About Reef and Bid

Having run auctions on our own site for the past few years, we realized that the reef aquarium hobby has embraced auction as a fun and stress-free way to sell and buy corals and everything reefing-related. But there was not an auction platform made available solely for the reefing hobby. We felt that there should be. So we have built ReefnBid.com to fill that void and solve the pain points both sellers and buyers encounter in the current fragmented auction experience.

While there still exists many places for a hobbyist to sell and buy corals on auction, ReefnBid.com offers significant advantages over other websites. Some highlights include:

How to Bid:

1. To participate, bid the minimum bid, which is current bid + minimum increment. If you're the first bidder of an item, you can also bid the starting bid.
2. Current bid is the purchase price of an auction if the auction was to end now without further bids.
3. If an auction has a reserve price, the winning bid must meet the reserve price to be a winner, or the auction will end without a winner. Not all auctions have a reserve price. Reserve price is not shown to the public.
4. If sniping protection is enabled, any bid placed in the last minute of an auction will extend the auction end time by 1 minute. Sniping protection is set at the discretion of the seller.
5. Any bid higher than the minimum bid is considered a proxy bid.

Proxy Bidding Rules

1. When a user places a proxy bid, our website will automatically bid on behalf of the user by the minimum increment to ensure this user remain leader until the proxy bid is beat.
2. A winner with a proxy bid always pays only what is necessary to beat the competition. If the proxy bid entered by the winner is $50, and the current highest bid is $20, with a minimum increment of $1, the winner will only pay $21.
3. If there are multiple proxy bids, the highest proxy bid will outbid all other proxy bids, and the current bid is raised to the second highest proxy bid amount. The minimum bid now is the second highest proxy bid + minimum increment.
4. A proxy bid will win over a normal bid when they are equal.
5. When there is more than one leading proxy bid of the same amount, the one that was placed first wins.
6. A proxy bid that is greater than the reserve price when the reserve is not met will automatically bring the current bid to the reserve price. For example: if current bid is $10 with a minimum increment of $1, reserve price is $20, a proxy bid of $40 would bring the current bid to $20.
7. If you see a bid increase that is less than the minimum increment, it means someone has placed a proxy bid that has been beat.

 

 ReefnBid.com Release Notes (Beta Version 1.0.0)

We're excited to introduce the first beta release of ReefnBid.com, a dynamic auction platform focusing solely on the reef aquarium hobby. With features tailored to both sellers and buyers, ReefnBid.com aims to revolutionize the way hobbyists interact, buy, and sell online.

 New features in this Release (v1.0.0):

 1. New UI: Navigating ReefnBid.com is easier than ever, allowing users to seamlessly browse auctions, place bids, and make payments with minimal effort. The site is optimized for various screen sizes, ensuring a seamless experience across different devices.

 2. Bidding System: Users can place bids, monitor auction progress, and receive real-time notifications to stay on top of their auctions.

 3. Auto-pay: Buyers are encouraged to enable Auto-pay so that their won auctions are automatically paid for. Those with Auto-pay disabled will have their won auctions automatically added to the shopping cart for easy check-out.

 4. Watchlist: Users can save listings that they are interested in and see them all in one place inside Watchlist. In addition, all items the user participates in are automatically saved to the Watchlist.

 5. Seller Dashboard: Sellers can upload listing manually using the dashboard, or in bulk using CSV spreadsheet. Sellers can manage their auctions using the seller dashboard.

 6. Buyer Dashboard: Buyers have access to a personalized dashboard that displays their bidding activity, ongoing auctions, and won items.

 7. Secure and Stress-Free Transactions: We take security seriously. ReefnBid.com employs Stripe for robust encryption and payment processing.

 What's Next:

 The beta release is just the beginning. We have a roadmap packed with even more exciting features and enhancements based on user feedback and industry trends. In the coming releases, you can look forward to:

 - Improvements: A site of this magnitude has many layers of complexity. As we scale with more users and sellers, issues can arise. The site is actively maintained and fixes are being made as you continue to use it.

 - More robust Second Chances: We plan to have a seamless transition for products to appear on Second Chances.

 - Seller Dashboard: A complete suite of auction and order management tools that include carrier integration, at which point new sellers will be onboarded in addition to POTO.

 - Comments and interaction: Engage with fellow bidders through our community features. Join discussions, ask questions, and share your expertise to foster a thriving community.

For inquiries, feedback, and support, please contact us at contact@reefnbid.com. Your feedback is invaluable as we continue to shape ReefnBid.com into the ultimate auction platform for the reefing community.