auction Types We have several different kinds of auctions.

   Regular Auction - an auction in which you are selling an item without a reserve price. Meaning that whatever starting price you start the auction the next person to bid on it could receive the item for the opening pricing plus the bid increment. You are obligated to sell it at that price.
   Dutch Auction - an auction in which you have MORE than one of the same exact item for sale.
   Reserve Auction - an auction in which you set the minimum you would like to receive for the auction and you are not obligated to sell it for less than that amount.

   When selecting number of items for sale, most of the time it is one.
9. Payment With Mother's Nature's Auctions you can select the forms of payment methods you use on the form. Some sellers choose to also state their payment methods in the auction description. It is almost impossible to verify funds through someone else's bank with a check that you received. So many sellers only take money orders and not checks. They do this mostly because of the possibility of receiving a bounced check, or some sellers take checks only if you have a certain amount of positive feedback and have established yourself. Another form of payment that is growing in popularity is online payment sites. The biggest one is paypal. With paypal you can pay the person online with your credit card or from your bank account. So this saves money order fees and waiting for payment to arrive in the mail. So if you are new to auctions, I highly recommend opening a paypal account as many do prefer paypal payments and this is a great account to have. You only need a bank account to open a paypal account. They are safe, secure and they have been in business for about one year now. Currently you get $5 FREE for opening and transferring money with your Paypal account. Please see site for full details.
10. Shipping There are a few shipping methods you can use, most sellers use the US Post Office to mail packages. Some use UPS or both depending on the item and cost. Most sellers use priority shipping which starts out at $3.20 for up to 2 lbs and then goes up by $1.10 increments. Regular shipping rates sometimes are cheaper but only if the item is about a pound or so or is a heavy item. Using Priority Mail also allows you to use Delivery Confirmation for $.35 more. Delivery Confirmation gives you proof that the package was delivered and if you need to track a lost package you can do so online. Some auction sellers also charge for insurance but this is mainly for very valuable items and the seller will tell you in the auction description if insurance is required. This is not very common at Mother's Nature but you will see it at the other Auction sites. The Post Office offers many online resources. They have a rate calculator which allows you to enter the weight of your item, the zip code from which the package is coming and going and based on the information you provide it will give you a choice of shipping methods and prices. You might find this feature useful to compare which method of shipment is cheaper. Also, another reason many use Priority Mail as a preferred method of shipping is because the USPS offers free supplies for shipping PRIORITY items. They offer boxes, envelopes and even priority mail packing tape. This saves the seller from buying shipping supplies. You can even order supplies online at UPSP website. Some sellers charge a handling fee which is really up to the seller, but if it is something that is going priority mail, I do not see a need for handling fee when all the supplies are free. If it goes regular mail, I do not charge extra for the envelope or box I had to use to ship, but I do round up the shipping amount, like if it would normally go for $1.65, I might charge them $2 (although not technically on purpose, just in case it weighs in more than I estimated. Most sellers do refund the buyer if they overcharge on shipping costs. Most sellers choose to refund in WHOLE dollar amounts which is what I have always done. Sometimes you overestimate the weight of an item and the nice thing to do is refund the overcharge on shipping.
11. Bid Increments You can select what increments you would like the bids to increase by any amount from $.01 on up. So if you if you selected the bid amounts to go up in $1 increments and you set the starting bid at $2 then the first person to bid would have to bid $3.
12. Sustaining Membership Benefits Mother's Nature's Members receive many benefits including auto-reposting of auctions and image uploading. Auto Repost is a great feature. It reposts your an auction for you if that auction received no bids. You select how many days for the relisted auction to be posted and this continues until the auction sells. The next feature is image uploading. With this feature you browse your computer for your image, select it, Mother's Nature's Auctions will upload the picture to a personal webspace for you, and then add the image to your auction.
13. When you are done filling out the form hit preview auction. This will bring up a screen to show you exactly what the auction will look like to buyers. If there are no spelling errors and the image looks good, then hit submit and your auction is listed. If not, hit back button and edit it. Hit the preview button again when you are finished with your changes. When the auction ends, you will get an email from Mother's Nature with your Auctions closing price and the winning bidder's contact information. Contact the buyer with shipping charges, total amount due, payment methods and your address. Then when payment arrives, ship the item out and leave the buyer feedback for the transaction.

When searching for something to bid on, keep in mind the price you would pay for an item new, the price that you could pay for the item(s) in used condition and the availability of finding that item used. Like you may pay closer to a new price for a Halloween costume rather than a pair of shorts. Comparing to garage sale prices is ok but usually with auctions you may pay a little higher and you have to factor in the shipping costs. I tend to look for LOTS (an auction which offers a lot of similar items such as clothing of all one size or a few sizes) or I look for a specific item that is needed.

Also pay attention to the description of the item. Some items are in new condition or even new with tags. You will see on some auction titles NWT (new with tags) or NIB (new in box).

View the seller's other auctions in case they have more items in which are interested and save money as you get to combine shipping costs. Many sellers put pictures with their auctions which helps you get a better idea of what the item looks like.

Also consider the seller's feedback. Feedback is other sellers and buyers comments of users based on past transactions with this user. Now all of us are new at one point, so having no or little feedback does not mean you should not bid on that seller's auction. It does not hurt to read through a few of the seller's feedback listings if they only have a few (like under 20) just in case there are any negative comments. We also have to remember that sometimes people are upset and post a negative comment which might not have been the seller or buyer's fault and that they worked it out in the long run.

When placing your bid, you can place a maximum bid of the most that you would pay for an item. Then the system will keep bidding for you against other buyers until your maximum bid amount has been reached. You will not necessarily pay your maximum bid if no one else bids or does not bid up to your maximum bid. Entering a maximum bid saves you time by allowing you to not have to rebid every time you are outbid.

When the auction ends, you will get an email from the auction site with the final auction details and the seller's contact information. Most buyers wait for the seller to contact them first with the shipping charges and other information. Most sellers ask that you confirm their email and pass on your mailing information (even though Mother's Nature Auction email includes the buyers address to the seller). This insures that the seller knows you received their email and that your information with Mother's Nature is correct.

Most sellers require that payment is received within 10 days of the closing date of the Auction. It is almost impossible to verify funds through someone else's bank with a check that you recieved. So many sellers only take money orders and not checks. They do this mostly because of the possibility of receiving a bounced check, or some sellers take checks only if you have a certain amount of positive feedback and have established yourself. Another form of payment that is growing in popularity is online payment sites. The biggest one is paypal. With paypal you can pay the person online with your credit card or from your bank account. So this saves money order fees and waiting for payment to arrive in the mail. So if you are new to auctions, I highly recommend opening a paypal account as many do prefer paypal payments and this is a great account to have. You only need a bank account to open a paypal account. They are safe, secure and they have been in business for about one year now. Currently you get $5 FREE for opening and transferring money with your Paypal account. Please see site for full details.

Have fun auctioning here at Mother's Nature!

Feel free to email Dena if you need more information about a specific area of our auction site or if you are new and need some extra help starting out. Also visit our Auctioning Help Board and Help Desk for updates and technical assistance.